Strategy Chart

Basic Strategy Chart Example

In the top row of our blackjack strategy chart you’ll find the Up Card of the Dealer, while in the first column you find your own hand – either the total value of your cards when you have no Ace or Pair (under ‘hard totals’), or your total when you have an Ace (under ‘soft totals’), or when you have a Pair (under ‘pairs’). The chart works as follows.

Look up your cards and the dealer’s Face Up card and the chart will tell you whether to hit, stand, or split. For example, the chart indicates that you should always hit on card values of 8 or less and you always stand on card values of 17 or more.

Let’s look at another example: You are dealt a 7 and a 5, giving your hand the value of 12. The dealer has a 10 showing. If you look up both hands in the chart you’ll see that the correct action is to Hit. Then you follow the chart and hit, let’s say you get a 6, bringing the total of your hand up to 18. You now look up 18 against 10 in the chart and see that the best action is to stand (as you do, in general, with every hand over 17.)