Blackjack Strategies

Blackjack Strategies and Tips

Blackjack is easy to understand, but it offers many possibilities because the game is relatively complex. There are several Blackjack strategies that can help you win. Here, we want to cover some of the basics that every player should know before hitting the tables.

When to Hit or Stand? 

Should you draw another card, or do you prefer to stand? You will often ask yourself this question in blackjack. Concentration and strategic thinking can help you: if your cards total 11 or less, you should definitely draw another card. A bust can only occur if your cards are over 11 points. Only when you have a total of at least 12 do you have to consider standing. The dealer's upcard plays an important role in this. The dealer has to get at least 17 with their cards. Because of this, the chance of the dealer busting increases if the upcard is of a low value, as they will likely have to draw multiple cards.

If the dealer's card shows a value of 2 or 3, you should only draw a card if your cards total 12 or less. If the dealer's upcard is high, they will likely have a higher score too. So you have to take a bigger risk to win. If the dealer has a 7, 8, 9, or 10, you should draw when your card total is 16 or less. If the dealer has an ace, you draw if the card total is 17 or less.

The Right Time to Double Down

You should only double down if you have either a 9, a 10, or an 11. 11 is the optimal number of points for a double down, as you cannot go over 21 with an additional card and you can get to exactly 21 with a card worth 10 points. A double down on 9 or 10 is the same as hit or stand. If the dealer's upcard is 4, 5, or 6, you can double down.

Splitting Your Hand Effectively

Just because you got a pair doesn't mean you have to split your cards right away. In general, there are two pairs that are really worth splitting: two aces and two eights. If you split two aces, you have a good chance of hitting a blackjack or at least a high score. In fact, splitting aces is so effective that not all casinos allow it. Splitting eights is also worthwhile. 16 is not a good value because the chance of busting is good. If you split the two eights, however, you have a good chance of a high result like 18 or 19 on both hands.

Should You Buy Insurance?

The dealer is obliged to offer you an insurance bet or even money in certain situations. Although it is called "insurance" and is intended to "protect" the player from a dealer's blackjack, it is nothing more than a side bet. If you win the insurance bet, you will get the insurance bet back twice – but you will likely lose your starting bet.

It sounds like you can prevent a loss, but in fact, it is the bank that wins in the long run. Ultimately you bet that the dealer’s face-down card is a 10. If this is not the case, you lose this bet and the game continues as normal. If you then also lose the round regularly, your loss is one and a half times as large as your actual stake. In the end, insurance bets are not profitable for the player in the long run. The chances of winning are too low compared to the considerable risk of losing.

Blackjack Strategy Charts

Even if your strategy is counting cards, you still need to know what the probability of a particular outcome is in order to choose your moves. So the first thing you should learn as a basic blackjack strategy is the chart that will help you play perfect blackjack – because yes, there is such a thing as perfect blackjack.

One of the great benefits of playing online blackjack is that you can have the chart next to you, or on your screen, while you’re playing. Using the strategy chart, you can make the optimal choices for each hand and increase your chances of winning. However, a land-based casino probably won’t allow you to do this, so you should memorise as much of this chart as possible before heading to a real casino. Since counting cards is frowned upon at land-based casinos, learning to use strategy charts is a good trick for understanding how to win at blackjack without counting cards.

For this blackjack guide for beginners, we’ll share some charts used for standard blackjack, meaning American Blackjack played with between six and eight decks of cards.

Chart explanation:

S – Stand

H – Hit

SP – Split

SU – Surrender

SU/S – Surrender if allowed, if not stand

SU/H – Surrender if allowed, if not hit

SU/SP – Surrender if allowed, if not split

DD – Double Down

DD/H – Double Down if allowed, if not hit

DD/S – Double Down if allowed, if not stand

Blackjack Strategy Chart – Hard Hands Without a Pair

This chart should be used if your hand is hard, meaning you don’t have an ace, and when your cards aren’t a pair (two cards of the same value that can be split).

Blackjack Strategy Chart – Soft Hands

This chart should be used if your hand is soft, meaning you have an ace used as 11. If, after using this chart, you end up with a hard hand where the Ace is valued at 1, use the chart above.

Blackjack Strategy Chart – Pairs

Use this chart if your hand consists of a pair, and the rules of the game allow you to split. If the rules don’t allow you to split, use the chart for hard hands above.