Blackjack Basic Strategy Chart

How to use the basic strategy chart

First set the table rules at the top: whether the dealer stands or hits on soft 17, and whether late surrender is offered. Then find your hand down the left side, hard totals for hands with no ace, soft totals for hands with an ace counted as 11, and pairs for two matching cards, and read across to the dealer's upcard. The colour-coded cell is the correct play. The lookup does the same in two taps and highlights the matching cell, and it also covers the easy hands not drawn on the chart, hard 5 to 7 always hit and hard 18 to 21 always stand. Everything updates the moment you change a rule, and the chart prints cleanly as a reference card.

What the actions mean

• H - Hit: take another card.
• S - Stand: keep your total and end your turn.
• D - Double: double your bet for one final card. If doubling is not allowed, hit instead.
• Ds - Double or stand: double if you are allowed to, otherwise stand.
• P - Split: separate the pair into two hands.
• R - Surrender: give up the hand for half your bet. If surrender is not offered, play the action shown in the lookup instead.

How the rules change the chart

Basic strategy is the play that returns the most money on average for a given rule set, worked out from the exact card probabilities, and it shifts when the rules shift. When the dealer hits soft 17 the dealer busts a little less often, which nudges a few hands toward doubling: hard 11 doubles against an ace, and soft 18 and soft 19 each pick up an extra double. Late surrender adds a handful of give-up plays on the worst stiff hands, the 15s and 16s against high cards, plus 17 against an ace and a pair of 8s against an ace once the dealer hits soft 17. Following the matching chart to the letter holds the house edge to roughly half a percent.