Blackjack Basic Strategy Chart & Hint Trainer

Basic blackjack strategy is the play that wins the most, or loses the least, for every hand against every dealer up-card: hit, stand, double down, split or surrender. This free chart works it out for your table's rules, from 1 to 8 decks, a dealer who stands or hits soft 17, any double rule, double after split and surrender, so the cells match the casino you are looking at, not a generic poster. Pick a hand to see the move and why, or run the trainer until you stop looking.

What is basic blackjack strategy?

Basic strategy is a table of about 300 decisions, one for each starting hand and dealer up-card, each the action with the best average result over every card that could come next. It looks only at your cards and the dealer's up-card, never at what has been dealt before, so it works the same on every hand. It is not a system for beating the game. It is the best you can do against the rules on the table, and the rules decide how much that is worth.

The chart above is computed, not copied. For each hand and up-card it works out the exact expected result of hitting, standing, doubling, splitting and surrendering from the cards left in the shoe, after the dealer checks for blackjack, and picks the best one. A cell averages every two-card hand that makes the same total, which is the standard way a basic strategy chart is built.

How do you read a blackjack strategy chart?

1. Set the table rules at the top of the tool: decks, whether the dealer hits soft 17, which doubles are allowed, double after split, surrender and the blackjack payout. Or start from a preset.
2. Find your hand in the left column. Use the hard totals for hands with no ace or an ace that must count as 1, the soft totals when an ace counts as 11, and the pairs table when your first two cards match.
3. Read across to the column for the dealer's up-card, 2 to 10 or A.
4. Play the letter in that cell: H hit, S stand, D double (hit if you can't), Ds double (stand if you can't), P split, Su surrender.
5. Check yourself in the trainer. It deals random hands and tells you at once whether your move matches the chart.

A hand is soft when it holds an ace counted as 11, so it cannot bust on the next card, and hard otherwise. Ace and six is soft 17; ten and seven is hard 17. A jack, queen or king reads as a ten, both for your cards and for the dealer's up-card.

The basic strategy rules in short

On a typical six-deck table where the dealer stands on soft 17, the chart boils down to a handful of habits:

• Always split aces and eights. Never split tens, fives or fours (bar fours against a 5 or 6 with double after split).
• Stand on hard 17 or more, and on soft 19 or more.
• Stand on 13 to 16 against a dealer 2 to 6, and on 12 against a 4, 5 or 6. Hit them against a 7 or higher.
• Always hit 8 or less, and hit 12 to 16 against a strong card (7 to ace).
• Double 11 against anything but an ace, 10 against anything but a 10 or ace, and 9 against a 3 to 6.
• With a soft hand, double against a weak dealer card: a 5 or 6 for every soft hand up to A,5, widening to a 4 for A,4 and A,5 and to a 3 for A,6 and A,7. Otherwise hit up to soft 17, stand on soft 18 unless the dealer shows a 9, 10 or ace, and stand on soft 19.
• Never take insurance.

When should you split in blackjack?

Split aces and eights every time: two aces are a weak 12 together but a strong start apart, and 16 is the worst hard total, so two hands from an 8 beat one hand of 16. Never split tens or fives, because 20 and a hard 10 are already strong. The pairs in between, 2s, 3s, 6s and 7s against weak dealer cards and 9s against everything but a 7, 10 and ace, depend on the rules: double after split makes more of them worth splitting. Set that switch in the tool and the pairs table changes with it. Our guide to when to split in blackjack walks through each pair.

When should you double down?

Double when one more card is likely to make a strong total and the dealer is weak or at least not strong: hard 11 against everything but an ace (and against the ace too when the dealer hits soft 17), hard 10 against a 2 to 9, hard 9 against a 3 to 6, and soft hands such as ace and six against a 3 to 6. If the table only lets you double on 10 and 11, or on 9 to 11, the chart already leaves out the doubles you can't make and hits instead. A cell marked Ds says to stand if the double isn't available, for example after you have already taken a third card.

Does basic strategy change with the rules?

Yes, in a small number of cells, and the tool shows them. Three families matter:

• Dealer hits soft 17 (H17). Against an ace, double hard 11. Double soft 18 (ace and seven) against a 2 and soft 19 (ace and eight) against a 6. With late surrender, give up 15 and 17 against an ace and a pair of 8s against an ace.
• Double after split (DAS). With it, split 2s and 3s against a 2 or 3 as well, 4s against a 5 or 6, and 6s against a 2. Without it, hit those instead.
• Decks. Four, six and eight decks give the same chart. Two decks add a double of hard 9 against a 2 and of 11 against an ace, and a single deck adds more: double hard 8 against a 5 or 6 and stand on a pair of 7s against a 10.

The blackjack payout never changes the strategy. 3:2 against 6:5 changes what a natural is worth, so it changes your return, not any cell.

What does basic strategy do to the house edge?

Played perfectly, basic strategy returns about 99.54% on a common six-deck table (dealer stands on soft 17, double on any two cards, double after split, 3:2): a house edge of about 0.46%. On a player-friendly two-deck table with late surrender it returns about 99.82%, and on a single-deck 6:5 table where the dealer hits soft 17 about 98.43%. These are calculated figures, with one split and no resplitting. Each rule moves the return by a known amount, shown here as the Wizard of Odds lists it (on an eight-deck, dealer-stands-on-soft-17, double-after-split baseline, read 12 October 2026):

Everyone who plays off the chart gives that back. Gift Club's own Blackjack deals six decks, pays 3:2, has the dealer hit soft 17, doubles on hard 9 to 11 only and has no double after split. Its return with basic strategy is 99.15%, measured over 8 million simulated hands. Pick the "Gift Club table" preset above to see exactly that chart: the tool's cells equal the game's hint, and a test keeps them equal.

Can you count cards with basic strategy?

Not at a table that reshuffles before every hand. Card counting only works when cards dealt in one hand stay out of the shoe for the next, so the cards left are richer or poorer in tens. If the shoe is fresh every hand, as it is in Gift Club's Blackjack, nothing carries over and there is nothing to count: basic strategy is the best play available, and the rules above set how much it is worth.

Play the Gift Club table

Gift Club's Blackjack is a Telegram game with the table described above and a fresh, provably fair six-deck shoe for every hand. In Spark rounds, its hint button shows the move from the Gift Club table in this tool. Read the rules and try the demo in the Blackjack guide. This page states no odds beyond the return above and takes no side on any casino.

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