Blackjack Basic Strategy Chart

How to Read the Chart

Find your hand in the left column and the dealer's upcard along the top. The cell where they meet is the play. Three details trip up new players:

• Check pairs first. If your first two cards match, look at the Pairs table before anything else. Only if the answer isn't "split" do you fall through to the hard or soft total tables.
• Soft means an Ace counted as 11. A,6 is soft 17 and plays completely differently from a hard 17. Once the Ace must count as 1 to avoid busting, the hand becomes a hard total - use the hard table.
• Double has a fallback. A "D" cell means double if the table still allows it (first two cards). With three or more cards, the small "s" marks the cells where you stand instead; everywhere else you hit. Likewise "R" means surrender, and if surrender isn't available you hit those hands (hard 17 against an Ace stands instead) - flip the surrender toggle off to see the fallback plays.

The Chart Is Smaller Than It Looks

Nobody memorizes 300 cells one at a time. The chart compresses into a handful of patterns that cover almost everything:

• Stand on hard 17 and up. The lone exception is surrendering 17 against an Ace in H17 games that offer surrender.
• 12 through 16 are "stiffs": stand against a dealer bust card (2-6), hit against a strong card (7-A). The only wrinkle is 12 vs 2 and 3, where you hit.
• Always split Aces and 8s, never split 10s and 5s.
• Double 11 against 2-10, 10 against 2-9, 9 against 3-6. Against an Ace, 11 doubles only when the dealer hits soft 17.
• Soft 18 is the trap hand: double against 3-6, stand against 2, 7, and 8, hit against 9, 10, and Ace.

Reading patterns is one thing; producing the right play in two seconds with chips on the line is another. That's what the trainer drills - it deals you hands and corrects you the instant you deviate from the chart.

Which Rules Actually Change the Chart

The rule toggles above shift only a few cells, but those cells matter:

• Dealer hits soft 17 (H17): adds doubles on hard 11 vs Ace, soft 18 vs 2, and soft 19 vs 6, and (with surrender) adds surrenders on 15, 17, and 8,8 against an Ace. That is six cells in all. Most Vegas Strip 6-deck games are H17 now.
• Double after split (DAS): makes the marginal splits profitable - 2,2 and 3,3 against 2-3, 4,4 against 5-6, and 6,6 against 2 are splits only because you might catch a double on the new hand.
• Late surrender: gives back half your bet on the worst hands - 16 against 9, 10, and Ace, and 15 against 10. Few tables offer it; take it when they do.
• Number of decks: 4, 6, and 8 decks share one chart. With S17, double deck changes five cells and single deck 15, mostly extra doubles and splits. Every changed cell is listed on the single deck chart and double deck chart pages.

The closest call on the chart is 11 against an Ace in a 4-8 deck S17 game: hitting is only slightly better than doubling at a neutral count, and counters switch to doubling at a true count of +1 or higher. Card counters adjust plays like this by the count - see the deviation charts.

Printing Your Chart

Set the toggles to your table's rules, then use the Print / save as PDF button. The print layout removes the site chrome and controls, leaving the three charts and the legend on a clean sheet. Fold it in four and it fits a shirt pocket. Print one per rule set you expect to play - a 6-deck H17 Strip chart and an S17 chart cover nearly every casino in the country.