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Blackjack Strategies, Charts, Tips

So you are looking for Blackjack strategies? This is the right spot! We’ve got you covered with our tips, tricks, charts and strategies. We’ve got some blackjack strategies for all of you who want to learn how to count cards the easy way.

Blackjack is one of the very few casino games that put so much control. Let’s take a look at why that is.

Blackjack is definitely one of the most beloved casino games and there is a good reason for that. To all the people who doesn’t know anything about Blackjack, it looks like a very simple card game but they couldn’t be more wrong.

It is a game which requires patience, good memory, risk management and decision-making skills. The more you know Blackjack in details, the better your chances to win are. But how would you know the game in details? We are here to help with that. We have some nice and effective blackjack strategies, charts and tips for you to read, practice and master.

To increase your odds, you may try using various blackjack strategies. They can help you make the right decisions for every single hand you can get. Blackjack strategies are all about when to hit, split, stand or double, depending on your hand and the face-up card the dealer has.

Not all strategies are made equal, though. We’ve got strategies for beginner, intermediate and experienced blackjack players.

Beginners and intermediate players will learn when to hit, split, stand or double. You can read tips, you can check out our charts and all you need to know so you can play your hands in the best way possible.

Once you have learned how to use both our beginner and intermediate blackjack strategies, then come the advanced technics for counting cards.

In reality counting cards is extremely difficult and casinos do their best to make things even worse for card counters. But don’t worry, we’ve got some simple counting-cards methods that you can use. Simplified card-counting methods will be a very good start for most experienced players to learn how to divide cards into categories containing several cards each, then count them all together.

Basic Blackjack strategy

Blackjack strategies are based on decision-making because making the right decision when you see your two cards and the face-up card of the dealer is the key to increasing your odds of winning when playing blackjack. We have calculated the odds for you and have put the right decisions in a simple chart for you to follow. The decisions are made by considering the value of your two cards and the value of the dealer’s face-up card. The difference between the basic and intermediate blackjack strategy is that with the basic one, the player needs to make simple decisions brought to hitting, standing and doubling, but without splitting cards.

With our basic strategy, the point is to get 17+ and to bust the dealer. For example, if your cards are valued on 15 while the dealer’s face-up card is 8, then you need to hit. If the dealer’s card is less than 6, you need to stand because the chance for the dealer to get busted is bigger.

The chart below will show you what decisions to make in the different situations during a game:

DEALER’S FACE-UP CARD
 ACE1098765432
17+SSSSSSSSSS
16HHHHHSSSSS
15HHHHHSSSSS
14HHHHHSSSSS
13HHHHHSSSSS
12HHHHHSSSHH
11HDDDDDDDDD
10HHDDDDDDDD
9HHHHHDDDDH
8-HHHHHHHHHH
H – Hit             S – Stand             D – Double            

If you have 8 or less, you must hit untill you reach 17 or up.

In blackjack, players can double their bets and this is a good edge over the casino since the dealer doesn’t have this option. After you double your bet you have the opportunity to win double on a good hand that you have. Now all you have to do is decide which hand is good and which not.

Our basic blackjack strategy tells you what to do and helps you make the right decisions depending on the cards in the players’ hand and the dealer’s face-up card. It gives you a plan of action which every beginner player needs.

It is all up to the player to determine what amount of money to use for the day and to divide it into 25 in order to determine the amount of money he needs to bet on every hand. For instance, if the player has $125 to play blackjack with, then he needs to place $5 bets on every hand. This way he will be able to take part in at least 25 rounds of betting and that would be a full day to play blackjack.

Intermediate Blackjack strategy

Once a player has learned how to use the basic strategy and has gained enough experience by practicing it, he or she is ready to start using our intermediate blackjack strategy. Blackjack is a very dynamic game, and the basic strategy is not flexible enough for experienced players, therefore the player cannot take full advantage of the game. Here comes our intermediate blackjack strategy to help you be aware and take advantage of more aspects of the game. One more thing – with our intermediate strategy, players need to start doing wager management while with the basic one, they had to bet one and the same amount.

The first special situation in the blackjack that the basic strategy cannot take advantage of is when you get an Ace in your hand. Having an Ace in your hand makes it soft because the Ace is valued either 1 or 11 which is an additional advantage. If a player knows how to use it and what to do with his soft hand, he will have better chances to win.

Most of the players are superstitious and their superstitions influence their decisions – how to bet, what amounts to wager, which seat to take and etc. More experienced blackjack players do not count on superstitions, instead, they stick to the intermediate blackjack strategy which tells them exactly how to act and helps them win more often. In certain situations it is appropriate to raise your bets so that you may take better advantage of the situation. For example, if you are on a winning streak, you will want to raise your bet until you see that a losing streak is coming, whereas, with our basic blackjack strategy players need to bet one and the same amount on every deal because they haven’t gained enough experience to recognize the right moment and to decide when they may increase their bets. That’s why it is important, if you are a beginner player, to stick to the basic strategy.

Another important thing is the choice of a seat on the table. The decisions of the player who takes the last seat may influence all the players on the blackjack table and they may suffer from his wrong decisions. Let’s say that the player on the last seat decides to hit instead of standing. He may get a face card, get busted and this way let the dealer get the low card and make his hand winning.

DEALER SHOWING
 ACE1098765432
A APPPPPPPPPP
10 10SSSSSSSSSS
9 9SSPPSPPPPP
8 8PPPPPPPPPP
7 7HHHHPPPPPP
6 6HHHHHHHHHH
5 5HHDDDDDDDD
4 4HHHHHPPHHH
3 3HHHHPPPPPP
2 2HHHHPPPPPP
17+SSSSSSSSSS
16HHHHHSSSSS
15HHHHHSSSSS
14HHHHHSSSSS
13HHHHHSSSSS
12HHHHHSSSHH
11HDDDDDDDDD
10HHDDDDDDDD
9HHHHHDDDDH
8-HHHHHHHHHH
A 9SSSSSDDDDD
A 8SSSSSDDDDD
A 7HHHSSDDDDD
A 6HHHHHDDDDH
A 5HHHHHDDDHH
A 4HHHHHDDDHH
A 3HHHHHDDHHH
A 2HHHHHDDHHH
H – Hit    S – Stand    D – Double    P – Split

Advanced Blackjack strategy

Here players may learn how to count cards in blackjack because it will increase the odds of winning. In order to decide what the next bet to be, a player keeps track of the cards which have already been dealt during the game or at least part of them, so that he or she may assume what the next card may be. This way a player may adjust his next bet according to his assumption and expectation.

Counting cards in blackjack is very complicated – a blackjack player must be very concentrated and quite a few people can count all the cards during the game successfully.

Below, you will find simplified counting methods which will be very helpful to you since they are much easier to be carried out successfully than the full card counting which is extremely difficult. They are a great way for experienced players to increase their odds without having to do the full card counting.

There is a rather simple counting system, called Hi-Lo, that will help you to count the cards in a game of blackjack effectively. First, you need to give each card a value, which is different from the real cards’ value in the game. These values should be as in the chart below:

CARDSACEKINGQUEENJACK1098765432
VALUE-1-1-1-1-1000+1+1+1+1+1

The Hi-Lo blackjack counting system will help you keep track of the number of high and low valued cards that have been dealt during the game. As you can see 9, 8, 7 have a value of 0 and we do not count them because they are not so important to us in the course of the game. In a given moment during the game, you may have a bigger positive amount and a much smaller negative amount, for instance – this means that there are more high cards in the deck (Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10) than low cards (6, 5, 4, 3, 2). If you have this in mind, it will help you when you need to choose what to be your next bet. Counting cards in blackjack gives you an advantage when you know that there are more 10-valued cards in the game because you can start betting more, doubling and splitting accordingly.

Another simplified blackjack counting system which is suitable for beginner counters is the KO counting method (Knockout counting method). It is similar to the Hi-Lo except for the 7s that have value +1 here. This method is not balanced because as you can see from the table below there are more +1 values than -1. If your count gets to +3 and up, you should start raising your bets and the more it goes up the higher bets you will place. This is to be done because if your count is a big positive number, it means that there are more face cards and 10s in the deck and your chance of having 20 or 21 with the first two cards is getting higher.

CARDSACEKINGQUEENJACK1098765432
VALUE-1-1-1-1-100+1+1+1+1+1+1

Wizard Ace/Five is another blackjack counting system that is suitable for beginner counters. It is quite simple to use because the counter needs to count the 5-s and the Ace-s only. It is considered that the removal of a 5 or an Ace from the deck has the biggest impact on the odds of the dealer and the blackjack player. The removal of a 5 from the deck improves the odds of the player, while the removal of an Ace improves the odds of the dealer (casino). For more information you can see the blackjack odds.

CARDSACEKINGQUEENJACK1098765432
VALUE-100000000+1000

Another easy way to do the counting is to sum all values of the cards and depending on whether the total number is positive or negative you will know which cards predominate in the deck. If this seems hard to you, you can also keep track of the high cards that have been dealt during the blackjack game, as this will also give you an advantage.

The most important thing to remember when playing casino games is to always gamble what you can afford to lose.

The information on this website does not promise or guarantee winnings in any way. Gambling with real money poses a risk and everyone must do it wisely, under his own responsibility and will.