Blackjack – Basic Strategy

If you’ve read our blackjack rules and game-play section, then you know all you need to to sit down and enjoy a game of blackjack. But does it seem like one essential thing is missing? We explained all of the options available to you when it comes down to decision time in blackjack, but we didn’t bother to let you know what the best decision should be. Enter, blackjack’s basic strategy.

Basic strategy in the world of blackjack is a reference to one very specific thing: a chart of best decisions for every possible two card hand you are dealt. So for every hand you are given by the dealer, you can reference a chart and see what that you should do with that combination of cards, when facing the dealer’s up-card. Along the top of the chart are all of the possible dealer up-cards, then down the left hand side are all of the two-card combinations you could possible have. Follow the row that indicates your hand over to the column that is the dealer’s up-card. In the cell you’ve just found there will be a letter indicating to either Hit, Stand, Split, or Double Down.

Basic strategy was developed in the mid 80s when personal computing became possible. A group of mathematicians decided to program a blackjack game that would play the players position, and analyze each available option, play it through, and determine which decision in each case is likely to yield more money. These decisions are represented in the chart above, and are mathematically correct. So you see, in blackjack basic strategy is actually the most advanced sophisticated strategy you can get, developed mathematically on computers. The casinos don’t mind terribly that we distribute these strategy cards, and even keep a copy on hand themselves. The reason being, it’s quite rare for somebody to play perfect strategy, even with a card to reference, unless they have played for a long time. This is partially due to the fact that in a land based casino you have to move at the pace of the game, and so truly don’t have time to reference every hand you’re dealt. Playing at an online casino is different however. Since you can take as much time between hands as you wish, you can reference any decision against printed charts, web sites, books, play some online keno, whatever you choose - time is on your side.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 9:09 am and is filed under Casino. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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