To beat the game of Blackjack you have to know Basic Strategy and play it perfectly. A lot of people think they know Basic Strategy but really only know some of it.
Basic Strategy is an incredible aid to your Blackjack game and can bring you up to a .05% disadvantage to the house if used correctly. People who do not play Basic Strategy can easily have a 4-5% disadvantage.
The Basic Strategy Chart shows every hand possibilities between you and the dealer and the correct action for each hand. Actions include hitting, standing, splitting, doubling down. Below are a bunch of examples of Basic Strategy Charts. As you can see they all look different but give you the same information. I didn’t look these over to make sure there wasn’t any mistakes so don’t use them. Download ours here.
There are certain things Basic Strategy tells you to do that a lot of people don’t do, such as Hit a 16 verses a 10. When you have a 16 and the dealer is showing a 10 you know you have a bad hand, and it feels like the chances of busting are so high that you would rather chance it to just see if the Dealer has a bad under-card and busts instead of you. This is why a lot of people don’t hit their 16’s when they don’t “feel it”.
I was playing at a casino and hitting my 16’s and busting almost everytime. I chuckled to the dealer, “Well, you got to play Basic Strategy, right?”
The dealer disagreed. “Basic Strategy is based on a computer playing millions of hands. I know I’m not playing millions of hands so I have to adjust.”
The dealer was right about where Basic Strategy came from. During the advent of computers, we were able to find out statistically what the best action for any given hand was. To find this out the computer would simulate millions of hands and see which actions were best in the long run.
But the dealer was wrong in advocating to change Basic Strategy based on one session.
It is like if you had a ten sided dice and six sides were red and the remaining four were blue. Assuming the pay out was 1:1 on whether you bet on red or blue what would you bet on? You should always choose red. Even if the dice are on a “blue streak.” If you keep playing, and most people who go to a casino go back and play more, you will win in the end. This is the same for a 100 sided dice, where 51 sides are red and 49 sides are blue. It might seem like there is a very long blue streak but every time you make a bet you should bet red. This is how casinos operate and make their millions. This is how you should operate too.
You might find some discrepancies in Basic Strategy charts. This is due to the fact that some blackjack games have different rules and people change actions that are very, very close to begin with. Or it is due to the fact that someone recreated the chart and was sloppy. You can use our Basic Strategy chart, which is accurate and good for all H17 and S17 games. Download here.
People will make the craziest decisions playing blackjack and deviate from Basic Strategy left and right. Sometimes they get lucky and win their hand. But in the long run, those kind of deviations will loose you money. In order to be a successful blackjack player you have to think about the long term.
There are times to deviate from Basic Strategy, but to know precisely when those are you have to be counting cards. To go back to the 16 vs 10 example - if you are counting cards you will deviate from this action often since it is very close. As soon as the remaining decks becomes even a little “10″ heavy (anything over a running 0) you will stop hitting 16’s vs 10.
Don’t do this on a hunch or because you just saw a bunch of little cards. You need to be counting accurately to know when the deviation really occurs. With the example we have been using (a 16 vs a 10) the cost of making the wrong decision in the long run is only pennies even with a large bet. But other actions will be worth much more and every penny saved is a penny earned.