Blackjack Basic Strategy: The Complete Chart and How to Read It

Basic strategy is the mathematically correct action for every blackjack hand against every dealer up card. Playing it reduces the house edge to about 0.5% under good rules. The chart below covers the standard online configuration: 4–8 decks, dealer stands on soft 17, double after split allowed.

Key: H hit · S stand · D double (hit if not allowed) · P split · Su surrender (hit if not offered).

Hard hands

Soft hands (ace counted as 11)

Pairs

How to read the chart in 60 seconds

1. Find your hand in the left column. Pairs first, then soft hands, then hard totals. 2. Find the dealer's up card across the top. 3. Do what the cell says. If doubling is not allowed, hit. If surrender is not offered, hit.

Online play removes the memorisation pressure: keep the chart open in another window. No casino objects — the chart is the assumed baseline of the game's math, and the house edge already prices it in.

The five hands players misplay most

1. 16 vs dealer 10 — hit (or surrender). Standing feels safer; the math says a 16 loses so often that drawing is the smaller loss. 2. 12 vs dealer 2 or 3 — hit. Players stand fearing the bust; the dealer's 2 and 3 are not weak enough to justify it. 3. A,7 (soft 18) vs 9, 10 or A — hit. Eighteen feels finished. Against strong dealer cards it is an underdog, and a soft hand cannot bust on one draw. 4. 8,8 vs dealer 10 — split anyway. Two hands starting from 8 lose less than one hand of 16. Splitting here is loss minimisation, not aggression. 5. 5,5 — double, never split. It is a 10, the second-best doubling total in the game. Splitting fives creates two weak hands.

If you want the math: every chart cell is the action with the highest expected value, computed over all possible dealer outcomes for that up card. "Correct" does not mean "wins this hand" — it means losing the least or winning the most across the millions of times the situation repeats.

Deviations, briefly

Charts vary slightly by rule set (H17 tables change a handful of cells, mostly doubling soft 18/19 against 2 and surrendering 15 vs A). The differences are worth hundredths of a percent. Playing this chart at any standard online table gets you within rounding distance of optimal; chasing per-table variants matters only at stakes where hundredths compound.

Counting-based deviations are a separate topic — and online, a dead one. See card counting online.

FAQ

Does basic strategy guarantee winning?

No. It minimises the house edge to about 0.5%; the casino still holds the edge. Over a session anything happens; over thousands of hands, expect to pay about 50 cents per $100 wagered.

Is using a chart allowed online?

Yes. RNG and live tables both assume it. There is nothing to detect and nothing against the rules — the edge already assumes perfect play.

Do I need different charts for different tables?

Material differences come from H17 vs S17 and surrender availability — a handful of cells. This chart on any standard table is within ~0.05% of the table-perfect version.

Why does the chart say hit on 16 vs 10?

Because standing wins only when the dealer busts (about 23% of the time from a 10). Hitting busts you often, but the times you improve outweigh the difference. Surrender, where offered, beats both.

What about side bets?

Not part of basic strategy, and all carry edges several times the main game's. See side bets decoded.