Blackjack Basic Strategy Chart
The mathematically optimal action for every hand against every dealer up-card, computed exactly via recursive expected-value analysis (not simulated) under an infinite-shoe approximation — the same assumption virtually every published basic strategy chart uses.
Dealer Stands on Soft 17, DAS, pays 3:2
Why there is no deck-count control: a basic-strategy chart is total-dependent and very nearly deck-agnostic — the same reason published charts do not ship one per shoe size. These cells are computed against an infinite shoe, which is the standard convention and what makes them comparable to any chart you already own. Deck count moves the house edge rather than the plays, and that is where this site varies it: rule impact quotes every edge against a real six-deck shoe dealt without replacement.
Hard totals
| Your hand | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hard 4 | ||||||||||
| Hard 5 | ||||||||||
| Hard 6 | ||||||||||
| Hard 7 | ||||||||||
| Hard 8 | ||||||||||
| Hard 9 | ||||||||||
| Hard 10 | ||||||||||
| Hard 11 | ||||||||||
| Hard 12 | ||||||||||
| Hard 13 | ||||||||||
| Hard 14 | ||||||||||
| Hard 15 | ||||||||||
| Hard 16 | ||||||||||
| Hard 17 | ||||||||||
| Hard 18 | ||||||||||
| Hard 19 | ||||||||||
| Hard 20 |
Soft totals
| Your hand | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soft 13 | ||||||||||
| Soft 14 | ||||||||||
| Soft 15 | ||||||||||
| Soft 16 | ||||||||||
| Soft 17 | ||||||||||
| Soft 18 | ||||||||||
| Soft 19 | ||||||||||
| Soft 20 |
Pairs
| Your hand | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pair of Aces | ||||||||||
| Pair of 2s | ||||||||||
| Pair of 3s | ||||||||||
| Pair of 4s | ||||||||||
| Pair of 5s | ||||||||||
| Pair of 6s | ||||||||||
| Pair of 7s | ||||||||||
| Pair of 8s | ||||||||||
| Pair of 9s | ||||||||||
| Pair of 10s |
Reading the grid: rows are your hand (hard totals, soft totals with an ace, and pairs), columns are the dealer’s up-card. A hard 12–16 is a “stiff” hand — the chart is where it earns that name, since whether to hit or stand flips by dealer card. Pairs of 8s split against almost everything, even a dealer 10, because two hands starting at 8 beat one hand stuck at a hard 16. Soft hands (an ace counted as 11) double more aggressively than the equivalent hard total, since busting isn’t possible on the next card.
Never take insurance
When the dealer shows an ace, they’ll offer insurance — a side bet, up to half your wager, that pays 2:1 if their hole card is a ten. It sounds like protection; it’s actually a house edge of about 7.7% on its own, worse than almost anything else at the table. Only 4 of the 13 unseen card ranks are worth ten, so the true odds (4/13 ≈ 30.8%) are worse than the 1-in-3 the 2:1 payout would need to break even — the bet loses about 1/13 of a unit on average. That holds regardless of what your own hand is worth, including the tempting-sounding “even money” offer on your own blackjack, which is the identical bad bet under a friendlier name.
Or answer one hand at a time
Three taps instead of parsing the full grid.
What’s my play right now?
Tap your two cards and the dealer’s up-card for an instant answer.
Try next
Full expected-value breakdown for whatever you’re holding.
By your current total, and by the dealer’s up-card.
A 6:5 payout costs you more than almost any mistake you could make.
Basic strategy is solved — but most people miss the tricky hands.
Split EV uses the standard infinite-deck approximation (each resulting hand treated independently); resplitting further hands isn’t modeled, which can very slightly understate splitting a few borderline pairs (e.g. 8s against a strong dealer card).