Basic Strategy for Blackjack

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Increase your wins at blackjack by learning the mathematically proven rules called basic strategy. By following these rules you'll be able to reduce the home edge to as little as half-of a percent, making blackjack some of the five best casino bets!

Each casino has their very own set of rules, and basic strategy varies slightly by what number of decks are in use. When you've got a decision and all of the tables have the similar rules, choose a single deck, which has slightly better odds for the player. Multiple deck (shoe) games and continuous shufflers can be chosen next. If the six deck shoes offer better rules corresponding to re-splitting aces and double down on any two cards, that will be a sensible choice. Don't expect to win fairly often if the casino pays 6 to five on a blackjack in place of the usual 7.5 to five. That's a deal breaker so far as I'M concerned.

Basic Strategy

You can play basic strategy through the use of the formula shown below. It's simplified for all blackjack game styles except European no-peak and games that provide surrender. You may use it for those games, but learning surrender rules will improve your wins. To follow the rules, simply take a look at your first two cards after which have a look at the dealers upcard and follow the rules.

Regardless of what the dealer has up, you'll always split, double down, or hit until you get no less than a troublesome 12. In case you are new on the game, you need to learn how to play blackjack first. Start along with your first two cards and check the list:

Hard Hand

• 12 - Stand against a dealer upcard of 4, 5 or 6, otherwise hit
• 13 - Stand against a dealer upcard of two through 6, otherwise hit
• 14 - Stand against a dealer upcard of two through 6, otherwise hit
• 15 - Stand against a dealer upcard of two through 6, otherwise hit
• 16 - Stand against a dealer upcard of two through 6, otherwise hit
• 17 - Stand on 17 or higher unless you've got a split or soft hand

Hard Doubles

• 9 - double against a dealer upcard of three through 6, otherwise hit
• 10 - double against a dealer upcard of two through 9, otherwise hit
• 11 - double against a dealer upcard of two through 10, otherwise hit

Pair Splits

• 2/2 - Split against a dealer upcard of two through 7, otherwise hit
• 3/3 - Split against a dealer upcard of two through 7, otherwise hit
• 4/4 - Hit
• 5/5 - Use doubling rules as a ten
• 6/6 - Split against a dealer upcard of two through 6, otherwise hit
• 7/7 - Split against a dealer upcard of two through 7, otherwise hit
• 8/8 - Always split
• 9/9 - Always split except against a dealer upcard of 7, 10 or ace
• 10/10 - Never split
• A/A - Always split

Soft Hands

• A2/A3 - Double down against a dealer upcard of five or 6, otherwise hit
• A4/A5 - Double down against a dealer upcard of 4, 5, or 6, otherwise hit
• A6 - Double against a dealer upcard of 3, 4, 5 or 6, otherwise hit
• A7 - Double against a dealer upcard of 3, 4, 5 - 6. Stand against 2, 7 or 8. Hit against a 9, ten or ace.

If you'll be able to learn these rules and resist the urge to alter from them since you have a "hunch" (casinos love hunch betters!), you're going to do rather well. The primary book to supply the foundations of basic strategy was Beat the Dealer by David O. Thorp.

His book, with the addition of a card-counting system that he included, changed blackjack's popularity immensely. In fact, previous to the discharge of the book within the early 1960's, blackjack wasn't the casino industry's hottest game, craps was.

Read More... [Source: About.com Casino Gambling: What's Hot Now]