Blackjack Classroom

Basic Strategy

Blackjack strategy is really easier than most people realize. I often see players agonizing over whether to hit or whether to stand. I see players stay on their 16's against a dealer showing 10 because they busted the last time they hit it. These players obviously believe that their decisions are going to produce a better statistical result in the long run than Basic Strategy. And they are wrong. Basic Strategy is the correct play for each situation that occurs in blackjack that gives the player the highest probability of winning in the long run. Although it is possible that a hand played incorrectly once, twice, or even ten times can still produce a winning outcome. But over the course of your blackjack-playing lifetime, you are going to win more times playing basic strategy than you will playing by gut instinct. And luckily in this age of computers, proof is just a click away. The Proof Positive button at the top of this page takes you to an applet (a computer program that runs in your web browser) that plays the same blackjack situation thousands of times over and you can see for yourself that Basic Strategy is the way to go.

Now that you are convinced, Basic Strategy is not as hard to learn as you may realize - in fact, a great deal of it relies on common sense. The Basic Strategy button on the top of this page will take you to an applet that will teach you basic strategy. It will show you the correct decisions, test you on all the blackjack situations, keep track of your problem areas, and will help you learn why the Basic Strategy decisions are correct.