Basic Strategy

An approach to blackjack that is almost universally recognized as the maximum-win technique short of counting cards. Even card counting systems are based on this approach, which everyone calls “basic strategy.”

Anyone who plays blackjack without first mastering basic strategy is throwing away money. Some of the principles in basic strategy are so revered, that many players think of them as rules of the game, such as “Stand on hard 17” or “Always split aces.”

After mastering the real rules of the game, as detailed above, your next task is to learn basic strategy, that is, if you are the sort of gambler who wants to play a table game and yet win in the long run.

Many professionals and mathematicians have written on how to maximize winnings at blackjack. Many computer simulations have been made, and software is even available to permit ordinary folk to analyze the expectations associated with specific situations. Books on blackjack present tables of all the variants of “basic strategy.” Computer games of blackjack tell a player when a move is inconsistent with some version of basic strategy. There is an unusual unanimity of opinion amongst the experts on all but some of the very finer nuances of basic strategy.

What is Basic Strategy?

“Basic Strategy” is the name of a set of principles that tell a player how to make just one decision: what to do when it is the player’s turn to tell the dealer how a hand should be played. In an hour a player can be expected to take this decision approximately 150 times. The decision depends on the cards in front of the player and on the single up card in front of the dealer.

Basic Strategy directs which of five possible choices of action is the best. Most of the time, the choice is really only between two of them. The choices are:

• Hit (receive another card);
• Stand (do not receive another card);
• Split (optionally, when presented with a pair);
• Double Down (optionally, when presented with a situation strong enough to warrant a double bet in exchange for only one card); and
• Surrender (optionally, fold for half the bet made, if surrender is available).

A player’s two card hand can be one of only 36 possible combinations. There are ten pairs, nine “soft” hands (with aces counted as 11), ten “hard” hands (without aces or with aces counting as 1), and 7 low hands (from 5 through 11).

In the case of several of these 36 combinations basic strategy will recommend a course of action that is based on the value of the dealer’s up card. The correct decision for some of these 36 possibilities will not depend on the dealer’s up card.

In summary, Basic Strategy is a set of prescriptions to accompany every situation in the player’s hand, sometimes in light of the dealer’s up card.

How Does One Learn Basic Strategy?

Basic strategy should not be looked at as more complicated than it is already. It may be detailed, to be sure, but it is not complex.

Pure memorization is not a good idea. Almost no one approaches basic strategy by memorizing 360 combinations of hands and up cards. This is just too much to act upon reliably under game conditions.

Looking it up does not work, either. In many areas of modern life one does not need to remember anything other than where to look it up when it is needed. This does not work with basic strategy. You are on your own at the blackjack table. On “the battlefield” you can not consult an expert, a computer or a large chart of options. Even if references were allowed (and they are not, as a rule), each hand of blackjack is played in only 36 seconds on the average.

Thus, basic strategy needs to become automatic. This is especially true if eventually the player wants to count cards. While it might be theoretically possible to do two cognitive things at once (or alternate speedily between them), the only effective solution for lucid thought is to make at least one of the actions a matter of second nature.

The recommended approach is two fold. First, learn the underlying logic of basic strategy, as it is explained in the next few paragraphs. Then many of the rules will make sense, so they do not need to be memorized. A couple of rules are right on the dividing line (e.g., such as hitting or standing with 12 against 3). Those few will probably just need to be learned.

The second step is practice. Plan to accumulate a minimum of a hundred hours of practice with basic strategy, either using a computer or a real deck of cards. Since the edge in blackjack is so close to zero, a mistake – any mistake – in applying basic strategy under game conditions can be costly. Practice is really the only way to eradicate errors.