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About BlackJack Strategies

There are many blackjack strategies a player might employ to increase their odds of winning the game. One of them might be counting cards or simply copying other players. The following two strategies are options that might help you increase your odds of winning. There is a basic strategy and a simple strategy that might be employed in blackjack to help you be a better player.

Basic  Blackjack Strategy
Thousands of blackjack players around the world have memorized the basic strategy since its introduction in the mid 1950s. This strategy has been approved and shown to work. The following table shows in detail the Las Vegas benchmarks. Remember, too, that blackjack provides a great deal of room for player choice. This means that you can increase your advantage, and reduce the house advantage, by playing at your best. When you play optimally, meaning making the right decision for each hand, you are following the basic strategy. The following table explains the basic strategy in more detail. Remember that the number of decks used and house rules may affect the percentages somewhat.

Here's a real quick set of rules for the perfect Basic Strategy Blackjack. This also applies to live blackjack as well:

• Always double on 10 and/or 11 against the dealer’s 2-9
• Always stand on hard 12-16 against the dealer’s 2-6
• Always stand on a hard 17, or more
• Always stand on soft 18, or more
• Always spilt Aces, 8s, and 9s.
• Never buy insurance

Table 1   Basic BlackJack Strategy Card (Using Six Hand Benchmark. Based on Wikipedia Blackjack Basic Strategy Card )

This table works for any hand that uses 3 decks of cards or more. Also, this basic strategy applies to double on any 2 cards, dealer stands soft 17, blackjack pays 3:2, and dealer peeks for blackjack.

Benefits of Shufflers
It’s interesting that so many players despise shufflers because they actually reduce the House Edge. Because of this, players benefit from playing at tables that use shufflers. More than likely players don’t like shufflers because it is impossible to  count cards in a game that is shuffled non-stop. However, by playing a shuffled game the house edge is reduced by .03% so you are better off not counting cards anyway.

How the Blackjack Rules Affect the House Edge

The following chart will help you better understand the house edges associated with blackjack and how they change based on the rules being played. Look over the chart below so you can better understand what situations benefit the player and those that don’t. This chart is based on an eight decks of cards, splitting to 4 hands is allowed, double on any first two cards is allowed, and double after splitting is allowed. This is in addition to the dealer standing on a soft 17.

BlackJack Side bets

When it comes to the option of side bets many players choose to do so. However, it is not in your best interest to place side bets. In fact, it makes sense to simply ignore the fact that side bets exist.

Table 2 Blackjack Side bets and the house Edge

Obviously, these odds are extremely in favor of the house and there is no good reason to ever place a side bet unless you are interested in losing money. There are some very rare instances where placing a side bet is a good idea, but this is only for expert players  highly trained in Blackjack who can recognize these opportunities. The vast majority of the time however, there is no reason to even consider making a side bet.