Blackjakc Strategy

Hitting and Standing

Blackjack strategy lays down its first rule that while taking a decision, both the player cards and the dealer cards should be taken into account. Hence, you should always refrain from taking a card in case you have a low hand. And there is also the chance of the dealer having a weak hand leading him to bust out easily. The following table can help you understand the fundamentals of hitting or standing for a hard hand.

Soft Hand

When an ace is dealt to the player, it results in a 'soft hand'. The unique thing about an ace is that it can either be counted as a 1 on your total hand or as an 11. This feature of ace helps play a crucial role in your decision to hit. This explains why it is less risky to hit a soft hand. The following Basic Strategy chart for Blackjack displays the soft hands.

Doubling Down

When a strong hand is dealt to you, you can enhance your winning chances only by taking advantage of it. This is the only way you can reduce the house edge. The rules of a casino vary according to the hands that you could double down. The chart below displays how to take advantage of a hard hand in every situation:

Soft Hands - Doubling Down

A different kind of strategy applies to doubling down on soft hands, which is shown in the following chart:

Splitting Pairs

Since, splitting pairs increases your chances of winning by the maximum, they are quite important in the game. It simply requires you to split the pairs. Most of the casinos allow players to split. Some of the online casinos limit it in one or the other ways, and some only allow splitting for a pair of aces.

You should make it a perpetual rule never to split 5s and 10s, but you can always split 8s and aces. Memorize the below-mentioned chart, which gives you the way a deck of 52 cards can be handled. For players who are not aware, it would be helpful to mention that splitting is one of the simplest strategies in blackjack that you can always take benefit from.