Interactive Blackjack Basic Strategy Chart

This page holds the complete basic strategy chart — hard totals, soft totals, and pairs — interactive with hover highlighting, and downloadable as a free PDF or CSV. Played perfectly, basic strategy cuts the casino’s house edge to roughly 0.5%, the best odds you can get without counting cards.

New to blackjack? Learn the chart while playing our free blackjack game — the fastest way to make it stick.

Hard Totals

Soft Totals (Ace counted as 11)

Pairs

Legend:
H = Hit, S = Stand, D = Double Down, SP = Split

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How to Read the Strategy Chart

The lookup is simple: find your hand in the left column and the dealer’s upcard across the top — the intersecting cell is the mathematically correct move. The legend: H = Hit, S = Stand, D = Double Down, SP = Split. Prefer a copy at hand? Download the chart as PDF or CSV above.

Three tables cover every possible hand — here’s when to use each.

Hard Totals

Use this table when your hand has no ace, or an ace that must count as 1 to avoid busting. It’s the default table — most hands you’re dealt are hard totals.

The big patterns: stand on hard 17 and above, always. Against a weak dealer card (2–6), stand on most stiff hands; against a strong one (7–A), keep hitting until at least 17 or bust trying.

Soft Totals (Ace Counted as 11)

Use this table when your hand contains an ace counted as 11 — like A,6 (soft 17). Soft hands have a superpower: you can’t bust by hitting, because the ace simply drops to 1 if you draw big.

That safety net is why the chart plays soft hands aggressively — lots of doubles against dealer 4, 5, and 6, where the dealer busts most often. Never stand on soft 17 or below; you can only improve.

Pairs

When your first two cards match in rank, check this table first — before even thinking about hitting or standing. Splitting turns one hand into two, each with its own bet.

The anchors: A,A and 8,8 always split; 10,10 never splits — a made 20 is too good to break up. 5,5 never splits either: it’s a strong 10 that usually wants to double instead.

Which Rules This Chart Assumes

Every basic strategy chart is computed for a specific rule set. Ours assumes a standard multi-deck game (4–8 decks) where the dealer hits soft 17 and doubling after splits is allowed — the setup you’ll meet most often, live and online. Surrender isn’t shown, since most games (especially online) don’t offer it.

This is also the honest answer to “why do charts differ between websites?” Different rules flip a handful of borderline cells — worth fractions of a percent each — so two charts built for different rule sets can disagree without either being “wrong.” Where a cell is borderline, we keep the play that holds up best across common rule variants.

Want to know what your exact table costs? Price its full rule set with the House Edge Calculator.

Basic Strategy Has an Order of Operations

Every hand should be read in the same fixed order. Ask these four questions, in sequence, until it’s automatic.

1. Can I Surrender — and Should I?

If your table offers late surrender, it’s correct for only a few hopeless hands — most importantly hard 16 vs 9, 10, or A and hard 15 vs 10. You give up half the bet and save the rest.

Most tables and online games don’t offer it, which is why our chart omits a surrender row. No surrender? Move straight to question two.

2. Can I Split — and Should I?

If your first two cards are a pair, consult the pairs table before anything else. Some splits are automatic (A,A, 8,8), some are conditional (9,9 splits against everything except 7, 10, and A), and some never happen (10,10, 5,5).

If the table says don’t split, the hand simply becomes a hard or soft total — proceed to question three.

3. Can I Double — and Should I?

Doubling is only available on your first two cards, so this question comes before hit-or-stand. The chart’s doubles are concentrated where you’re strong and the dealer is weak — 11 against everything, 10 against 2–9, and soft hands against dealer 4–6.

If doubling isn’t allowed on your hand (say, after hitting), play it as the chart’s next-best call: hit.

4. Hit or Stand?

The final question, answered by the hard or soft table. The core logic: against a dealer 2–6, let the dealer bust — stand on 13–16 (and 12 against 4–6). Against a 7–A, your stiff hand won’t win by waiting — hit until 17 or more.

Run these four questions in order on every hand, and the chart’s 300+ cells collapse into one repeatable habit.

Basic Strategy in Plain English: Rules You Can Memorize

The whole chart compresses into a set of spoken phrases. Learn these and you know the majority of cells by heart.

The absolutes:

• Always split A,A and 8,8.
• Never split 10,10 or 5,5.
• Always stand on hard 17 or more.
• Never take insurance.

The doubles:

• Always double 11.
• Double 10 — except against a 10 or ace.
• Double 9 against 3–6.

Soft hands:

• Soft 19 (A,8) and up: always stand.
• Soft 18 (A,7) is not an automatic stand: double against 3–6, stand against 2, 7, 8 — hit against 9, 10, and ace.
• Soft 17 (A,6) or less: never stand — hit or double.

The dealer-weakness rule:

• Stand on 12–16 when the dealer shows 2–6; hit when the dealer shows 7–A.
• The exception: hit 12 against a dealer 2 or 3.

Every phrase above matches the chart on this page exactly — if you remember nothing else, remember these.

How to Memorize the Chart

Learn one table at a time, in this order: pairs (smallest table, biggest blunders avoided), then hard totals (most frequent), then soft totals (most counterintuitive). Use the plain-English phrases above as your mnemonics.

Then drill: play the free blackjack game, commit to each decision, and check anything you’re unsure of with the Strategy Calculator. Misses cluster fast — usually soft hands and borderline doubles — so review those rows on this page after each session.

The honest bar: one miss every few hundred hands still costs money over time. You’re casino-ready when you can play a full session without looking anything up — aim for zero.

What Basic Strategy Does — and Doesn’t Do

Basic strategy comes from computer analysis of millions of hands, a line of work started by mathematicians in the 1950s — not by casinos. That’s exactly why you can trust it: it’s public, reproducible math, and casinos would prefer you didn’t use it.

What it does: reduces the house edge to roughly 0.5%, the minimum possible for your table’s rules. What it doesn’t do: create a player edge, predict the next card, or guarantee any session — variance is real in both directions.

The only mathematically proven way to go further is card counting. When you’re ready, that path starts at our Card Counting Trainer and Deviation Chart.

Common Basic Strategy Mistakes

• Taking insurance or “even money” — it’s a side bet with a heavy house edge, whatever the dealer shows. The chart’s answer is always no.
• Standing on soft 18 against 9, 10, or A — it feels safe, but A,7 loses too often standing against strong upcards. The correct play is hit.
• Not splitting 8,8 against a 10 — it feels like throwing good money after bad, but hard 16 is the worst hand in blackjack. Splitting loses less; the chart says SP.
• Mimicking the dealer — never doubling or splitting and hitting to 17 surrenders every player advantage. The dealer’s fixed script only works because players must act (and bust) first.
• Abandoning the chart after a losing streak — the correct move doesn’t change because the last three hands lost. Streaks are variance; the math isn’t.

How This Chart Was Built

The chart follows published combinatorial analysis for the stated rule set — the same peer-checked mathematics behind every reputable basic strategy source — and is cross-checked against our own Strategy Calculator, so the tool and the chart never disagree.

It’s free and donation-supported: no casino advertising, no sign-ups, no strings attached. Download it, print it, keep it.

Conclusion: Learn It Once — Use It Forever

Read every hand in the same order — surrender → split → double → hit or stand — and let the chart answer each question. Memorize with the plain-English phrases, then drill in the free game until the right move comes without thinking.

Basic strategy is the cheapest edge-cutter in the casino: it costs nothing to learn and pays for itself every session. If you take it to a real table, set your limits first — and enjoy the game responsibly (18+, or 21+ in many jurisdictions).