Blackjack

Last update: Nov. 9, 2009

How to Play Blackjack

Blackjack can be played with one to eight ordinary decks of cards. Cards of rank 2 through 10 are scored according to their face value. All face cards are 10 points. Aces are semi-wild and can be worth either 1 or 11 points. The highest hand in blackjack is an ace and any 10-point card and is called a blackjack. A winning blackjack pays 3 to 2. If both player and dealer have a blackjack the bet is a push. Aside from a blackjack, a winning hand pays even money. The player wins if his hand has more points than the dealer, without going over 21. Thus, a 21-point hand is the highest and is why the game is sometimes called 21. If either the player or dealer go over 21 it is called a break or bust and a busted hand automatically loses. If both the player and the dealer bust the player loses, where lies the house advantage. If the player and the dealer tie, the bet is a push.

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A round of blackjack begins with each player placing a bet in the circle or logo directly in front of him. Then the dealer will give each player and himself two cards. Player cards are usually dealt face up. One dealer card is dealt face up (the up card) and the other face down (the hole card). If the dealer has a ten or an ace as the up card it is possible he has a blackjack, in which case all player hands will lose except those with another blackjack. In the U.S. the dealer will check for blackjack immediately, if one is possible, and will collect all losing bets immediately if he does have a blackjack.

In the event the dealer has an ace as the up card he will allow the players to insure their hands against a blackjack. This is much like any insurance policy in which you are betting something bad will happen. The insurance bet in blackjack pays 2:1 if the dealer has a blackjack. If the dealer has an ace showing and a player has a blackjack the dealer may ask "even money?" This is because if the player has a blackjack the net result of both the blackjack and the insurance bet will be an even money win regardless of whether the dealer has a blackjack. After all players have had a chance to accept or decline insurance the dealer will check the hole card.

After it has been established that the dealer does not have a blackjack the players in turn may play their hands. The following options are available.

Stand: If the player is satisfied with his hand as-is he may stand pat. To signify you wish to stand, wave your hand as if to wave the dealer away. In a single deck game, tuck your cards face down under your bet.

Hit: If the player wishes to take another card he may continue to do so until he either stands or busts. To signify you wish to hit, tap the table with your finger. In a single deck game, scrape your cards lightly against the felt.

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Double: If the player feels he needs one and only one more card then he may double his bet and be dealt one more card, good or bad. This option is only offered on the first two cards, and sometimes on the first two cards after splitting. To signify you wish to double, place another wager next to your original wager of equal value. In single deck, place your cards face up by your bet.

Split: If the player's first two cards are of equal point value he may split them into two hands. In this event each card is the first card of a new hand. The player must also make another wager, of equal value to the first wager, for the second hand. Splitting after splitting is allowed; however, resplitting aces is often an exception. The player may usually split up to 2 or 3 times if another splitting opportunity arises. Doubling after splitting is usually but not always allowed. To signify you wish to split put the additional wager next to the original wager. In single deck, place your cards face up by your bet.

Surrender: Finally, some casinos offer the player the option to surrender on the first two cards. If the player does not like his prospects he may forfeit half the bet as well as his cards. If the dealer has a ten or ace showing, and the dealer peeks at his hole card for a blackjack before the first player's turn, then the option is called "late surrender." If the dealer does not check for blackjack, or does not take a hole card at all, then the option is called "early surrender." Early surrender is much better for the player, because of the protection against a dealer blackjack.

After all players have played their hands, from the dealer's left to right, the dealer will play his hand. The dealer has no free will but must always play by certain house rules. Usually the rule is that the dealer must hit until he reaches a score of 17 or more. Some casinos stipulate that if the dealer has a soft 17, an ace and any number of cards totaling 6, he must also hit. If the dealer busts, all players that did not bust automatically win.

I've been preaching for years that to play blackjack properly requires memorizing the basic strategy. However, after pitching the basic strategy for 20 years, I've learned that few people have the will to memorize it. In my book, Gambling 102, I presented a "Simple Strategy," which is seven simple rules to playing blackjack. The cost due to incorrect plays with the Simple Strategy is 0.53%, under liberal Vegas Strip rules.

Ever since my book was published it has bothered me that the cost in errors to my Simple Strategy was too high. So in September 2009 I developed the following "Wizard's Strategy." The cost due to imperfect plays is only 0.14%, relative to liberal Vegas Strip rules. That is the cost of one hand for about every 12 hours of play. Compared to the 250 cells in the Basic Strategy, the Wizard's Strategy has only 21, as follows.

Here are some comments of clarification.

• A "hard" hand is one that either has no aces, or has aces that are forced to count as point, lest the hand bust. A "soft" hand is one with at least one ace, which may still count as one or eleven points.
• With a hard 10 or 11, double if you have more points than the dealer, treating a dealer ace as 11 points. Specifically, double with 10 against a 2 to 9, and with 11 against 2 to 10.
• If the strategy says to double, but you have three or more cards, or table rules don't allow soft doubling, then hit, except stand with a soft 18.
• If the strategy says to surrender (16 vs. 10), but you can't for whatever reason, then hit.
• If the strategy says to "not split," then treat the hand has a hard total of 8, 10, or 20, according to the pair in question.

Details about the Wizard's Simple Strategy can be found in my Blackjack appendix 21.

Blackjack Basic Strategy

The Basic Strategy is simply the best way to play every possible situation, without any knowledge of the distribution of the rest of the cards in the deck. The Basic Strategy below is for four or more decks, when the dealer stands on soft 17, which is a common game. Below are links to more basic strategy charts for other rules. If you only memorize one table I would suggest the one below. It can be played effectively under any rules.

To use the basic strategy, look up your hand along the left vertical edge and the dealer's up card along the top. In both cases an A stands for ace. From top to bottom are the hard totals, soft totals, and splittable hands. Rule variations can have an effect on some borderline situations. The most flexible rules are the number of decks, whether the dealer hits or stands on a soft 17, and whether doubling is allowed after splitting.

Some obvious situations have been left out to keep the chart as small as possible. I have more basic strategy charts for other numbers of decks, as well as European blackjack.

• 1 deck
• 2 decks
• 4 or more decks
• European blackjack

The best way, I have found, to memorize the basic strategy is notice patterns and to try to understand why you should play every situation as the chart says. Then make flash cards and go over and over them until you know it cold. Do not deal out cards to yourself because the soft totals and the pairs will not occur often enough to test your knowledge.

Many people do not believe in the basic strategy because they once took the advice of someone who knew it and then lost the hand. Let me make something perfectly clear, you will not win every hand with the basic strategy! In fact, you won't even win half your hands. However, I can personally testify that while you will have short term ups and downs, over the long run you will roughly break even using it.

House Edge

See my Blackjack House Edge Calculator to determine the house edge under 3,456 possible rule combinations. And here's that calculator on a full page.

Rule Surveys

Las Vegas: I'm proud to I'm proud to feature up date blackjack rules for every casino in Las Vegas. The list is updated monthly, based on Stanford Wong's Current Blackjack Newsletter. Effective November 2009 the survey has been moved to my companion site, WizardOfVegas.com.

San Diego: My own blackjack survey of San Diego (Nov., 2009).

Rule Variations

Rule variations will have an effect on the player's expected return. The numbers below show the effect on the player's return under various rules and after taking into consideration proper basic strategy adjustments. These changes are relative to the following rules: 8 decks, dealer stands on soft 17, player may double on any first two cards, player can double after splitting, player may split to 4 hands.

Notes:

1. A "Charlie" is an automatic winner. For example the five-card Charlie rule means the player automatically wins with 5 cards, as long as he didn't bust.
2. Dealer does not peek for blackjack with an ace up. If dealer has a ace-up blackjack, player loses all bets made, including from doubling and splitting. A 10-up blackjack will be revealed immediately after peeking, and the player will lose only his original wager, except a blackjack tie will push.
3. “BB+1” refers to an Australian rule, in which the player will lose all busted bets, plus one unit, if the dealer gets a blackjack. For example, if the player splits 8's to three hands of a 20, (doubled) 19, and a busted hand, and the dealer get a blackjack, then the player will lose 2 units, one for the busted hand, and one from the remaining 3 units on the table. There is a great deal of confusion for the term for his rule, some sources calling it "OBBO," for Original and Busted Bets Only.
4. “OBBO” stands for Original Bets and Busted Only. "Original Bets" means each original bet per hand. So, if the player bet $5 and split to three hands, he would have three original bets of $5 each. As far as I know, the OBBO rule is confined to some parts of Australia and Malaysia. In the example above, the player would lose 3 units under this rule, one for the busted hand and two for the number of unbusted hands. The term is discussed in depth in the book The Pro's Guide to Spanish 21 and Australian Pontoon by Katarina Walker.
5. This strange rule is actually followed in Pennsylvania, on Shufflemaster TMS-300 video multi-player blackjack games, which prohit one players actions to affect the the other players.
6. Dealer does not peek for blackjack with a 10 up. If dealer has a 10-up blackjack, player loses all bets made, including from doubling and splitting. An ace-up blackjack will be revealed immediately after peeking, and the player will lose only his original wager, except a blackjack tie will push.
7. Dealer does not take a hole card, or never peeks at it if he does. If the dealer has a blackjack, then player loses all bets made, including from doubling and splitting, except a blackjack tie will push. The cost of this rule to the player is 0.08% when doubling, and 0.03% when splitting. This breakdown is important in the case of Galaxy casinos in Macau, where the player only loses the original bet when doubling, but everything when splitting, if the dealer gets a blackjack.
8. The push on a dealer 22 rule is a legally protected rule. The rights belong to the owner of Blackjack Switch.

Beware Short Pays on a Blackjack

More and more tables are showing up that pay less than the full 3 to 2 on a blackjack. Most of these tables pay 6 to 5, but some even money and 7 to 5 tables are known to exist. I would estimate that 10% of "21" tables in Las Vegas now pay less than 3 to 2. In my opinion, only games that pay 3 to 2 deserve to be called "blackjack," the rest fall under "21" games, including Super Fun 21 and Spanish 21. Regardless of the other rules, you should demand nothing less than 3 to 2 blackjack. You should always check the felt to be sure, and if the felt doesn't say, look for a sign. If nothing says the win on a blackjack, then ask. Here is a link to an article in the Las Vegas Sun about this game, which quotes myself.(cache of article).

Bad Strategies

Three popular bad strategies encountered at the blackjack table are: never bust, mimic the dealer, and always assume the dealer has a ten in the hole. All three are very bad strategies. Following are my specific comments on each of them, including the house edge under Atlantic City rules (dealer stands on soft 17, split up to 4 hands, double after split, double any two cards) of 0.43%.

Never bust: For my analysis of this strategy I assumed the player would never hit a hard 12 or more. All other decisions were according to correct basic strategy. This "never bust" strategy results in a house edge of 3.91%.

Mimic the dealer: For my analysis of this strategy I assumed the player would always hit 16 or less and stand on 17 or more, including a soft 17. The player never doubled or split, since the dealer is not allowed to do so. This "mimic the dealer" strategy results in a house edge of 5.48%.

Assume a ten in the hole: For this strategy I first figured out the optimal basic strategy under this assumption. If the dealer had an ace up, then I reverted to proper basic strategy, because the dealer would have peeked for blackjack, making a 10 impossible. This "assume a ten" strategy results in a house edge of 10.03%.

More Pages on Blackjack

• Appendix 1: Total dependent expected return table for an infinite deck.
• Appendix 2a: Dealer probabilities after dealer peeks for blackjack.
• Appendix 2b: Dealer probabilities before dealer peeks for blackjack.
• Appendix 3a: Composition dependent exceptions to single deck basic strategy where the dealer stands on soft 17.
• Appendix 3b: Composition dependent exceptions to double deck basic strategy where the dealer stands on soft 17.
• Appendix 3c: Composition dependent exceptions to single deck basic strategy where the dealer hits a soft 17.
• Appendix 4: Details on the standard deviation in blackjack.
• Appendix 5: Infinite deck expected return according to player hand and dealer up card.
• Appendix 6: Fine points of when to surrender.
• Appendix 7: Effect of card removal.
• Appendix 8: Analysis of some popular blackjack side bets including Super Sevens, Streak, Royal Match, and a tie.
• Appendix 9: Composition dependent expected returns for 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 8 decks.
• Appendix 10: The effect on the house edge of the continuous shuffling machines vs. the cut card.
• Appendix 11: Value and strategy for 678 and 777 bonuses.
• Appendix 12: Risk of ruin statistics.
• Appendix 13: Probabilities in the first four cards. May be used to test for the number of decks in online blackjack.
• Appendix 14: Value of each initial player card.
• Appendix 15: House edge using total dependent vs composition dependent basic strategy
• Appendix 16: Basic strategy when dealer exposes both cards.
• Appendix 17: The Wizard Ace Five Count. Possibly the easiest way to count cards.
• Appendix 18: Basic strategy exceptions for three to six cards.
• Appendix 19: Blackjack splitting strategy when a back-player is betting.
• Appendix 20: Blackjack doubling strategy, when doubling after splitting aces is allowed.
• Appendix 21: Details on the Wizard's Simple Strategy.
• "21" Movie — Truth and Fiction : My comments on the movie "21."
• Australian Blackjack: Rules and odds for blackjack down under.
• Introduction to Card Counting

Links

• For a detailed explanation of blackjack rules in Macau, please visit my companion site, Wizard of Macau.
• For a simplified explanation of blackjack, please visit my other companion site, Wizard of Vegas.

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