Basic Strategy

Basic strategy is easy to use. Just find your card combination on the left and the dealer's up card at the top. Follow the up card column down and your card combination row across until the two intersect. That's how you should play the hand. It shows the probable outcome of a dealer's hand based on the up card.

At first glance, basic strategy may seem complicated, but it's simple. About one-third of the hands should always be played the same way, regardless of what the dealer is showing. The rest of the hands, with a few exceptions, should be played one of two ways. This is determined by the dealer's up card.

Surrender

You will rarely use it, but surrender options should be considered (and hopefully found unnecessary) first. If late surrender is offered, you should take it on a hard sixteen against a dealer nine, ten, or ace. You should also surrender on a hard fifteen against a dealer ten. If you can't surrender, then hit.

Early surrender is much less common and the strategy for it is a bit more complicated. If you're fortunate enough to find a game that offers early surrender, use it when the dealer has an ace and your hand totals five, six, seven, or hard twelve through hard seventeen. You should also early surrender hard fourteen against a ten.

Be sure not to confuse early surrender with late surrender. Early surrender allows you to take back half your bet even if the dealer's ace turns out to be a blackjack; late surrender means you lose the entire bet when the dealer has blackjack. Our strategy table is optimized for late surrender, which is much more common.

Variations of the strategy

less common and the strategy