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How to Play Blackjack

The objective of blackjack is to beat the dealer by getting a hand value of 21 or as close to 21 as possible without going over. Number cards are worth face value, face cards (jack, queen, king) are worth 10, and aces are worth 1 or 11.

Game Actions

• Deal - deals a new hand to you and the dealer
• Hit - draws another card to your hand
• Stand - ends your turn and lets the dealer play
• Split - if your first two cards are a pair, splits them into two separate hands which doubles your total bet
• Double Down (DD) - doubles your bet on one hand, draws exactly one more card, and ends your turn

Blackjack Rules

• Blackjack (an ace plus a 10-value card on the initial deal) beats all other hands
• Getting 21 without an ace, or after the first deal, is not a blackjack
• The dealer must hit on soft 17 (a hand totaling 17 with an ace counted as 11)
• You may double down on any two-card hand to draw exactly one more card
• You may split a pair into two hands (one split per round, two hands maximum)

Additional Blackjack Guidlines

• You may split on any 2 face cards, or a face card and a 10
• You may double down after split
• Split aces receive only one additional card each
• A 21 made from split cards is not a blackjack
• The game uses a six-deck shoe (312 cards) and reshuffles when approximately 78 cards remain
• A push is when your hand matches the dealer's hand and results in a tie
• A player can surrender when they don't believe their hand is worth pursuing. They can get back half their bet. Surrender is not supported in this online blackjack game.

Scoreboard Units

The scoreboard tracks units won or lost based on a flat 1-unit bet per hand and displays the tally as Net Units. Doubling down (DD) risks 2 units on a single hand. ROI (Return on Investment) shows your cumulative units won or lost as a percentage of total units wagered. Split hands are tracked independently as two hands.

Blackjack Scoring Tally

Player Outcome	Units Won or Lost	Units Wagered
Win	+1	1
Loss	−1	1
Push	0	1
Blackjack	+1.5	1
DD Win	+2	2
DD Loss	−2	2
DD Push	0	2

Basic Blackjack Strategy

This chart shows the optimal blackjack play for every hand against each dealer upcard when doubling is not available. H = Hit, S = Stand, SP = Split. During the game, the upper right corner of your hand area shows a  ✓  or  ✘  to indicate whether or not you played the optimal strategy. Paying attention to the indicator can help you memorize optimal plays.

This strategy assumes no double down or surrender options. Where the full basic strategy calls for doubling, this chart shows the fallback action (hit or stand).

Basic strategy derived from standard six-deck, H17, DAS rule. See Edward O. Thorp's book Beat the Dealer.

Print Basic Strategy

Basic Blackjack Strategy with Double Down

This chart shows the full basic strategy including double down. D = Double your bet and receive exactly one more card. If doubling is not allowed, use the fallback action from the table above.

This strategy assumes 6 decks, dealer hits on soft 17, and double after split allowed. No surrender.

Print Double Down Strategy

Hi-Lo Count System

A basic yet popular card counting system is the Hi-Lo count system. For each card dealt keep a running total in your head: add one for low cards 2 through 6, and subtract one for high cards 10 through ace. You don't need to track mid-value cards 7 through 9.

After many hands you'll begin to see whether your tally is positive, negative, or close to zero. If it's positive, it tells you that more low value cards have been dealt, so the remaining deck is heavy with high cards. If your tally is negative, it means that more high value cards have been dealt than low value cards.

Hi-Lo Tally

Card	Count
2 - 6	+1
7 - 9	0
10 - A	-1

The blackjack strategy tables are optimized for a neutral deck. A neutral deck would have a statistically even distribution of all card values. By applying a card counting system, you can get a general idea of whether the deck is rich with high cards or low cards or remains neutral. This information can give you a slight advantage such that you might deviate from basic strategies. If you deviate from the basic strategy,  ✓  or  ✘  indicators might not be accurate for your given hand.

The scoreboard keeps the Running Count (Hi-Lo) for you to practice with. It also calculates the true count which is a more useful value. The true count is the hi-lo running count relative to the approximate number of remaining decks.

To calculate a true count, first estimate the number of decks left in the shoe to the closest 1/2 deck. Next, divide the running count by the number of decks. The result is the true count which you can think of as the average hi-lo count per deck for the remaining cards.

Deck Heavy in High Cards (Ten-rich / Ace-rich) — Positive Count

This is the favorable situation for the player. High cards help the player more than the dealer. A ten-rich deck means blackjacks are more likely, and they happen to the player and the dealer equally, but the player is paid more for blackjacks (3:2 payouts).

• Stand more aggressively. With your hard 12–16 hands, you're more willing to stand even against dealer upcards where basic strategy says hit, because the dealer is also more likely to bust drawing into a ten-rich deck.
• Double down more. Especially on 9, 10, and 11 — you're more likely to land a strong hand.
• Split more. Pairs become more attractive since your split hands are likely to improve.

Deck Heavy in Low Cards (Two Through Six-rich) — Negative Count

This favors the dealer, because the dealer must hit until 17, and low cards help them build strong hands without busting. Be conservative.

• Hit more aggressively. Your hard 12–16 hands are less dangerous to hit when the deck is rich in low cards since you won't bust on a small card, but the dealer is also less likely to bust when drawing.
• Avoid doubling. A ten on your double isn't coming — you're more likely to land a weak card and be stuck.
• Don't split as freely. Split hands are harder to improve.

The Key Takeaways

These blackjack strategy tables are optimized for a neutral deck. Card counting affects strategy at the stand/hit decision margins.

These are only statistically optimized strategies. They do not guarantee wins.

These strategy charts show the mathematically optimal play for the rules used here; six decks, dealer hits on soft 17, double after split allowed, no surrender. Basic strategy reduces the house edge to roughly half a percent, but it does not guarantee a win on any hand or session, and the correct play changes if the rules change.