maximum winnings in casino - use the blackjack basic strategy
Everybody has heard about blackjack before. The simple game, with the goal to reach a total card value of maximum 21 points.
What is more, it is a rather common opinion, that counting cards brings you an advantage in every casino. Unfortunately this doesn't apply for online casinos, as casino software usually has a fixed advantage for the casino provider, and not a certain amount of card decks used or similar.
But here is the good message: you can minimize that advantage by simply playing the Basic Strategy - and we explain to you how it works:.
how to play "soft hands":
Before we can start, you have to know what "hard hands" and "soft hands" are. In fact its rather easy to distinguish them: If there is an ace in your hand, which is counted as 11, you have a soft hand. If there is no ace, or it already counts as 1, you have a hard hand.
If you should draw another card, or better stand on the value you already have, depends on the visible card of the dealer aswell. If you have a soft hand, you should play according to the following table.
Your hand is shown in the first column left, the dealers open card in the first line:
The hand "A 10" is not listed in the table, as it is a blackjack and you win anyway.
Example 1: Your cards are Ace and 4 (A 4), the visible card of the dealer is a 8, in this case you have to draw another card.
Example 2: You have an ace and 8. The dealers card shows 3: In this case you should better stand and refuse the next card.
Example 3: You have ace and 6, the croupier has a 4 - now you should double your stake and get exactly one more card after it.
how to play "hard hands":
If you don't have an ace in your cards, or it counts as 1 already, you have a „hard-hand“ and should play according to this table::
Some examples:
Example 1: Your cards are 7,5, 4, the dealers open card is an ace. Your cards have a together value of 15, therefore you should hit another card.
Example 2: You have 10 and 2, The croupier has a 6, Your cards together are 12, therefore you should better stand on this value, according to the basic strategy.
Example 3: You have 9, 4, ace, the dealer a 10. In this case the ace is counted as one and not as 11, otherwise you would have already exceeded 21. Actually you have 14, and should draw another card.
Example 4: You have 6, 4, the dealer a 7. Now you should double the stake.
The split of double card values:
As you know, you can split two equal cards and continue to literarilly play 2 games. Again there is no coincidence whether you should split 2 cards or not:
After a split just continue playing on each stack according to the basicstrategy and the other tables in this article.
Some examples:
Example 1: You have 3, 3, the dealer a 7. Split your cards and continue playing on two stacks.
Example 2: You have 10, 10, the dealer has an ace. Important: Two 10s should never be splitted, just stand on your value of 20, it already is a very good value and hard to beat for the dealer.
Example 3: You have 5, 5, the croupier a open 6. Double the stakes and let the dealer give you your last card.
Here you can find a useful summary of all 3 tables, for you to print out and look up during your next Blackjack session:
Blackjack-Basicstrategy, PDF format
