How to Play Blackjack: Rules, Strategy & Odds
Learn how blackjack works, which plays cut the house edge to about 0.5%, and which bets to skip. Rules, a strategy cheat sheet and the odds. Free.
Blackjack is the one casino game where your decisions really change the odds. Play it by feel and you give up far more than you need to. Play it with basic strategy and the house edge falls to roughly 0.5% (often under it), which is among the lowest in the casino. This guide covers how a hand works, the plays that matter, the table rules worth checking, and the bets to skip.
Table Edge is a free practice site: everything here uses practice chips with no cash value, and none of this guarantees a win. Basic strategy shrinks the house edge. It never removes it.
The goal
You are not playing against the other people at the table. Every hand is just you against the dealer. You win by finishing closer to 21 than the dealer without going over, or by the dealer going over.
Card values are simple. Cards 2 to 10 count their face value, face cards (J, Q, K) count 10, and an Ace counts as 1 or 11, whichever helps your hand more.
How a hand plays out
- You and the dealer each get two cards. One of the dealer's cards stays face down (the hole card), and the other (the upcard) is visible.
- You act first. You can hit (take a card), stand (keep your total), double down (double your bet and take exactly one more card), or split (if your two cards match, play them as two separate hands, each with its own bet).
- If you go over 21 you bust and lose at once, whatever the dealer has.
- When you stand, the dealer reveals the hole card and must keep drawing until reaching 17 or more. The dealer has no choices to make.
- Closest to 21 without busting wins. A tie is a push and your bet is returned.
A blackjack is an Ace plus a ten-value card as your first two cards. It usually pays 3:2, so a $10 bet wins $15. It turns up about 4.8% of the time, roughly one hand in 21.
Soft and hard hands
A soft hand has an Ace counted as 11 (for example Ace and 6 is "soft 17"). You cannot bust by taking one more card, because the Ace can drop to 1. A hard hand has no Ace, or an Ace that has to count as 1. The difference matters because soft hands can be played more boldly.
The one idea behind basic strategy
The dealer's upcard tells you how likely the dealer is to bust, and that decides how bold you can be.
The dealer busts most often showing a 6 (about 42 to 44% of the time) and least often showing an Ace (about 12 to 14%). The weak dealer cards are 2 through 6. A 7, 8 or 9 busts only about 23 to 26% of the time, because those dealers usually finish with a made hand of 17 to 19. A ten-value card is the most common upcard and busts only about 21% of the time, which is why 12 to 16 is such an uncomfortable hand against it.
So the logic is simple. Against a weak dealer card, let the dealer take the risk: stand on stiff hands and double more often. Against a strong card, you have to catch up: keep hitting and look for chances to double.
Your own risk is just as measurable. Taking a card on a hard 12 busts 30.8% of the time (4 in 13). A hard 16 busts 61.5% and a hard 17 busts 69.2%. From a hard 11 or less, one card cannot bust you.
You can see the dealer figures for every upcard in the dealer bust probability tables and test your own hand in the bust probability calculator.
Basic strategy cheat sheet
This is the standard chart for the most common US rules: the dealer stands on soft 17, you may double after splitting, and there is no surrender. The full colour chart, with a switch for other rules, is on the strategy chart page.
Hard hands (no Ace, or an Ace counting as 1)
| Your hand | What to do |
|---|
| 17 or more | Stand |
| 13 to 16 | Stand against a dealer 2 to 6; hit against 7, 8, 9, 10 or Ace |
| 12 | Stand against 4, 5 or 6; hit otherwise |
| 11 | Double against 2 to 10; hit against an Ace |
| 10 | Double against 2 to 9; hit against 10 or Ace |
| 9 | Double against 3 to 6; hit otherwise |
| 8 or less | Hit |
Soft hands (an Ace counting as 11)
| Your hand | What to do |
|---|
| Ace + 9 or Ace + 8 | Stand |
| Ace + 7 | Double against 2 to 6 (against a 2 it's nearly a tie with standing); stand against 7 or 8; hit against 9, 10 or Ace |
| Ace + 6 | Double against 3 to 6; hit otherwise |
| Ace + 4 or Ace + 5 | Double against 4 to 6; hit otherwise |
| Ace + 2 or Ace + 3 | Double against 5 or 6; hit otherwise |
Where the chart says double and doubling isn't allowed, hit (or stand, for Ace + 7).
Pairs
| Your pair | What to do |
|---|
| Aces or 8s | Always split |
| 10s | Never split; stand |
| 9s | Split against 2 to 6, 8 or 9; stand against 7, 10 or Ace |
| 7s | Split against 2 to 7; hit otherwise |
| 6s | Split against 2 to 6; hit otherwise |
| 5s | Never split; play as a hard 10 (double against 2 to 9) |
| 4s | Split against 5 or 6; hit otherwise |
| 2s or 3s | Split against 2 to 7; hit otherwise |
The chart only works if you follow it every time, including the plays that feel wrong. Every departure from basic strategy adds to the house edge. The hand trainer checks each of your decisions against the chart and explains the reasoning, and you can practise a full game at the free blackjack table.
Check the table rules before you sit down
Two tables that look the same can have very different odds. These are the commonly published figures for a standard 6-deck shoe, each rule on its own:
| Rule | Effect on the house edge |
|---|
| Blackjack pays 6:5 instead of 3:2 | Adds about 1.39% (skip this table) |
| Dealer hits soft 17 (instead of standing) | Adds about 0.22% |
| No doubling after a split | Adds about 0.12 to 0.14% |
| Doubling only on hard 9 to 11 | Adds about 0.09 to 0.18% |
| Late surrender offered | Removes about 0.08% |
| Resplitting Aces allowed | Removes about 0.08% |
The payout is by far the most important line. A table paying 6:5 for a blackjack costs more than all the other rules combined, and it is easy to miss because it's printed on the felt in small type. Fewer decks help the player slightly, but single-deck tables almost always come with worse payouts that cancel the gain.
These figures come from published strategy literature rather than this site's own simulation, so small differences between sources are normal. You can try the effect of different rules in the house edge calculator.
The side decisions most people get wrong
Insurance: just say no
When the dealer shows an Ace, you're offered insurance, a side bet that the dealer has blackjack. On a fresh deck it loses about 7.7% of what you stake on it, every time, which makes it one of the worst bets at the table. It only breaks even when exactly one third of the unseen cards are ten-value cards, and a fresh deck has 4 in 13 (30.8%), just short of that.
"Even money" on your own blackjack is the same bet in disguise. It costs about 3.8% of your wager compared with simply declining. The one exception is for card counters, when the remaining deck is rich in tens. Check the exact numbers with the insurance calculator.
Surrender: small but real
Where late surrender is offered, you can give up a hand after the dealer checks for blackjack and lose half your bet instead of playing on. Its value is exactly minus 50%, so it only helps when your best alternative loses more than that on average. With the dealer standing on soft 17 that means a hard 16 against a 9, 10 or Ace, and a hard 15 against a 10. If the dealer hits soft 17, also add a hard 15 and a hard 17 against an Ace. Never surrender a hard 14 or lower, or anything against a dealer 2 through 8.
The gain is small, between about $0.40 and $4 per $100 bet, and these hands are uncommon, so it is worth learning but not worth agonising over. The surrender calculator shows the exact figure for each hand.
Strange variants
Some tables change the rules enough to need a different chart. Spanish 21 takes the four 10s out of each deck and makes up for it with player-friendly rules and bonus payouts, and Free Bet Blackjack gives free doubles and splits in exchange for a dealer 22 pushing your hand. Check which game you're sitting at before using the standard chart.
What about card counting?
Card counting isn't memorising every card. It means tracking the balance of high cards to low cards left in the shoe. When the deck is rich in tens and Aces, the player has a slight edge, because there are more blackjacks and better doubles.
The most common system is Hi-Lo. You add 1 for each low card (2 to 6) you see, add nothing for 7 to 9, and subtract 1 for each ten or Ace. The running total is the running count. Divide it by the number of decks left to get the true count, which is the number serious counters use to size their bets.
Counting is legal, because it is only mental arithmetic. Casinos dislike it, though, and can refuse your play or ask you to leave. It also takes a lot of practice to do at speed without mistakes, and it gives a small edge at best, nothing like a guaranteed income. You can learn the system and drill it on the card counting tab.
Money and mindset
Even with perfect strategy you will lose many hands and many sessions, because the edge is small and luck swings are large. Decide how much you can afford to lose before you sit down, and treat that money as the cost of the entertainment. The bankroll simulator shows how wide the swings can be over a session. And remember that streaks don't mean anything: the cards have no memory (see the casino myths page).
If gambling is affecting your life, you can reach the National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-522-4700.
Quick recap
- Play the chart every time, even when it feels wrong.
- Choose a table that pays 3:2 for blackjack, and prefer dealer-stands-on-soft-17 and doubling after a split.
- Decline insurance and even money.
- Surrender only the few hands where it clearly helps.
- Basic strategy reduces the house edge to about 0.5%, but it never beats the house on its own.
Ready to practise? Start with the hand trainer, then play at the free blackjack table. Want to compare blackjack with other games? See the best odds in the casino.
Table Edge