Hit or Stand? Blackjack Basics and Basic Strategy Explained

What basic strategy actually is, and what it is not

Basic strategy is a set of decisions, worked out by computer simulation, that tells you the mathematically best play for every combination of your two cards and the dealer's upcard. It is not a system for beating the game, and it will not make you a winner over time. What it does is cut the house edge on a typical Australian table to somewhere between 0.5 and 1 per cent, depending on the rule set — a long way from the 2 to 3 per cent you give away by playing on instinct.

You will see basic strategy described as a chart, and that chart changes with the rules. A game where the dealer stands on soft 17, blackjack pays 3:2 and you may double after splitting is far friendlier than one where the dealer hits soft 17 and blackjack pays 6:5. Before you memorise anything, check those three details on the table's signage or ask the dealer. The payout on a natural alone is worth roughly 1.4 per cent of house edge over the long run.

The reason the strategy works is that blackjack is one of the few casino games where your decision changes the outcome. In pokies, roulette or baccarat the result is fixed the moment the bet is placed. Here, every hit or stand shifts the probabilities, which is why a blackjack hit or stand chart is a genuinely useful document rather than a comfort blanket.

How to play blackjack at home before you put money down

You can learn the whole game with a $5 deck of cards and a kitchen table, and it costs nothing when you get it wrong. Deal yourself two cards face up and the dealer one face up, one face down. Play the dealer hand by the standard rule — hit until 17, then stand (or hit soft 17 if that is the rule you are practising). Keep a printed strategy chart beside you and check every decision you make. Do that for a hundred hands and the pattern starts to stick.

A worked example from a Sydney Saturday night

Say you are dealt a 10 and a 6 against the dealer's 9. Sixteen against a 9 is the worst hand on the table: you will bust on any card above a 5, and the dealer is likely to make 19 or better. Basic strategy says hit. It feels wrong, and you will bust often — roughly 62 per cent of the time. But standing loses more often still, because the dealer only fails to make 17 or better about 23 per cent of the time from a 9. The chart is not telling you the hit will win. It is telling you which loss is smaller.

The other classic is the soft hand. Ace-six against a dealer's 4 is not a hand to stand on nervously; it is a double, because you cannot bust on the next card and you want more money on the table while the dealer is under pressure. Beginners leave a lot of money on the table by refusing to double soft hands and by refusing to split eights because "they add up to 16".

Practise the splits too. Always split aces and eights. Never split tens or fives. Those four rules alone cover most of the mistakes you will see at a real table.

The hands where instinct costs you the most

Three situations account for a large share of the money lost by casual players. The first is the 12 against a dealer's 2 or 3. People stand because busting on a 12 feels embarrassing, but the chart says hit — the dealer busts from a 2 only around 35 per cent of the time, so you cannot afford to give up the chance to improve. The second is the 16 against a 10, where the temptation to stand and "let the dealer bust" is strong and wrong for the same reason.

The third is insurance. When the dealer shows an ace, you will be offered insurance at 2:1, and it is a bad bet unless you are counting cards and know the deck is rich in tens. The house edge on insurance is around 5.9 per cent, which is worse than almost any other wager on the floor. Decline it, every time, and do not let a run of dealer blackjacks talk you into it.

It helps to know what you are up against. The house edge on a well-played blackjack table in Australia is small but real, and the game's volatility means a session of 100 hands can swing either way by 20 or 30 units. Set a loss limit in dollars, not units, before you sit down — say $200 for an evening — and treat the money as spent entertainment rather than an investment.

Where blackjack sits next to other games in the casino

If you are comparing games on the basis of house edge, blackjack sits at the friendly end for a skilled player. Baccarat, despite its reputation, is close behind on the banker bet at around 1.06 per cent, which is why it has a following among people who want a low-edge game without memorising a chart. The exacta bet in racing and the various side bets bolted onto blackjack tables — perfect pairs, 21+3 — carry edges often above 5 per cent. They are there to entertain, not to be beaten.

One practical note for anyone planning a night out: if you are staying near a casino, book accommodation well ahead for long weekends and major events. Hotels near Crown in Melbourne and Perth fill quickly around the AFL finals and the Australian Open, and rates can double. The same applies in Sydney around New Year's Eve. A cheap room five minutes further out is a better use of your budget than a premium room you barely see.

Learn the chart, check the table rules, and keep your limits in dollars. That is the whole of it.