Blackjack Single Deck Basic Strategy

  1. Single Deck Blackjack Odds

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Lesson 19 – Advanced Single-Deck Blackjack – Part 2 Basic Strategy Variations. Casinos that offer single-deck Blackjack games are very aware that it can easily be beaten by a counter who uses a big bet spread, so trying to play the game with a 1-12 spread like I recommend for 6-deck games will likely get you a one-way ticket out of the casino, pronto. As you can see, there are more notable rules that can change than rules that stay the same. However, we’re going to assume that the above is the default and work from there to show you how to deviate from a good basic strategy when needed for these types of rule changes. Strategies for Single Deck Blackjack.

Introduction

To use the basic strategy, look up your hand along the left vertical edge and the dealer's up card along the top. In both cases an A stands for ace. From top to bottom are the hard totals, soft totals, and splittable hands. There are two charts depending on whether the dealer hits or stands on soft 17.

Blackjack Other basic strategy rules: Blackjack
  • Never take insurance or 'even money.' The house edge on insurance is 5.9%, based on one deck.
  • If there is no row for splitting (fives and tens), then look up your hand as a hard total (10 or 20).
  • If you can't split because of a limit on re-splitting, then look up your hand as a hard total.

Internal Links

Blackjack main page.

Blackjack Appendix 3A lists exceptions to the single deck, dealer stands on soft 17, basic strategy based on the exact composition of the player's hand.

Blackjack Appendix 3C lists exceptions to the single deck, dealer hits on soft 17, basic strategy based on the exact composition of the player's hand.

Single Deck Blackjack Odds

Boss Media Appendix 1 has a composition dependent basic strategy for single-deck, dealer stands on soft 17, blackjack.