Blackjack Basic Strategy Chart: When to Hit, Stand, Double & Split

A blackjack basic strategy chart tells you the single mathematically best decision — hit, stand, double or split — for every hand you can be dealt against every dealer upcard. Follow it exactly and you cut the house edge to roughly 0.5%. The charts below are for a standard multi-deck game where the dealer stands on soft 17. Read across to the dealer's upcard, down to your hand, and play the cell.

Hard Totals

A "hard" hand has no ace, or an ace forced to count as 1. The columns are the dealer's upcard (2 through Ace).

Soft Totals

A "soft" hand contains an ace counted as 11 (for example A-6 is a soft 17). Because the ace can drop to 1, you can play these more aggressively.

Pairs — When to Split

When your two cards match, decide whether to split. "P*" means split only if the table allows doubling after a split (DAS). If a pair isn't split, play it as its hard total.

The Four Rules Worth Memorizing First

If you learn nothing else, these four cover a huge share of your decisions and the biggest mistakes:

1. Always split Aces and 8s. Two aces give you two shots at a 21; a pair of 8s (hard 16) is the worst hand in the game — splitting turns one bad hand into two playable ones.

2. Never split 10s or 5s. Two tens is a made 20 — don't break it. A pair of 5s is a hard 10, so double or hit it instead.

3. Stand on hard 12–16 when the dealer shows 2–6. The dealer is likely to bust with a low upcard, so don't risk busting yourself. Hit those same totals against a 7 through Ace.

4. Double hard 11, and hard 10 against 2–9. These are your strongest doubling spots — put more money out when the math favors you.

Turn the Chart Into Instinct

Reading a chart is easy; recalling it under pressure is the hard part. The fastest way to internalize it is repetition — drill random hands until the correct play is automatic. That's exactly what the free trainer on this site does, covering hard totals, soft hands, pairs and surrender.