Basic Blackjack Strategy

• The history of creation
• The essence of the basic strategy
• For the most common rules

The history of creation

The basic strategy was developed by Roger Baldwin, Wilbert Cantey, Herbert Maisel, and James McDermott in 1953. They only had mechanical calculators as their tools. In 2008, for their significant contribution to the development of the game, they were inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

The essence of the basic strategy

Here is a brief summary of the key principles of this strategy:

• Player's cards:
  • If you have a "soft" hand (an Ace that can be counted as either 1 or 11), you should use specific values for the Ace depending on the dealer's visible card.
  • If you have a "hard" hand (without an ace), the strategy also depends on your cards and the dealer's card.
• Dealer's cards:
  • Depending on the dealer's visible card, the player makes a decision to take additional cards or stop.
  • Main principle: if the dealer has a weak card (2-6), the player should strive for a total of 17 or more; if the dealer has a strong card (7-Ace), it is better for the player to stop at a total of 12 or higher.
• Split and doubling:
  • The strategy includes recommendations on splits and doubles based on the player's and dealer's cards.
  • For example, it is recommended to split pairs of 8-8 and A-A, but not to split 10-10 or 5-5.

This basic strategy was developed taking into account mathematical calculations and statistics in order to minimize the casino's advantage and maximize the player's chances on a long-term basis.

For the most common rules

Basic strategy is a table where the player can find all the variations of their cards and the dealer's cards. In the cell at the intersection of the row and column, they see the action that is mathematically correct in this situation. You can view the basic strategy under certain game rules in this section of our website (by selecting the rules and infinite deck).