Blackjack Cheat Sheet

How to read the tables

Find your hand down the left, the dealer’s upcard across the top, and do what the cell says. H means hit, S stand, D double if allowed otherwise hit, P split, and R surrender if offered otherwise hit. These are the figures for the most common online configuration: multiple decks, dealer stands on soft 17, double after split allowed.

Hard totals

Soft totals (a hand containing an ace counted as 11)

Pairs

The five rows that cost people the most money

• Always split 8,8 — including against a ten. Two hands of eight lose less than one hand of sixteen. It feels wrong and it is right.
• Never split 10,10. Twenty is the second-best hand in the game. Breaking it up to chase two is how people talk themselves out of a win.
• Hit hard 16 against a 7 or higher. You will bust often. You will still lose less than standing.
• Double A,7 against a 3 through 6. Soft eighteen looks finished and is not.
• Never take insurance. It is a separate bet at roughly a 7% edge, whatever the dealer calls it.

Splitting eights against a dealer ten is the single most argued-about cell on the card. It does not turn a bad hand into a good one — it turns one very bad hand into two merely bad ones, and over a year that gap is real money.

Nell Ashworth

When the table rules differ

If the dealer hits soft 17, a handful of cells change — most notably you double A,8 against a 6 and surrender 15 against an ace. The effect on the edge is about a fifth of a per cent, which is smaller than the effect of sitting at a 6:5 table, so get the table choice right first. The rest of the rule variations and what each is worth are set out on the online blackjack page.