Free Blackjack Games

Free-Blackjack-Games.com

Please take the time to learn and memorize basic blackjack strategy. It alone will make you a better blackjack player. If you need to review the rules, please go back to our Blackjack Rules page. Once you have learned basic strategy, download our Free Blackjack Game page to practice your skills before you take on the casinos.

The Basic Strategy

The most important thing to know about blackjack is the basic strategy. This strategy is simply the best way to play every possible situation, without any knowledge of the distribution of the rest of the cards in the deck. Following is the basic strategy for four of more decks when the dealer stands on soft 17. The most common game is the multiple deck game (4 or more decks) where the dealer stands on soft 17. If you only memorize one table I would suggest the one below. It can be played effectively under any rules.

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. Rule variations can have an effect on some borderline situations. The most flexible rules are the number of decks, whether the dealer hits or stands on a soft 17, and whether doubling is allowed after splitting.

Key to table:

H Hit
S Stand
D Double if allowed, otherwise hit
Ds Double if allowed, otherwise stand
P Split H/P
H/P Split if allowed to double after a split, otherwise hit
H/R Surrender if allowed, otherwise hit

Many people do not believe in the basic strategy because they once took the advice of someone who knew it and then lost the hand. Let me make something perfectly clear, you will not win every hand with the basic strategy! In fact you won't even win half your hands. However I can personally testify that while you will have short term ups and downs over the long run you will roughly break even using it.

Insurance

Do not take insurance, even if you have a blackjack. Card counters can get away with making smart insurance bets when the deck is rich in tens but the non-counting player should always decline it.

Surrender

Sometimes in a 6 or 8 deck game the player has the option to surrender. To be specific the player may forfeit half their bet to be excused from playing out their hand. Obviously this option should only be taken in the worst hands when the net return is less than 50%. In late surrender (the only kind I have ever seen) the player may only opt to surrender after the dealer checks for a blackjack.

Basic Surrender Strategy

Surrender if you hold 10, 6 or 9,7 versus the dealer's 9, 10 or Ace.

Surrender if you hold 10,5 or 9,6 versus the dealer's 10.