Blackjack Apprenticeship Basic Strategy Trainer
Blackjack is one of the funnest and most exciting games you can play at the casino. It’s also one of the best games to play, because if you play perfect strategy, the casino’s edge is very, very small. That’s why it is so important to learn how to play perfect Blackjack strategy.
Our Blackjack Trainer will do that.
4-Deck to 8-Deck Blackjack Strategy 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. In Chapter 1, I showed you how you can reduce the casinos’ edge in blackjack to about 0.2–0.5% (rule dependent) by knowing the correct playing decisions (i.e., the basic playing strategy). A half percent house edge in dollars and cents means the casino will win, on average, fifty cents for every $100 you bet.
Follow our directions below to fully benefit from the best free Blackjack training tool on the Net!
To get started, you must set up the rules of the game to match the type of game you want to practice and plan on playing.
Blackjack rules differ among different casinos. So, for example, if you plan on playing Blackjack at the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas, you should find out the rules of the various blackjack games offered there and practice that particular game.
I play the Blackjack game at the Venetian, which offers Surrender and pays 3:2 on Blackjack. I’ll set up the table rules appropriately under the CHART CHOICES and OTHER CHOICES.
If you are brand new to playing Blackjack, we recommend setting the mode to Random. The Random setting does exactly that, deals you random cards as you would get dealt in a real game.
If you are an experienced Blackjack player, we recommend setting this to Hard mode. Hard mode skews the hands to present you more difficult decisions.
Select one of the other settings if you want to practice those specific types of hands.
See the screenshot to the right.
Once you have your choices set, click on the yellow Start button to begin playing.
You will be dealt cards and can now play Blackjack.
There is a strategy chart on the right side which you can use to determine what play you should make. To understand this chart, the first column represents your hand, while the Dealer’s card is represented across the top row.
In this example hand, I am dealt a 2 and an Ace. The dealer has a 7. To read this chart, I locate the A2 in the first column, and the Dealer’s 7 on the top row. The chart tells me to H – which means Hit.
See the screenshot below. Reading the Blackjack Strategy Chart on the right, I’ve located my ideal move, circled in black. I then click the appropriate action, circled in red.
Over time, you should not consult the chart at all. The goal is to memorize the best moves in every situation.
You are given $1,000 to play with and each bet is $10. However, the goal of this trainer is not to win money, but to play perfect Blackjack strategy.
So although your bankroll is tracked, the more important statistic is your percentage of correct moves. As you learn and memorize the best moves to make, your goal should be a score of 100%. Anything less than 100% is giving the casino an edge and reducing your chances of winning.
The number in the green box is the number of correct moves. The number in the red box are bad moves.
That’s it, the rest of the trainer is pretty simple and self-explanatory. It’s always the most fun to play Blackjack live at the casino, but there are some decent online Blackjack options available if you are interested. We recommend checking out the BetOnline Casino which offers a Live Dealer Blackjack game and a Blackjack compatible welcome bonus. Learn more below.
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Blackjack Apprenticeship Chart
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Optimal blackjack strategy depends on the house rules of that particular game and the number of decks. We recommend visiting Blackjack-Chart.com for the best blackjack charts.
If you like roulette, there are ways to win at the game! Check out roulette strategy at RouletteBettingSystem.org.
Try playing blackjack online with a live dealer! The BetOnline Live Casino accepts USA players. Learn more about live blackjack at https://livedealersites.com.
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On This Page
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.
Other basic strategy rules.
- Never take insurance or 'even money.'
- 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, except aces. In the extremely unlikely event you have a pair of aces you can't re-split and drawing to split aces is allowed, then double against a 6, otherwise hit.
If you play a mixture of six-deck games, some where the dealer hits a soft 17, and some where he stands, and you only wish to memorize one strategy, I would recommend you memorize the one where the dealer stands on soft 17. The cost in errors due to playing the wrong strategy is 2.3 times higher playing a stand on soft 17 game, with the hit on 17 strategy, than vise versa.
Basic Strategy in Text
For the benefit of my blind readers, here is the above strategy in text form, when the dealer stands on soft 17 and surrender is allowed. To use the strategy, start at the top, and follow the first rule that applies.
Surrender
- Surrender hard 16 (but not a pair of 8s) vs. dealer 9, 10, or A, and hard 15 vs. dealer 10.
Split
- Always split aces and 8s.
- Never split 5s and 10s.
- Split 2s and 3s against a dealer 4-7, and against a 2 or 3 if DAS is allowed.
- Split 4s only if DAS is allowed and the dealer shows a 5 or 6.
- Split 6s against a dealer 3-6, and against a 2 if DAS is allowed.
- Split 7s against a dealer 2-7.
- Split 9s against a dealer 2-6 or 8-9.
Blackjack Apprenticeship Practice
Double
- Double hard 9 vs. dealer 3-6.
- Double hard 10 except against a dealer 10 or A.
- Double hard 11 except against a dealer A.
- Double soft 13 or 14 vs. dealer 5-6.
- Double soft 15 or 16 vs. dealer 4-6.
- Double soft 17 or 18 vs. dealer 3-6.
Hit or Stand
- Always hit hard 11 or less.
- Stand on hard 12 against a dealer 4-6, otherwise hit.
- Stand on hard 13-16 against a dealer 2-6, otherwise hit.
- Always stand on hard 17 or more.
- Always hit soft 17 or less.
- Stand on soft 18 except hit against a dealer 9, 10, or A.
- Always stand on soft 19 or more.
As I've said many times, the above strategy will be fine under any set of rules. However, for you perfectionists out there, here are the modifications to make if the dealer hits a soft 17.
- Surrender 15, a pair of 8s, and 17 vs. dealer A.
- Double 11 vs. dealer A.
- Double soft 18 vs. dealer 2.
- Double soft 19 vs. dealer 6.
My thanks to Kelly for putting together the above text strategy.
Written by:Michael Shackleford