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

September 8, 2026

The correct play for every hand in a 6–8 deck game where the dealer stands on soft 17, with double after split and late surrender. Find your hand on the left and the dealer's upcard across the top.

Hard totals

Soft totals (an ace counted as 11)

Pairs

What the letters mean

Rules this chart assumes: 6 to 8 decks, dealer stands on soft 17 (S17), double on any first two cards, double after split allowed, late surrender allowed, blackjack pays 3:2. Tap any hand on the left for its page, with the exact expected value of every option against every upcard.

Insurance: never. Not with a good hand, not with blackjack, not "just this once". It's a side bet with about a 7% house edge, and it has nothing to do with the hand you're holding.

Download the printable chart (PNG) · or print this page: the chart prints on its own, without the rest of the site.

If the dealer hits soft 17

Many US tables have the dealer hit soft 17; the felt will say "Dealer hits soft 17" or "H17". Six plays change. Everything else in the chart stays the same.

Without surrender, only three of those survive: double 11 vs A, double soft 18 vs 2, and double soft 19 vs 6. The hand-by-hand pages (every blackjack hand) are solved for the dealer-hits-soft-17 game and show the stands-on-soft-17 answer wherever it differs, so they agree with this chart cell for cell.

The chart is not one chart

"Basic strategy" is the output of a calculation, and the calculation takes your table's rules as input. Change the rules, and some cells change. Almost every chart online is printed without saying which rules it assumes, which is why two charts can disagree.

Seven rules move the answer:

The single biggest number in that table is 6:5 blackjack. It costs you more than every strategy mistake a typical player makes in a session, combined. If the felt says 6:5, the correct basic strategy is to stand up and find another table. No amount of correct play recovers 1.4%.

Basic strategy is the single highest-value thing to learn in a casino. It takes the house edge in blackjack from roughly 2% for an average player down to about 0.5%, better than any other bet on the floor. For how each rule moves the number, see blackjack house edge.

The seven rules that cover most of it

Memorising 300 cells is unnecessary. These seven rules get you through the large majority of hands, and the chart above fills in the rest:

1. Always split aces and eights. Never split tens or fives.
2. Hard 17 or more: stand. Always.
3. Hard 13–16 against dealer 2–6: stand. Against 7–A: hit. Hard 12 is the exception: hit it against 2 and 3, stand against 4–6. The dealer's weak cards are 2 through 6, because those are the ones that make them draw and bust.
4. Hard 11: double (except against an ace when the dealer stands on soft 17). Hard 10: double against everything but a 10 or ace.
5. Soft 17 or less: never stand. Hit or double, but never stand — you cannot bust.
6. Soft 18: stand vs 2, 7, 8. Double vs 3–6. Hit vs 9, 10, A. The one soft hand people get wrong constantly.
7. Surrender 16 vs 9, 10, A and 15 vs 10 if the table allows it.

Why "learning the chart" usually doesn't stick

Because reading a chart and playing from it are different skills. You can hold the whole chart in your head at a kitchen table and still hesitate on 12 vs 3 with a dealer waiting, other players watching, and money on the felt. The knowledge is there; the recall under pressure isn't.

The fix is the same as for any recall problem: repetition with immediate correction, on the actual decision, not on the chart.

That's what Casino Trainer is built to do. It deals real hands, and when your play differs from the solver's it names the correct action and prices the mistake in expected value — so the feedback is specific ("standing on 16 vs 7 costs 4.2 cents per dollar wagered") rather than "wrong". The solver is exact and composition-dependent rather than a lookup table, which means the strategy stays correct when you change the rules: switch to H17, or to a double-deck game, and the recommendations change with it. If you want to go past basic strategy, how to count cards in blackjack is the next step.

Every game runs on virtual credits. There is no real-money play anywhere in it, and nothing about it is a gambling product.

Frequently asked questions

Should you hit or stand on 12 against a dealer 3?

Hit. Hard 12 is the one stiff hand you hit against a dealer 2 or 3. Stand on 12 only against a 4, 5 or 6, and hit it against 7 through Ace.

Should you double down on 11 against a dealer ace?

It depends on the table. If the dealer stands on soft 17, hit 11 against an ace. If the dealer hits soft 17, double. Against every other upcard, always double 11.

Which pairs should you always split in blackjack?

Always split aces and eights. Never split tens or fives: stand on 10,10 and play 5,5 as a hard 10. Split 2s, 3s and 7s against 2 through 7, 6s against 2 through 6, 4s only against 5 and 6, and 9s against 2 through 9 except 7.

What does Ds mean on a blackjack strategy chart?

Ds means double down if the table allows it, and stand if it doesn't. It appears on soft 18 (Ace-7) against 3 through 6. A plain D means double if allowed, otherwise hit.

Should you ever take insurance in blackjack?

No. Insurance is a side bet on the dealer having blackjack, with a house edge of about 7%, and it is never part of basic strategy, even when you hold blackjack yourself.

The honest summary

Basic strategy does not make blackjack a winning game. It takes a ~2% house edge down to ~0.5%, which means a longer session for the same money and a real chance of walking out ahead on any given night. Over a long enough run, the house still wins — that's what a house edge is.

What basic strategy buys you is that every hand you lose, you lost correctly.

Ready to practise the chart on real hands with the correct play named for you? Get Casino Trainer — virtual credits only.

Want the correct play named for you, hand by hand? Get Casino Trainer — virtual credits only, never real money.