Blackjack is a popular casino game worldwide where players need to have both knowledge and skills to win games and beat the casino in the long run. Basic strategy or blackjack basic strategy is a well-known method to help gamblers win blackjack games and profit. Basic strategy shows the best possible moves a player can make according to the player’s hand and the dealer’s up card.
Basic strategy serves as the foundation of blackjack strategies useful for beating the casino and is necessary for more advanced strategies like card counting. Card counting is impossible to achieve without basic strategy since it tells when gamblers should hit, stand, split, double down, and surrender. Even if gamblers can count cards perfectly, it won’t help them when they don’t know what move to make.
Unfortunately, many gamblers do not know how to use basic strategy, and they fail to use it properly to maximise their winnings. Most gamblers usually base their decisions on their hands without considering the dealer’s up hand or mix the decisions up when they haven’t memorised a basic strategy chart. Forget card counting at this point.
Blackjack basic strategy is instrumental in beating the dealer, even if they don’t want to become an advantage player by counting cards. It is not a sure way to beat the dealer, but skipping basic strategy will make it harder for gamblers to beat the casino.
Why Use Basic Strategy?
Many seasoned blackjack players use basic strategy to gain as much advantage as possible against the casino. Basic strategy helps gamblers make better decisions with the least possible losses, making it possible to profit a bit when playing blackjack. Players using basic strategy are essentially playing an almost break-even game with the dealer.
Basic strategy decreases the house edge by between .20% to .50%, depending on the deck number the blackjack variant uses. Not using basic strategy will boost the house edge by 2%.
Blackjack players who choose to play with basic strategy with a $1 stake and 10,000 hands annually will spend $200,000 in 20 years and only lose $1,000. The player who won’t use blackjack strategy will lose $3,000 more. Basic strategy is more profitable in the long run.
How to Use Basic Strategy?
Gamblers must memorise basic strategy perfectly to use it effectively. Knowing about 90% of basic strategy is not enough to take advantage of basic strategy since they’ll make mistakes when they don’t know when to hit and stand. If players are staking high, then their losses will easily increase when they make mistakes because they don’t fully know basic strategy.
Gamblers can check a basic strategy chart to memorise what they should do since they can’t exactly check a chart while playing in a land-based casino. Gamblers can check the chart quickly when online gambling in Singapore or Malaysia since the dealer won’t see them doing so.
Basic Strategy Rules
Gamblers can opt to memorise a chart or look for easy-to-remember phrases to have an easier time knowing how to bet. Some blackjack websites help players remember the rules easily by memorising simple phrases.
Below is a list of basic strategy rules that can help gamblers with how they should bet:
Hard Totals
- Hard 17 and up always stands
- Hard 16 stands when the dealer has 2 through 6 or else hit
- Hard 15 stands when the dealer has 2 through 6 or else hit
- Hard 14 stands when the dealer has 2 through 6 or else hit
- Hard 13 stands when the dealer has 2 through 6 or else hit
- Hard 12 stands when the dealer has 4 through 6 or else hit
- Hard 11 always doubles
- Hard 10 doubles when the dealer has 2 through 9 or else hit
- Hard 9 doubles when the dealer has 3 through 6 or else hit
- Hard 8 always hits
Soft Totals
- Soft 20 always stands
- Soft 19 doubles when the dealer has 6, or else stand
- Soft 18 doubles when the dealer has 2 through 6 and hits against 9 through ace, or else stand
- Soft 17 doubles when the dealer has 3 through 6 or else hit
- Soft 16 doubles when the dealer has 4 through 6 or else hit
- Soft 15 doubles when the dealer has 4 through 6 or else hit
- Soft 14 doubles when the dealer has 5 through 6 or else hit
- Soft 13 doubles when the dealer has 5 through 6 or else hit
Split
- Always split two aces
- Never split two tens
- Two 9’s splits when the dealer has 2 through 9, except for 7, or else stand
- Two 8’s always splits
- Two 7’s splits when the dealer has 2 through 7 or else hit
- Two 6’s splits when the dealer has 2 through 6 or else hit
- Never split two 5’s
- Two 4’s splits when the dealer has 5 and 6 or else hit
- Two 3’s splits when the dealer has 2 through 7 or else hit
- Two 2’s splits when the dealer has 2 through 7 or else hit
Surrender
- 16 surrenders when the dealer has 9, 10, or ace or else don’t surrender
- 15 surrenders when the dealer has 10, or else don’t surrender
After Basic Strategy
After basic strategy, gamblers can then move on to other blackjack strategies. Basic strategy is not enough, and any wins using the strategy can easily go the other way. Gamblers must learn about other strategies, including blackjack deviations, card counting, and true count conversions.
Basic strategy is only the first step to winning in blackjack. The basic strategy chart that gamblers start with will change once they learn other blackjack rules and deviations. What matters is that people should memorise basic strategy to be able to use it perfectly without any mistakes.
Conclusion
Basic strategy is a useful strategy for beginners, and they’ll need to learn about this if they want to profit from blackjack. Once they’ve mastered it, they’ll need to deviate from the standard basic strategy chart and learn about other strategies to be able to profit from playing.
Any Singaporean or Malaysian gambler only needs to register in an online live casino in Malaysia or Singapore to be able to play live blackjack online without getting scammed off their winnings. Live blackjack is better than simple online blackjack, where the cards are dependent on RNG.
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