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Hit or Stand: Blackjack Basic Strategy




Author: Nick Wright


As with many casino games, whether you’re playing them in person or online, there are hundreds of different blackjack tips and ‘how to’ guides out there which can make the game seem like a very complicated animal. In a lot of ways trying to make the most money you can out of playing blackjack is indeed pretty complicated, but these kind of in depth blackjack tips are no good to you until you master the key element of blackjack basic strategy; whether to hit or to stand.

This article will therefore ignore the more searching blackjack tips and will not make reference to elements of the game such as the split or the double-down, instead choosing to offer beginners some of the more basic blackjack tips related to when you should hit, when you should stand and what common pitfalls to avoid. For any more advanced players out there, watch this space as there will be some future blackjack tips articles coming up tailored directly to you.

One of the simplest form of blackjack basic strategy that can help a newcomer to the game to get their head around a way in which they can improve their chances without studying a blackjack chart is the tactic of playing as if the dealer’s face down card is worth ten. What this means is that you look at the dealer’s face up card and then assume that their total is ten higher than that cards value, and play your hand accordingly.

Statistically speaking this is a sound tactic as of the thirteen possible cards that could make up the dealer’s hand, four of these are worth ten meaning that there is a near 33% chance that the dealer has a ten value card. This may not seem like much but it is a four times greater chance than any other single outcome.

To give you an example of how this strategy would work in practice, let’s imagine that a dealer is showing a seven as their face up card, and your hand is currently worth 16. By imagining that the dealer has a ten value face down card you will realise that if you stand the dealer can also stand and beat your hand by one, thus telling you that you should hit to have a great chance of winning.

If you have the same hand but the dealer is showing a six however, blackjack basic strategy of this type does alter. This is the case as by assuming that the dealer has a ten to go with their six, you find that your totals are level, meaning that the dealer would have to hit in order to win and would therefore have a greater risk of busting, meaning that you should stand.

Whilst this form of blackjack basic strategy is by no means fool proof, it is as mentioned a good starting point for any inexperienced players who are looking to start improving their game and moving at least a little away from trusting to luck. Once you have given these simple blackjack tips a try you can graduate to some more complicated strategies which often involve the use of a blackjack chart, and if you check back here periodically you will find more articles to help you along the way.

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