The Vegas Blackjack Strategy Card: Quick Start Blackjack

Blackjack is one of the most popular and fun casino games in Vegas. It also has one the best odds of winning, but only if you know how play properly. With perfect play, you can reduce the house advantage to only 0.5%, which is the best game in terms of winning odds in Vegas! We have actually written an entire article about the game and how to play to win.

However, If you want to start playing quickly, you can just use the blackjack strategy card shown below. It tells you what to do based on what you are showing and what the dealer is showing.

As shown in the key, H = Hit (ask dealer for a card), S = Stand (no more cards), D = double down (double your bet for only one more card), SP = Split (divide each card and play two hands), NS = (never split the cards). At the top of the card is what the dealer’s up card (the one you can see) is showing. On the left is your hand. Hard totals have no other possible values, such as a 9 and 7, which is always 16. However, if you have an ace (A), it can be a 1 or 11, so two totals are possible and these are listed as Soft Totals on the strategy card. An ace and a 4 can be 5 (1 + 4) or 15 (4 +11). The last row tells you what to do when splitting based on the two cards you have in your hand.

Here is a simple example. The dealer is showing a queen which has a value of 10 (picture cards count as 10). You have a 9 and 5, which is a hard hand equal to 14. What do you do? The answer is simple with the strategy card. Pick the row on the left that is a hard 14 and then move over to the right until you are under the matching dealer column, which is 10 in this case. According to the chart, you would take a hit if you want to play perfect blackjack.

With blackjack practice you can easily remember the rules without the card. However, you can print and use the card in a real casino while playing, but you may get some strange looks even though it is perfectly legal to use at any blackjack table. You can even buy the cards in Vegas, or just print it out for free. The video below may also help you out.