Blackjack by the Book

The basic Blackjack strategy for getting the best possible out come based on the highest statistical probability.

Intro

This guide shows the strategy for blackjack that gives the player the highest statistical probability for the best possible out come per hand played. It is by no means a guaranteed win as blackjack, like all casino games, is a game of chance and, as always, is in the house's favor. By using this strategy you will find that your outcome should improve over simply attempting to get your hand to 21.

Standard 6 Deck Shoe

The Four Kings Casino blackjack tables in the blackjack room, as well as the high limit table within the VIP area, use the casino standard 6 deck shoe. A new shoe begins after the current is depleted and is indicated by the drawing of a yellow card by the dealer.

The dealer must hit on 16 or lower and stand on a soft 17 or higher. No insurance is offered for dealer blackjack but this shouldn't bother the player as buying insurance goes against the strategic plan.

Following this basic strategy card will help you stay up on the house as long as you walk away when you are ahead. You should also feel free to "go with your gut" sometimes. Luck turns the tables every so often!

Single Deck

As you can see the chart changes a bit when the number of decks is reduced to one. Another possible advantage here would be that a player might be able to keep track of things like how many aces have been played, however I believe that on this table the deck may be reshuffled after every hand unlike the 6 deck varient.

On this card the term "Soft" replaces the card designations for the hand (e.g. Soft 16 = A,7).

Credits

I neither came up with these strat cards nor the math behind their construction. MIT statisticians would be the ones to thank for that. The images themselves have been copied from a Google image search and I hold no rights over them. I would link the pages from which they have been taken but they will redirect to real money online casino sites and I fear that maybe against the Steam protocol to do so.

[AnDiii_]

Just count the cards lol

[HiuOriana]

Sorry, I don't know how to read the the first image. Could you give an example (like, how to read the legend.)?

[PittCaliGrl]

Like the strategy charts

[michael]

this doesnt help at all. no matter what you have dealer is going to get 21 or 20 somehow. its stupid how people dont see the pattern. First you win using basic strategy and then suddenly you start to get violated by dealers never ending 20 or 21. And if you are close to winning you start to get so many pushes that it start to look stupid.

1/10 would not get violated again by crooked dealer.

[MJ]

50 / 50

[PlasticIcon]

The information on the multi-deck chart is slightly off; it's for a DAS game (Double After Split), which 4Kings doesn't allow. Here's a verbal edit:

4-4: NEVER SPLIT THIS.
6-6: Do not split against a dealer 2.
2-2, 3-3: Split against 4,5,6 & 7 only (do not split vs 2s &3s).

The explanation: Both a 4 & an 8 aren't particularly good drawing cards, but a 4 is much worse. On the other hand, the 3 & 2 are good drawing hands for the dealer. If you had the option of Doubling Down in case you drew a good total on your split hands, it would more than make up for this, but since you can't double a split hand, you're simply putting more money behind an overall losing situation.

This is sort of eye-popping in the case of splitting 6-6 vs a 2 - again, a 2 is a good drawing card for the dealer, whereas a six is one of the worst starting cards for the player. The only reason to ever create two of them would be the possibility of drawing a 4 or 5 to the 6.

[R.H. Bishop]

Single Deck is only available in the VIP Area and as in all Blackjack games it is always you verses the dealer. I notice a lot of comments here are about confusion on reading the charts. It's really simple. The left side of the chart is your hand and the top is what the dealer is showing on the table. The explination of what to do in a specific case is colour coded with explination on each colour printed at the bottom of the chart.

[Apocalypto_ch]

What I can undestand under Single Deck Blackjack? Only me vs dealer?

[|Pipe Dreams]

Great guide, thank you. I did not know the game used 6 decks in the Free area. I thought it was 1... so my strategy this whole time was wrong, haha!

[Twentycen]

Informative information but needs a bit more in depth breakdown of what the colours mean etc ?