The Complete Blackjack Chart: Basic Strategy for Every Hand

This blackjack basic strategy chart is the companion to the full blackjack rules and trainer: the trainer grades every decision against exactly the logic printed below, so the guide and the game can never disagree. For how the resulting 0.5% edge compares with the rest of the floor, see the RTP and house edge database.

Somewhere around a dealer’s 2 upcard against your hard 12, most players guess wrong in both directions, some hit when they should stand, others stand when they should hit, because the intuitive answer and the correct answer point opposite ways on that specific hand. A blackjack basic strategy chart exists precisely for hands like that one, where “feel” is measurably worse than a fixed answer, which is exactly what a blackjack chart replaces with certainty.

The Full Blackjack Chart: Basic Strategy for Every Hand

This blackjack chart is not hand-typed. It renders directly from the same strategy file our blackjack trainer grades every decision against, so the blackjack chart here and the answer the trainer gives you can never quietly drift apart from each other.

It assumes a standard six-deck shoe where the dealer stands on soft 17, the most common rule set at both physical and online tables. Most people searching here want a fixed answer to when to hit or stand in blackjack, hand by hand, and that’s exactly what the grid below gives you.

How to Read the Blackjack Cheat Sheet

Find your hand total, or your pair, or your soft hand with an ace, in the leftmost column, then read across to the column matching the dealer’s face-up card. That cell is the mathematically correct play for that exact combination, no exceptions, no “it depends on how the shoe feels” hedging.

Down the side for your hand, across the top for the dealer’s card, and act on the cell where the two meet. The whole blackjack chart is that single lookup, repeated until it stops feeling like one.

A blackjack basic strategy chart like this one shaves the house edge down from over 2% for an untrained player to roughly 0.5%, without requiring you to count a single card at the table. Every serious blackjack basic strategy chart in print says the same thing, because the math behind it doesn’t change from one publisher to the next.

Hard Hands vs. Soft Hands

A hard hand has no ace, or an ace that can only count as 1 without busting. A soft hand contains an ace still flexible enough to count as 11, which changes how aggressively you can safely play it.

That’s why soft 18 (ace-plus-7) plays more aggressively than a hard 18 would; there’s no bust risk on the next card, since the ace can drop back to 1 if needed. This distinction is the single most common reason a player misreads the chart early on.

The Hands Worth Memorizing First

If you only internalize a handful of lines before your next session, make it these: always split aces and 8s regardless of the dealer’s card; never split 10s; double down on 11 against anything except a dealer ace.

Also hit a hard 12 against a dealer 2 or 3, not just a high card, the exact hand most beginners misplay. Knowing when to hit or stand in blackjack on that one hand alone fixes more real-money mistakes than any other single line on this chart.

Printable Blackjack Cheat Sheet

This blackjack cheat sheet is built to be screenshotted or printed and kept next to you while you learn. Most casinos explicitly allow a basic strategy card at the table, since it’s public information, not card counting.

Once this blackjack cheat sheet stops requiring a lookup for any hand, that’s the actual sign you’re ready to sit at a real table with real money on it.

Questions About the Blackjack Chart