Strategies

You must know when to stand, hit, double down, split, and take insurance or surrender. These terms are also known as basic strategy.

Basic strategy only points you the better thing to do. It does not make you obliged to follow it. It just gives you percentage, which you should take under consideration. However, if you follow the basic strategy, you will be able to get your chances of winning increased greatly. This is math speaking here and no one could question the power of math. You long-term performance is related to knowing and understanding the basic strategy.

Strategy explained

You must follow the basic strategy to the letter. This is the main thing that you need to do, if you want to improve you performance. The rules are to be followed at all cost. That's why there are no less important things. Doubling down is important as much as hitting. The basic strategy suggests that you use the dealer's face up card to make up your mind for your future actions. That's' you need to have a look in it.

  1. If you are holding a hand with less than 11 points, then you could feel safe. There is no card in the deck that will let you bust. That's why you must always hit any hand, which has 11 points or less. This is absolutely safe. Split also could be carried out here, allowing you to get more money, if you win.
  2. Ace is something that everybody wants. It could count as 1 or 11, depending on the player's wish. That's why any hand with an ace is called "soft hand".
  3. You must not hit, when you have a value higher than 17 in your hand. The only exception from these rules is the case of "soft 17", where you have an ace and it is counted 11 points to get the value of 17.

Hitting/standing

Basics on hitting/standing include:

  • Always hit, if the value is below 12
  • Always stand, if the value is above 16

Value between 12 and 16

  • You must always hit, if the dealer's hand is between the number of 7 an 11
  • If you see that dealer's face up card is higher than 7, you must stand