Blackjack: Blackjack Basic Strategy.

Why use the Blackjack Basic Strategy?
The Blackjack Basic Strategy is the first stage in reducing the advantage of the house. Once you have mastered the technique, you reduce the casino advantage from between 3-5%, for those players who use no strategy, down to a house advantage of 1% for those players who use the Blackjack Basic Strategy. You will also need to master the Blackjack Basic Strategy in order to effectively use the card counting technique.

A short history on the Blackjack Basic Strategy:
The Blackjack Basic Strategy is used to indicate the strategies that were discovered in the 1970's.

Mathematicians came to realise that once a player understands all the variations of blackjack, the specific rules of a table and the number of games contained in the deck (i.e. the number of packs of cards in the deck being played), it was possible to simulate, on a computer, all the situations that could affront the player in a game of blackjack (two cards in total against the croupiers hidden card).

The table/graph that they created indicates to the player whether they should hit, stick, double or share a pair.

Winning at blackjack with the Blackjack Basic Strategy:
There is one thing that you must bare in mind when you are using the Blackjack Basic Strategy; it does not guarantee you a win, it indicates solely what the best move is in a particular situation from a mathematical point of view. The advantage of the house is reduced to 1%, but they STILL HAVE THE ADVANTAGE.

The Blackjack Basic Strategy tables/graphs:
Blackjack Basic Strategy varies depending on the number of games in a deck (i.e. the number of packs of card in the deck which is being played). The left column corresponds to the total value that constitutes your hand, and the right column indicates the strategy that you should adopt in relation to the viewable card of the croupier, which is indicated in the high line. (if you are reading this article and there are no links to the strategy tables then come back in a few days as they are currently being constructed).

Memorising the Blackjack Basic Strategy:
The majority of casinos allow players to use graphs on which the Blackjack Basic Strategy is shown.

Otherwise, you need to memorise the tables/graphs of the Blackjack Basic Strategy (an article will be appearing shortly to explain a technique to help you do this).

Blackjack Basic Strategy and the variations of blackjack:
There are different slight variations in the Blackjack Basic Strategy depending on the number of cards in the game. Articles will appear here shortly explaining what these are.