Blackjack Basic Strategy Chart 2026 (4-8 Decks, S17)

Basic strategy is the best possible play for each hand you can be dealt against each dealer upcard, calculated for one fixed set of rules. The chart below is for 4 to 8 decks with the dealer standing on soft 17, double after split allowed and a hole-card peek. Follow it perfectly and the house keeps an edge of roughly 0.4% in a typical 6-deck game.

That number is the honest ceiling. A basic strategy chart makes blackjack one of the cheaper games in a casino, but it does not make it a winning one.

The chart: dealer stands on soft 17

Dealer upcards run across the top (A is the ace). Find your hand on the left and read across.

Key

Hard totals

Soft totals (an ace counted as 11)

Pairs

Where a pair says N, play it as the hard total: 5,5 is a hard 10 (so you double against 2 through 9), 10,10 is a hard 20 (stand), and 9,9 against 7 is a hard 18 (stand).

How to read it

Start with the dealer’s upcard, then your hand type. Check pairs first, then soft hands (any hand with an ace you can count as 11), then hard totals. If you have 8,8 you are on the pairs table. If you have A,7 you are on the soft table, even though 18 looks like a hard stand.

Two notes on the codes. “D” means double when the table lets you, and hit when it does not, for example after you have already taken a third card. “Ds” is the same, except that you stand when you cannot double, which only applies to soft 18. The surrender cells (Rh, Rs) matter only if the table offers late surrender: it lets you give up half your bet after the dealer checks for blackjack. If it is not offered, hit 16 against a 9, 10 or ace, and hit 15 against a 10.

The logic in one paragraph

The dealer must hit to 17 and stand there, so the upcard tells you how likely the dealer is to bust. A 5 or 6 busts the dealer roughly four times in ten, a 2 or 3 a little over a third of the time; a 7, 8, 9, 10 or ace rarely produces a bust and usually ends at 17 or higher. Almost every cell follows from that. Against weak cards (2 to 6) you stand on stiff hands and double or split to put more money out while the dealer is vulnerable. Against strong cards (7 to ace) you assume the dealer makes a hand, so you hit until you reach a total worth standing on.

Why the six hardest cells are what they are

Hard 16 against a 10

Hit (or surrender if offered). It feels wrong, because hitting 16 busts a lot. But standing wins only when the dealer busts, and a dealer showing a 10 busts around one time in five. Taking a card gives you a real chance to reach a 17 to 21 hand. Both options lose money on average; hitting loses slightly less than standing, and surrender loses less than both.

Hard 12 against 2 or 3

Hit. Against a 4, 5 or 6 you stand, because the dealer is likely to bust. A 2 or 3 busts the dealer a bit less often, and the gap is just big enough that taking a card beats standing on 12. Only a ten-value card (4 ranks in 13) busts you, so the risk of hitting is smaller than it feels. This is the cell that costs the most for people who stand “to be safe”.

A,7 against 9, 10 or ace

Hit. A soft 18 is not actually a good hand against a dealer likely to reach 19 or 20. You cannot bust with one more card, so you draw, and a 2 or 3 or ace gives you a better total at no risk. Against 2, 7 and 8 you stand; against 3 to 6 you double, because the dealer is weak and you have a decent total with a free draw available.

8,8 against a 10

Split. Sixteen is the worst starting total, and hitting it against a 10 loses on average. Two hands that each start with an 8 are in better shape than one hand of 16. Splitting still loses money on average in this spot, but less than any alternative.

9,9 against 7

Stand. The pair is an 18 and the dealer’s likeliest outcome with a 7 up is 17. Splitting would risk a good hand for little gain. Against 2 to 6, 8 and 9 you split because a dealer who busts or lands on 17 or 18 makes two 9s a better proposition than a single 18.

10,10 against anything

Stand. Twenty is already a very strong hand, and splitting breaks a hand that wins most of the time into two weaker ones. The high-card pair is the most common source of “I split because the dealer showed a 6” errors.

How rule changes move the chart

The chart above is the base case. Rules that change it fall into three groups.

Dealer hits soft 17. Five or six cells change, covered in the H17 chart. The game costs the player about 0.22% more.

Single or double deck. A handful of soft doubles and pair splits move, covered in the single-deck guide. Fewer decks help the player slightly: against an 8-deck baseline, single deck is worth about 0.48% and double deck about 0.19%.

Doubling and splitting restrictions. If you cannot double after a split, drop the Y* splits (2,2, 3,3 and 6,6 against the lowest upcards, and 4,4 entirely). The loss of DAS costs about 0.14%. If you can only split once, play resplit hands as their hard totals.

Other rules do not change the plays but do change the cost of playing:

These figures are changes from an 8-deck, dealer-stands-on-soft-17, DAS baseline, as listed by the Wizard of Odds. They add up roughly, but not exactly, because rules interact.

Common mistakes

• Taking insurance. Basic strategy never takes insurance or even money. It is a separate bet with a worse edge than the hand itself.
• Standing on soft 17 or soft 18 against strong dealer cards. You cannot bust on the next card, so you are giving up equity.
• Splitting tens. Twenty is a winner; do not turn it into two coin flips.
• Not splitting aces and eights. These are the two pairs you always split.
• Mixing rule sets. Using a stand-on-soft-17 chart at a hit-on-soft-17 table is a small error, but a real one. Check the table sign before you sit.
• Playing hunches after losses. The chart does not change because the last three hands went badly. Each hand is a fresh calculation.

Try it yourself

Pair this page with the strategy chart tool, which lets you choose the rules at your table and shows the matching grid. If you are learning, run the same chart through a trainer until the pairs and soft hands feel automatic. The ones that stick last are usually soft 18 and the 12 against 2 and 3.

Basic strategy lowers the cost of playing but cannot remove the house edge, so set a budget you are comfortable losing before you start.

Related guides

• Are blackjack strategy cards allowed in casinos?: etiquette and the rules for using a card at a live table.

• Blackjack house edge explained: why the casino has an edge at all and how rules move it.