Blackjack Strategy for 4 Decks - Optimal Play Guide Wizard of Odds

The original, world-famous strategy charts for 4-deck to 8-deck blackjack by the Wizard of Odds. Optimize your gameplay with our comprehensive 4-deck blackjack strategy guide. Learn the best moves, rules, and tips to enhance your winning potential at the blackjack table. Explore more at Wizard of Odds. Tweet

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Introduction

To use the basic strategy, look up your hand along the left vertical edge and the dealer’s up card along the top. In both cases an A stands for ace. From top to bottom are the hard totals, soft totals, and splittable hands. There are two charts depending on whether the dealer hits or stands on soft 17.

Other basic strategy rules.

  • Never take insurance or “even money.”
  • If there is no row for splitting (fives and tens), then look up your hand as a hard total (10 or 20).
  • If you can’t split because of a limit on re-splitting, then look up your hand as a hard total, except aces. In the extremely unlikely event you have a pair of aces you can’t re-split and drawing to split aces is allowed, then double against a 6, otherwise hit.

If you play a mixture of six-deck games, some where the dealer hits a soft 17, and some where he stands, and you only wish to memorize one strategy, I would recommend you memorize the one where the dealer stands on soft 17. The cost in errors due to playing the wrong strategy is 2.3 times higher playing a stand on soft 17 game, with the hit on 17 strategy, than vise versa.

Basic Strategy in Text

For the benefit of my blind readers, here is the above strategy in text form, when the dealer stands on soft 17 and surrender is allowed. To use the strategy, start at the top, and follow the first rule that applies.

Surrender

  • Surrender hard 16 (but not a pair of 8s) vs. dealer 9, 10, or A, and hard 15 vs. dealer 10.

Split

  • Always split aces and 8s.
  • Never split 5s and 10s.
  • Split 2s and 3s against a dealer 4-7, and against a 2 or 3 if DAS is allowed.
  • Split 4s only if DAS is allowed and the dealer shows a 5 or 6.
  • Split 6s against a dealer 3-6, and against a 2 if DAS is allowed.
  • Split 7s against a dealer 2-7.
  • Split 9s against a dealer 2-6 or 8-9.

Double

  • Double hard 9 vs. dealer 3-6.
  • Double hard 10 except against a dealer 10 or A.
  • Double hard 11 except against a dealer A.
  • Double soft 13 or 14 vs. dealer 5-6.
  • Double soft 15 or 16 vs. dealer 4-6.
  • Double soft 17 or 18 vs. dealer 3-6.

Hit or Stand

  • Always hit hard 11 or less.
  • Stand on hard 12 against a dealer 4-6, otherwise hit.
  • Stand on hard 13-16 against a dealer 2-6, otherwise hit.
  • Always stand on hard 17 or more.
  • Always hit soft 17 or less.
  • Stand on soft 18 except hit against a dealer 9, 10, or A.
  • Always stand on soft 19 or more.

As I’ve said many times, the above strategy will be fine under any set of rules. However, for you perfectionists out there, here are the modifications to make if the dealer hits a soft 17.

  • Surrender 15, a pair of 8s, and 17 vs. dealer A.
  • Double 11 vs. dealer A.
  • Double soft 18 vs. dealer 2.
  • Double soft 19 vs. dealer 6.

My thanks to Kelly for putting together the above text strategy.

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Basic Strategy - How Blackjack Works HowStuffWorks

PrevNEXT Playing a basic strategy in blackjack requires no card counting, although it does require some memorization. A basic strategy involves: looking at the cards you hold looking at the dealer’s face-up card determining the odds that either you or the dealer will bust Before we get into the details of a basic strategy, it’s important that we know the odds. Blackjack, like all casino games, is set up so that the house has an advantage. If you were to play exactly like the dealer (stand on 17 or higher, hit on 16 or less), it stands to reason that there would be no house advantage. Both you and the dealer would win an equal number of times. However, the dealer plays after the players, which means that when you and the dealer both bust, you still lose. Taking into account the payout bonus for getting a blackjack, it works out to roughly a 5.5 percent house advantage. That means that if you were to play blackjack for a very long time (eight hours a day for several years), you would end up losing about 5.5 percent of your money. Advertisement So how does a basic strategy work? Entire books have been devoted to the subject, but all basic strategies revolve around the fact that there are more cards worth 10 in the deck than any other value – 16 out of 52 cards are worth 10. Knowing this, a basic-strategy player assumes that the dealer’s second card will be worth 10, even though many times it isn’t. Based on the dealer’s “up card” (the card the players know the value of), the dealer’s hand can be placed into two categories: hands that are likely to bust the dealer hands that are likely to give the dealer a good hand If the dealer is showing a Two, Three, Four, Five, or Six, he is more likely to bust. The Five and the Six are the cards most likely to lead to a busted hand for the dealer. In this case, the player doesn’t have to take big risks to try to get closer to 21 – he simply needs to avoid busting himself. If the dealer is showing a Seven or anything higher, there is a significant chance he will make a good hand of 18, 19, 20, or 21. If the player has a hand with a lower value than 18, he might want to be more aggressive and take another card, risking a bust to try to get a better hand. So, getting more specific, here are four easy rules on when to hit and when to stand: If your hand is 11 or less, always hit. You can’t possibly bust, so the extra card will only help your hand. If your hand is 17 or greater, and the dealer is not showing a Seven or higher, always stand. The risk of busting if you hit is very high. If your hand is 12 to 16, and the dealer is showing an up card likely to bust (see illustration above), always stand. Although this is a weak hand, it will still win if the dealer busts. Exception - If the dealer has a Two or a Three showing, hit if you have 12. If your hand is 12 to 16, and the dealer has a Seven or higher showing, always hit. The dealer is far more likely to get a better hand than yours unless you can improve it. There’s a risk of busting, but in this case you have to take that risk. Exception: If you’re holding a soft Ace, you can be more aggressive than these rules indicate. You might even hit on a 17, depending on what the dealer is holding. Although basic blackjack strategies can get infinitely more complex, those four rules are the core of most of the strategies in use today. If you’re wondering what card counting is, and if you’re even allowed to do it, we’ll explain it all in the next section.

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