PHDREAM Blackjack Strategy Chart: Every Hand, Explained

A blackjack strategy chart sets out the fixed, mathematically correct action for every hand — hit, stand, double or split — rather than a feel for the table. This one follows the standard rule set most multi-deck tables use: several decks in the shoe, the dealer standing on soft 17. Every entry answers one question: given this hand and that dealer upcard, which action loses the least money on average.

What “Basic Strategy” Assumes

The chart below assumes the common multi-deck rule set: several decks in the shoe, the dealer stands on soft 17, doubling is allowed on any first two cards, and splitting is allowed on any pair. A table running different rules can shift a handful of borderline decisions, which is exactly why the table’s own rules panel is worth a glance before the first hand.

Rule assumed	What it means
Multiple decks	Cards are dealt from a shoe holding several 52-card decks shuffled together
Dealer stands on soft 17	A dealer hand of Ace-6 stops drawing instead of hitting again
Double on any two cards	Doubling is not restricted to totals of 9, 10 or 11
Split any pair	Two matching cards can always be split into two hands

Hard Totals: The Core Chart

A hard total is any hand without an ace counted as 11 — a 10 and a 6, for instance, or three cards with no ace at all. This is the largest single block of the chart, because most hands end up here.

Player total	vs dealer 2–3	vs dealer 4–6	vs dealer 7–9	vs dealer 10	vs dealer A
8 or less	Hit	Hit	Hit	Hit	Hit
9	Hit	Double	Hit	Hit	Hit
10	Double	Double	Double	Hit	Hit
11	Double	Double	Double	Double	Hit
12	Hit	Stand	Hit	Hit	Hit
13–16	Stand	Stand	Hit	Hit	Hit
17 or more	Stand	Stand	Stand	Stand	Stand

The pattern behind the table is simple even where the table itself is not: a dealer showing 4, 5 or 6 is the most likely to bust, so the chart favors standing on modest totals against those upcards and hits the same totals against a stronger card.

Soft Totals: When the Ace Still Counts as 11

A soft total includes an ace counted as 11 — soft 17 is an Ace and a 6. Soft hands cannot bust on the next card, since the ace can always drop to counting as 1 if a high card lands, and that safety is what lets the chart play them more aggressively than the equivalent hard total.

Player total	Hand	Standard action
Soft 13–14	A,2 / A,3	Double vs dealer 5–6; otherwise hit
Soft 15–16	A,4 / A,5	Double vs dealer 4–6; otherwise hit
Soft 17	A,6	Double vs dealer 3–6; otherwise hit
Soft 18	A,7	Double vs dealer 3–6; stand vs 2, 7, 8; hit vs 9, 10, A
Soft 19–20	A,8 / A,9	Stand

Soft 18 is the one entry players second-guess most: standing feels safe against a dealer 9 or 10, but the chart calls for a hit because a dealer showing that upcard is more likely to finish with a total soft 18 doesn’t beat.

Pairs: When Splitting Beats Everything Else

Splitting turns one hand into two, each played with its own additional bet. Basic strategy treats a handful of pairs as automatic and the rest as conditional on the dealer’s upcard.

Pair	Standard action
A,A	Always split
10s / face cards	Never split — stand as a hard 20
9,9	Split vs dealer 2–6, 8–9; stand vs 7, 10, A
8,8	Always split
7,7	Split vs dealer 2–7; otherwise hit
6,6	Split vs dealer 2–6; otherwise hit
5,5	Never split — play as a hard 10
4,4	Hit against most upcards rather than split
2,2 / 3,3	Split vs dealer 2–7; otherwise hit

A pair of 5s is the one players most often split out of habit. The chart treats it as a hard 10 instead, because doubling a 10 against a weak dealer card wins more often than splitting into two hands that each start at 5.

Doubling Down: Building the Bet When the Odds Favor You

Doubling down means doubling the original bet in exchange for exactly one more card, then standing. It is reserved for totals where the extra card is likely to leave a strong final hand.

1. Hard 9 doubles against a dealer 3 through 6, and hits everywhere else.
2. Hard 10 doubles against a dealer 2 through 9, and hits against a 10 or Ace.
3. Hard 11 doubles against every dealer upcard except an Ace, where it hits instead.
4. Soft totals 13 through 18 double against a narrow band of weak dealer upcards, shown in the soft-totals table above.

Doubling only pays off with a fresh bet on the table, so it is worth checking a table’s limits — covered in PHDREAM’s live casino tables — before assuming a double is affordable mid-shoe.

Surrender: Cutting Losses Before the Hand Plays Out

Surrender lets a player give up half the bet before the hand is played, on tables that offer it. It exists for the small number of hands where the arithmetic favors losing half a bet now over playing the hand out.

Problem: A hard 16 against a dealer 10 loses more often than almost any other hand in the game, whichever way it is played. Fix: Where the table offers surrender, take it on hard 16 against a dealer 9, 10 or Ace, and on hard 15 against a dealer 10 — the two situations standard charts flag as worth the half-bet loss. Not every table offers surrender, so check the rules panel first.

Reading the Dealer’s Upcard

Every decision above pairs a player total with one dealer card, because that single card carries most of the information the chart uses.

Upcard group	Dealer bust tendency	Chart response
4, 5, 6	Weakest — the highest bust chance	Stand more often on modest totals
2, 3	Below average, between the weak and strong groups	Play close to the 4–6 group on most totals
7, 8, 9, 10, A	Strongest — the lowest bust chance	Hit and double more often instead of standing

Blackjack Strategy Chart: Putting the Rules Together

The tables above are the full blackjack strategy chart broken into its parts. A handful of situations account for most of the decisions a new player second-guesses:

Situation	Standard action
Hard 16 vs dealer 10	Hit, or surrender if the table offers it
Hard 12 vs dealer 2 or 3	Hit
Soft 18 vs dealer 9, 10 or A	Hit
Pair of 8s, any upcard	Always split
Pair of 5s, any upcard	Never split — double or hit as a hard 10
11 vs any upcard except Ace	Double

None of these six rows depend on which table a hand is dealt at — they hold for any standard multi-deck game with the dealer standing on soft 17.

Playing Blackjack Basic Strategy at PHDREAM

Streamed tables sit behind the LIVE CASINO tab in PHDREAM live casino; open it and look for a blackjack table there. Before a session:

1. Open LIVE CASINO and pick a blackjack table.
2. Read that table’s rules panel for deck count, doubling and surrender rules.
3. Set a bet unit sized to the table’s own limits before the first hand.
4. Play the chart above hand by hand rather than by feel.

Pai gow poker runs a different set of rules entirely — see PHDREAM’s pai gow poker rules for how that game splits a hand into two instead of playing one hand against the dealer.