Blackjack calculator: the best move for any hand

What the calculator shows

For the exact cards in your hand and the dealer's up card it works out the average result of every move you can make – stand, hit, double, split and surrender – and how often each one ends in a win, a push or a loss when you play on in the best way. It counts every card left in the shoe, so it handles hands of three or more cards and the cards you can see at other seats. In games where the dealer checks for blackjack first, the figures assume the check has been made and the dealer has none.

When the exact cards change the move

A strategy chart decides by your total. The cards behind that total matter a little, because they are no longer in the shoe. Hard 16 against a 10 shows it (6 decks, dealer hits soft 17): 10-6: hit (hit −0.5347, stand −0.5410); 10-2-4: stand (hit −0.5413, stand −0.5412); 7-4-3-2: stand (hit −0.5448, stand −0.5404). Small cards in your hand leave the shoe richer in tens, which makes hitting worse. Such exceptions are rare and worth fractions of a cent per dollar – the chart is the right way to play almost every hand. More on this hand: should you hit on 16.

Odds of winning a hand

The win, push and lose columns are for this one hand, from this point on. Over a whole round, played by the chart, about 43.3% of rounds are won. See the win rate calculator. A positive average for one hand does not make the game positive: the house edge comes from the hands where every move loses. The house edge calculator sums it up for your rules.

To see the chart's move and the averages by hand total instead of exact cards, use the hit or stand calculator.