Blackjack Basic Strategy: How the Table Rules Change the Decision Chart

Basic strategy is the set of hit, stand, double, split and surrender decisions that loses the least over time under one specific set of table rules. Change the rules and some of those decisions change, so a chart is only right for the table it was built for. The live tables we read in Canada differ on exactly the rules that matter: Loto-Québec and PlayNow have the dealer stand on soft 17 and do not allow doubling after a split; BetMGM’s live American Blackjack in Ontario has the dealer hit soft 17 and does allow it; Loto-Québec’s Infinite Blackjack and BetMGM’s Unlimited Blackjack have no dealer peek; Free Bet and Power Blackjack change what doubling costs or which cards are in the shoe. The blackjack payout, 3:2 or 6:5, changes what the game costs but not the decisions.

What is basic strategy?

It is a grid. Your hand runs down the side, split into hard totals, soft totals and pairs; the dealer’s up card runs across the top; each cell holds the action with the best long-run result for that rule set. It is worked out from the cards in the shoe and the dealer’s fixed drawing rule. It does not predict the next card and it does not remove the house edge. It only keeps the cost as low as the rules allow.

The casinos’ own figures show that floor. Loto-Québec gives an optimal theoretical payout of 99.29% for its standard Blackjack, 99.28% for Speed Blackjack, 99.47% for Infinite Blackjack, 99.56% for Lightning Blackjack, 98.80% for Power Blackjack and 98.45% for Free Bet Blackjack. PlayNow gives 99.28% for Live Blackjack. Those returns assume optimal play under each game’s rules; playing the wrong chart pushes the return below them.

Which table rules change the chart?

Five kinds of rule move decisions:

1. What the dealer does on soft 17.
2. Doubling after a split, allowed or not.
3. A dealer check for blackjack before you act, or none.
4. Surrender, offered or not.
5. Special rules: free doubles and splits, cards removed from the shoe, multipliers.

The number of decks matters too, but every live table we read uses eight, so it does not separate them.

Does a dealer who hits soft 17 change your decisions?

Yes, but only a few, and they are close calls. When the dealer hits soft 17, some dealer 17s turn into 18 to 21 and some turn into busts, so the dealer’s final totals spread out. The decisions that shift are the borderline doubles and surrenders against the up cards most likely to produce a soft 17, an ace or a 6. A chart is usually labelled S17 (dealer stands) or H17 (dealer hits). Use an S17 chart at the Loto-Québec, PlayNow and BetMGM Unlimited tables and an H17 chart at BetMGM’s American Blackjack.

What happens to doubling and splitting at a no-peek table?

This rule has the clearest arithmetic. At a table where the dealer checks for blackjack when showing an ace, a dealer blackjack ends the round before you decide, so any double or split you make is made knowing the dealer does not have it. At BetMGM’s Unlimited Blackjack, the rules say the entire player bet is lost against a dealer blackjack, so extra money you put out is exposed.

Take 11 against a dealer ace with a $10 bet. With eight decks, 128 of the 415 unseen cards are 10-value if you ignore the cards already dealt, so the dealer has blackjack about 30.8% of the time. If you double, $20 is at risk instead of $10, and in those 30.8% of rounds the extra $10 is lost before your card matters: an average cost of 0.308 × $10, about $3.08, which the double has to earn back in the other rounds. Against a dealer 10, the risk is smaller: 32 aces in 415 cards, about 7.7%. That is why charts built for no-hole-card games double and split less against an ace and a 10 than peek charts do.

Does doubling after a split matter?

It matters most for low pairs. Split two 2s and draw a 9 on one of them and you have 11. At BetMGM’s American Blackjack you can double that hand; at Loto-Québec’s and PlayNow’s standard tables you cannot. Because a split hand is worth more when it can become a double, charts for tables that allow doubling after a split split some low pairs against weak dealer cards that no-double charts simply hit. Using a “double after split” chart at a table that forbids it leads to splits whose main payoff is not available.

What if the table has no surrender?

Both BetMGM live tables state there is no late surrender. A chart that includes surrender gives a second action for those cells; at a table without surrender, play that second action.

Should you take insurance?

Basic strategy never takes insurance. It pays 2:1, but with eight decks and an ace showing, the dealer has blackjack about 30.8% of the time, not the one time in three that 2:1 needs to break even. On a $5 insurance bet, 0.308 × $10 minus 0.692 × $5 comes to minus 38 cents, about 7.5% of the side bet.

Does a 6:5 payout change the chart?

No. A blackjack is your first two cards and is paid before you make any decision, so the payout never enters a hit, stand, double or split choice. It changes the cost: with eight decks a natural comes about 4.7% of the time, and losing $3 of a $15 payout on a $10 bet costs about 14 cents a hand, roughly 1.4% of every bet. Every live table whose rules we read pays 3:2.

Why do Free Bet and Power Blackjack need their own charts?

Free Bet Blackjack. Loto-Québec’s rules give a free split on pairs except 10-value cards and a free double on hard 9, 10 or 11: the casino puts up the extra stake. A free double costs you nothing extra if the hand loses, so the free version is worth taking on hands where a paid double would not be. Its published optimal payout is 98.45%, against 99.29% for the standard game, so its rules differ in more than the free bets.

Power Blackjack. The 9s and 10s are taken out of each of the eight decks, and you may double, triple or quadruple down on any two initial cards. Removing them leaves 352 cards, of which 96 are 10-value (jacks, queens and kings), so the chance that the next card is worth 10 drops from 128/416, about 30.8%, to 96/352, about 27.3%. A standard chart’s doubling decisions were built for the first figure, not the second. The published optimal payout is 98.80%.

What we could not confirm

• Whether the dealer checks for blackjack at Loto-Québec’s standard Blackjack, PlayNow’s Live Blackjack and BetMGM’s American Blackjack: we did not confirm it from the rules we read.
• Rules at live tables whose rules open only after login, at several casinos we checked.

Match the chart to the table

Before you use a chart, write down five things from the table’s rules: the number of decks, the soft-17 rule, doubling after a split, surrender, and whether the dealer checks for blackjack. Then find a chart built for that exact set. If the table has a special name, such as Free Bet, Power or Lightning, use a chart for that game, not a standard one. Our guide to how to play casino blackjack explains each action, and our blackjack rules and table conditions page lists the rules of 19 live tables. No chart or staking pattern removes the edge; our page on the Martingale system shows why.