When to Hit, Stand, Double, and Split
Updated
Every decision in blackjack comes out of two facts: your hand and the dealer's upcard. Nothing else. Stand on hard 17 and above, double on 11, split aces and eights, never split tens or fives. For everything in between, the strategy chart has the exact answer, and it is not negotiable.
- Row is your hand, column is the dealer's upcard. That is the whole system.
- Dealer showing 2–6 is weak. Let them bust.
- Dealer showing 7–A is strong. Build a real hand.
- Split aces and eights. Never split tens or fives.
- Never take insurance unless you are counting.
Quick reference
| Situation | Play | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Hard 17 or more | Stand | You bust too often to justify a card |
| Hard 13–16 vs 2–6 | Stand | Let the dealer take the risk instead |
| Hard 12 vs 4, 5, 6 | Stand | Their bust rate beats your draw |
| Hard 12 vs 2 or 3 | Hit | Those upcards are not weak enough |
| Hard 12–16 vs 7–A | Hit | Standing on 15 against a ten just loses slowly |
| Hard 11 | Double | Best chance in the game of landing 20 or 21 |
| A,A or 8,8 | Split | Turns one bad hand into two good starts |
| 10,10 or 5,5 | Never split | 20 is already excellent, and 5,5 is a 10 |
Figures assume a six-deck game where the dealer stands on soft 17. Other rule sets shift a handful of cells, and the chart generator will build the exact table for your game.
Hit or stand
The dividing line is the dealer's upcard, and it falls between the 6 and the 7.
A dealer showing 2 through 6 busts between 35% and 42% of the time. Those are the hands where you stop early and let them break. A dealer showing 7 through ace busts less than 27% of the time and makes a standing hand instead, so passively holding 15 hands them the pot.
- Hard 17 or higher: always stand.
- Hard 13 to 16: stand against 2 through 6, hit against 7 through ace.
- Hard 12: stand against 4, 5, and 6 only. Hit against 2 and 3, and hit against everything from 7 up.
- Hard 11 or less: always take a card. You cannot bust.
- Soft hands: play them far more aggressively, because one card cannot bust you.
Hard 12 against a 2 or 3 catches people out, because it looks like the same situation as 12 against a 5. It is not. A dealer 2 busts about 35% of the time, and that is not often enough to sit on a 12.
When to double
Doubling doubles your bet in exchange for exactly one card. You want it when you are likely to land on 20 or 21 and the dealer is likely to be in trouble.
- 11: double against 2 through 10. Against an ace, just hit.
- 10: double against 2 through 9.
- 9: double against 3 through 6.
- Soft hands: A,2 and A,3 against 5 and 6. A,4 and A,5 against 4, 5, and 6. A,6 against 3 through 6. A,7 against 3 through 6.
Doubling is only available on your first two cards, so if you hit once you have given it up. There is a fuller treatment in double down.
When to split
- Always split A,A and 8,8. Two aces played as one hand are a 12. Split, and each hand starts on 11. Two eights are a 16, the worst hand there is.
- Never split 10,10 or 5,5. Twenty is close to a winning hand already. A pair of fives is a 10, which you would rather double.
- 9,9: split against 2 through 6 and against 8 and 9. Stand against 7, 10, and ace.
- 2,2, 3,3, 7,7: split against 2 through 7.
- 6,6: split against 2 through 6.
- 4,4: split only against 5 and 6, and only if you can double after splitting.
Standing on 9,9 against a 7 surprises people every time. The reason is that 18 already beats the 17 a dealer 7 most often makes, so splitting risks a made hand for no gain. Details in when to split.
You have 16 and the dealer shows a ten. Now what?
Surrender if the table offers it. If not, take the card.
Hard 16 against a ten is the worst spot in blackjack and there is no good answer, only a least bad one. Standing loses 54.0% of your bet on average and hitting loses 53.5%, so hitting is better by half a cent on the dollar. Surrender caps the loss at exactly 50%, which is why it wins outright wherever it is offered.
Two things follow. Take surrender when you can, and stop agonizing when you cannot, because the two remaining options are nearly identical. Against an ace the gap is far wider: standing loses 66.4% and hitting loses 51.4%, so there you hit without thinking.
The one decision not on the chart
Insurance is missing from the chart because the answer never changes: decline it.
It pays 2:1, and the dealer completes the blackjack less than a third of the time, so it loses money on every offer. The single exception belongs to counters holding a true count high enough that the shoe really is full of tens. See insurance for the exact threshold.
Even money on your own blackjack is the same bet wearing a disguise, and the same answer applies.
Keep reading
By Martin Kosek · every number on this site is computed by us, not copied.
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