If you are not familiar with the game of blackjack, please first read how to play blackjack and the rules of blackjack.

If you do not follow any strategies at blackjack, due to the game rules and the payments, the house is going to have advantage against you. This advantage is somewhere between 0 to 1.5%.
In the single deck game, the house advantage is 0.1%. In case of a standard 8 Deck Black Jack, this advantage is 0.5%!
The deviation of Black Jack is about 1.15, which is very low among the casino games!

An optimal strategy exists in Black Jack, which minimizes the house edge (less than 0.1%). This, complemented with a good stake management strategy, brings the advantage to the player's side, so we can be long term winning players!
Since the dealer makes decisions according to pre-established rules, the ideal strategy in Black Jack can be calculated mathematically! Applying this strategy, we will not always win, but selecting the given step, we shall have the best chance of winning.
The large part of the house advantage is given by the fact that players act first by not knowing the second card of the dealer. Therefore, if we bust, we always lose this hand, regardless of the cards of the house. Therefore, the house is in a better position to wait for the cards.

BASIC STRATEGY

By default (as long as we are not professionals) it is not worth making an insurance in any case! It is worth making an insurance only by certain methods of calculation, which requires a lot of practice (it is not very applicable in on-line conditions). If we never make any insurance, advantage is still staying on our side, applying this easy-to-remember rule.
The optimal steps are summarized in a table: look up the optimal step for the proposed situation.

On the left side, the first column shows the value of your hand, while the top row shows the dealer card.

We should identify three basic starting hand combinations: Hard hands, Soft hands and Pairs.

• Hard Hands means different values without an "ace"
• Soft hands are starting cards, one of which is an "ace" (A). This is a special starting hand because the value of an ace can be 1 or 11 as well. This fact can influence our optimal step.
• Pairs are equal value start-up cards.

The first table shows how to play Hard hands:
S: Stand (stop - not requesting any more cards)
H: Hit (draw - asking more cards)
D: Double (doubles - double our bet by pressing the 'Double' button)
If doubling is not allowed, ask for more cards at 'D' places
 
The second table shows how to play Soft hands. Symbols are as above:
D: Double if allowed, stand IF NOT
 
The third table shows how to play pairs. Symbols are as above:
P: Split (split - split pairs by pressing the Split button)
 
Based on the above tables, the optimal step can be tracked, which should be followed for an optimal game.

 
BET STRATEGY
Using the basic strategy, the advantage of the house can be reduced to near zero. In order to have an advantage on our side, we might want to use these two strategies we use one of these two bet strategies - complementing the basic strategy:
 
"Doubling" bet strategy:
 
This method is equivalent to the basic strategy described in roulette: in case of winning, we keep the winnings.
In case of losing, we double the previous bet. Therefore, if we win, we regain what we lost in the previous round, plus another unit per round.

Since our basic strategy itself brings almost 50%, winning chance, in case of the above doubling bet strategy, the chance of nine consecutive hands is 1:512, which is approx. 0.002%.

So, this is an effective bet strategy. When applying, always be careful which table you sit down to play, because in many places, maximum bets are limited!

„Anti-martingale” bet strategy:
With this bet strategy, the formula is simple: if you win that round, raise one in the next round. If you do not win, you reduce one in next round.
In case of a good series we win more, in case of a bad series we lose less, i.e. in the long run, this strategy is profitable to us!

Example:

Try one of these strategies in a free blackjack game as courtesy of Royal Vegas Casino.
If you like it, play with real money in the Royal Vegas Casino!