Double Deck Basic Strategy
- Strategy Deck Template
- Double Deck Basic Strategy Chart
- Basic Strategy Double Deck Wizard Of Odds
- Double Deck Blackjack Basic Strategy
Double-Deck Blackjack Strategy Introduction. To use the basic strategy, look up your hand along the left vertical edge and the dealer's up card along the top. The only differences to playing 6 deck blackjack versus single deck, double deck, or 8 deck blackjack is the effect the 6 decks has on the house edge and the basic strategy chart you use to play blackjack according to the house edge or RTP. You can also check out guides which are remarkably like this one.
By Fred Renzey
17 July 1999
Have you ever noticed that a basic strategy chart for single- or double-deck blackjack is more aggressive than for six-deck shoe games, particularly where doubling down is concerned? Why is that?
First of all, understand that whenever you double down, you don't have a 10 in your hand. That's key.
Now notice that when you pull three non-10s (your hand and the dealer's upcard) from a 52-card pack, the remaining 49 cards contain 32 1/2% 10s (16 out of 49). But if you took those same three non-10s from a six-deck shoe, the remaining cards would contain only 31% 10s (96 out of 309). Therefore, you have a little better chance of catching a 10 to your double down with fewer decks.
For this reason, some single- or two-deck double downs that were just minimally profitable now become unprofitable when playing with six decks. As an example, six-deck basic strategy says you shouldn't double down with a hand like 9 against a deuce (while you should when playing with one or two decks). And indeed with six decks, you shouldn't--USUALLY!
'Usually' is the key word here. The basic strategy gives you your best play assuming that all cards except for the three that make up your hand and the dealer's up-card are equally available. In reality, however, their availability varies as cards are dealt out. And if you've got your eyes open, even without being a card counter, you'll often be in a position to notice that all the remaining cards are not equally available. When would that be? Consider the following scenario...
You're playing with three other players in a six-deck face-up game. You are at third base. The dealer has a deuce up. The other players have finished playing their hands and the board looks like this:
DEALER
2 up
YOU 6/3
CENTER FIELD 8/2-5
2ND BASE 7/4-4
1ST BASE 10/6
The first baseman stood pat with 16. The next player doubled down with 11 and caught a 4. The man to your right then doubled with 10 and blanked with a 5. Now it's your turn. What should you do with your 9 against the dealer's deuce? Before answering, notice that the board contains quite a few low cards and only one 10.
Without knowing anything else about the cards that have been dealt thus far in the shoe, you can see that your chance to snag a 10 is now similar to what it would normally be with fewer decks. Your correct play in this spot is to double down. That's right; double with 9 against a deuce even though multi-deck basic strategy says to hit. This is reacting to information that the basic strategy doesn't take into account. It's going beyond the basic strategy. It's more efficient and more productive than the basic strategy. Now, how do you know exactly when you should pull the trigger and double rather than hit?
BOARD COUNTING
The technique a non-card counter can use to uncover these situations is called 'board counting'. With hands this marginal, you don't need to count down the whole shoe from the get-go to find out that it's probably better to go a different way with your hand. You simply take the information that's available right now. What you do is measure the proportion of high to low cards that have appeared during this hand by counting all the 3s, 4s, 5s and 6s as one point apiece. Then count up all the 10s, jacks, queens and kings as minus one point each. Ignore the other cards. After scanning the entire board in this manner (including your own hand and the dealer's upcard), subtract the minus cards from the plus cards.
Now let's go back to the hand illustration above. Looking at all the cards, what is your net 'board count'? It's +5 (one 10 subtracted from six 3s through 6s). Remember that number. Why? Because when your board count is +5 or greater, you should double down with the following two hands in six-deck play:
9 against a deuce
ace/8 against a 6
(If it's less than +5, just follow the multi-deck basic strategy).
With a board count of +6 or greater, it also becomes correct to double down when you have:
11 against an ace
At these times, your chance to catch a 10 will have improved enough to make doubling the better play. A few of your 'stiff' hands in multi-deck blackjack can also be played more efficiently with the use of the board count, but that's a lesson for another day.
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Strategy Deck Template
Our Blackjack Strategy Chart teaches you exactly when to:
2-Deck blackjack or double-deck is played with two decks. Blackjack is a game that relies on both luck and strategy. There are a variety of possible actions for a player to take; his choice depends on the initial hand he has been dealt and the dealer’s up card.
Double Deck Basic Strategy Chart
Hit or Stand
Double Down
Split Pairs
Surrender
- Basic strategy is not enough!
We get emails from people all the time talking about how they downloaded our blackjack charts, took them to a casino, and won some money. That’s great news for them, but it could have easily gone the other way. Basic strategy cannot overcome the house edge even if you get lucky with it from time to time. Think of it like a space shuttle. Basic strategy is just the rocket booster. It gets the shuttle high enough in the atmosphere for the shuttle to do the rest of the work. The rocket booster never makes it to space. You’ll need counting, deviations, true count conversions and betting strategy to actually beat the game of blackjack but that’s for later. - Memorize it perfectly!
This is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to beating blackjack. Vegas was built on guys who looked at the wallet-size basic strategy a couple times after they bought it in the gift shop on their last vacation. It takes intentional practice to commit this stuff to memory. If it was easy, we wouldn’t have a website dedicated to helping you learn it. - The chart you start with is not the chart you end with!
Once you learn this chart you will have to learn additional rules and deviations that relate to the specific rules of the games you will be playing. The better you learn basic strategy the easier it will be to transition to the other rules-specific charts. - Perfect means perfect!
In a game where you can only hope to gain a 1% edge over the house, a 99% game isn’t good enough. You need to know these strategy charts backwards and forwards, doing a handstand, in a hurricane, giving your drink order to a waitress, while listening to Count Von Count serenade you on Sesame Street.
Our Blackjack Strategy Chart teaches you exactly when to:
Hit or Stand
Double Down
Split Pairs
Surrender
- Basic strategy is not enough!
We get emails from people all the time talking about how they downloaded our blackjack charts, took them to a casino, and won some money. That’s great news for them, but it could have easily gone the other way. Basic strategy cannot overcome the house edge even if you get lucky with it from time to time. Think of it like a space shuttle. Basic strategy is just the rocket booster. It gets the shuttle high enough in the atmosphere for the shuttle to do the rest of the work. The rocket booster never makes it to space. You’ll need counting, deviations, true count conversions and betting strategy to actually beat the game of blackjack but that’s for later. - Memorize it perfectly!
This is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to beating blackjack. Vegas was built on guys who looked at the wallet-size basic strategy a couple times after they bought it in the gift shop on their last vacation. It takes intentional practice to commit this stuff to memory. If it was easy, we wouldn’t have a website dedicated to helping you learn it. - The chart you start with is not the chart you end with!
Once you learn this chart you will have to learn additional blackjack rules and deviations that relate to the specific rules of the games you will be playing. The better you learn basic strategy the easier it will be to transition to the other rules-specific charts. - Perfect means perfect!
In a game where you can only hope to gain a 1% edge over the house, a 99% game isn’t good enough. You need to know these strategy charts backwards and forwards, doing a handstand, in a hurricane, giving your drink order to a waitress, while listening to Count Von Count serenade you on Sesame Street.
Basic Strategy Has An Order Of Operations:
Can I/should I Surrender?
If you’re playing at a casino that offers surrender (also known as late surrender or LS), you will only have the option to surrender on the first two cards you’re dealt. You won’t be able to surrender if you’ve already taken a hit card. This is why surrender is the first thing you have to think about when playing your hand. If the answer is NO you can’t or NO you shouldn’t surrender, you then ask yourself….
Can I/Should I Split?
The second most important decision is whether or not to split. This will only be an option when your first two cards are a pair or if you have two ten-valued cards (like a jack and a king). If the answer is NO you can’t or you shouldn’t split, you ask yourself….
Can I/Should I Double?
When basic strategy calls for doubling, it’s a really good thing! It means you’re likely to win the hand! Some casinos restrict doubling on certain hands so it may not always be possible, but you want to make sure you’ve ruled it out before you move on. If the answer is NO you can’t or you shouldn’t double, you ask yourself…
Should I hit or should I stand?
The last thing you should think about when it comes to basic strategy is whether or not to take another card. If the other options above are not appropriate for your hand then you would choose to hit or stand.
Here Is All Of Basic Strategy In 30 Simple Phrases:
In case you’re not a visual learner these simple phrases might help you commit these rules to memory. The goal with remembering phrases is to be able to look at your hand total and immediately recite the rule in your head, without having to see what the dealer has. That way when you’re at the table and you look up to see what the dealer has, you already know how it relates to your hand and you can make your decision in a split second. Memorizing these phrases will make you much faster and have fewer mistakes.
Surrenders:
- 16 surrenders against dealer 9 through Ace, otherwise don’t surrender (revert to hard totals).
- 15 surrenders against dealer 10, otherwise don’t surrender (revert to hard totals).
Splits:
- Always split aces.
- Never split tens.
- A pair of 9’s splits against dealer 2 through 9, except for 7, otherwise stand.
- Always split 8’s
- A pair of 7’s splits against dealer 2 through 7, otherwise hit.
- A pair of 6’s splits against dealer 2 through 6, otherwise hit.
- A pair of 5’s doubles against dealer 2 through 9, otherwise hit.
- A pair of 4’s splits against dealer 5 and 6, otherwise hit.
- A pair of 3’s splits against dealer 2 through 7, otherwise hit.
- A pair of 2’s splits against dealer 2 through 7, otherwise hit.
Soft totals: A soft total is any hand that has an Ace as one of the first two cards, the ace counts as 11 to start.
Basic Strategy Double Deck Wizard Of Odds
- Soft 20 (A,9) always stands.
- Soft 19 (A,8) doubles against dealer 6, otherwise stand.
- Soft 18 (A,7) doubles against dealer 2 through 6, and hits against 9 through Ace, otherwise stand.
- Soft 17 (A,6) doubles against dealer 3 through 6, otherwise hit.
- Soft 16 (A,5) doubles against dealer 4 through 6, otherwise hit.
- Soft 15 (A,4) doubles against dealer 4 through 6, otherwise hit.
- Soft 14 (A,3) doubles against dealer 5 through 6, otherwise hit.
- Soft 13 (A,2) doubles against dealer 5 through 6, otherwise hit.
Hard totals: A hard total is any hand that does not start with an ace in it, or it has been dealt an ace that can only be counted as 1 instead of 11.
- 17 and up always stands.
- 16 stands against dealer 2 through 6, otherwise hit.
- 15 stands against dealer 2 through 6, otherwise hit.
- 14 stands against dealer 2 through 6, otherwise hit.
- 13 stands against dealer 2 through 6, otherwise hit.
- 12 stands against dealer 4 through 6, otherwise hit.
- 11 always doubles.
- 10 doubles against dealer 2 through 9 otherwise hit.
- 9 doubles against dealer 3 through 6 otherwise hit.
- 8 always hits.
FAQ About Blackjack Charts:
We get a lot of questions on our forum about basic strategy. Here are some of the common ones and their answers:
What is basic strategy based on? Didn’t the casinos write “the book”? How can we trust basic strategy?
Basic strategy was derived from a computer simulation. Somebody taught a computer how to play blackjack and then told it to play several hundred MILLION hands of blackjack and record what happened. Through the computer’s trial and error it figured out which decisions are best for the player, given every possible combination of starting player hands and dealer up card. The “best decisions” for the player, in this case, are the ones that lose the least amount of money to the casino over time. Basic strategy does not overcome the casino’s house edge until we add card counting to the mix. If you are super geeky and simply MUST have a better explanation, check out Mike Shakleford’s video where he builds basic strategy from scratch using excel and watch his other video where he determines the house edge the same way.
Why are the strategy charts on this site different than the charts I saw on such-and-such website?
TL;DR – Our chart is based off of the more common “H17 game.” Memorize our chart, then learn card counting and the deviation chart for the game you will most commonly be playing.
Longer answer: The main reason is whether the Basic Strategy Chart is based off of a dealer Hitting a Soft 17, known as an “H17 game” or Standing on a Soft 17, known as an “S17 game.” Our advice is to learn this chart, then move on to learning card counting and the blackjack deviations associated with the game you will be playing (H17 vs S17).
There are also slight variations in strategy when you play a 6 deck game versus a single deck game. Rather than teach you 9 different basic strategy charts for each variant of blackjack you will ever see, we decided to run our simulation against the games people will most commonly see and teach one basic strategy that is sufficiently effective against all numbers of decks. We have a Keep it Simple Stupid, mentality when it comes to learning card counting. This means our charts might be slightly different than a site that’s chosen a different philosophy.
If you’re an anal-retentive type and want to learn hyper-specific strategies we recommend Professional Blackjack by Stanford Wong. We’ve run the numbers and learning the hyper-specific stuff basically just makes you feel smarter and doesn’t add any money to your wallet. With that said, whatever strategy you choose to learn, we recommend sticking with ONLY those materials. If you get distracted with content from multiple sources it has a higher probability of confusing you than enlightening you. We’ve taken over $4,000,000 from casinos and trained an army of card counters who have taken millions more, with the charts you see here. So rest assured, we’ve combed through the crap and know what’s important when it comes to crushing this game.
How do I memorize all this?
Great question! You’ve come to the exact right place! We have some tips in our premium video course on how to approach the blackjack charts and make them simpler. We also have a free mini course we can email you with some step by step instructions on how to take your training seriously. We also have blank strategy sheets you can download and fill in every day for practice to test yourself. Practice makes perfect so there’s nothing like our basic strategy drills to get it drilled into your brain!
When I’m doing the basic strategy drills, I only miss one every couple hundred hands or so! Am I ready for the casino?
If you think missing one every now and then is “perfect” then sure you’re ready! [sarcasm] How many people listen to musicians that get every 100th note out of tune? Michael Jordan says you’ll never play better in a game than you did in practice. We want to be like Mike, so we teach that you are probably making 2 or 3 mistakes in the casino for every one mistake you make in the distractionless, pressure-free, comfort of your home. Perfect means perfect. Don’t compromise. If you keep messing up basic strategy, put it down for a while and come back to it. It won’t happen overnight, but if you stick with it, eventually you’ll know these blackjack charts better than you know the back of your hand.
Next Steps:
Once you’ve memorized the basic strategy chart perfectly, you will also need to learn at what count indexes you need to deviate from the basic strategy chart. Deviations vary based on the rules of the game offered, and the rules of the region. For example, in some games, the dealer must stand on a Soft 17, that is, an Ace, plus any combination of cards equaling 6. This is called a “Stand 17” game. In other games, the dealer must hit on any Soft 17. This is called a “Hit 17” game. Also, in Europe and commonly in Canada, dealers do not have a hole card. This is called “European” or “European No-Hole” blackjack.
We provide these charts to people with a membership
Meet Colin Jones
Double Deck Blackjack Basic Strategy
Colin is the founder of Blackjack Apprenticeship. Colin has been counting cards for over 15 years, and ran a multi-million dollar blackjack team. You may have seen his team featured in the documentary Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians, and has been covered by New York Times, CNN, and The Colbert Report. For more training from Colin, check out the Blackjack Apprenticeship YouTube Channel.