Blackjack Calculator

Pick your two cards and the dealer’s face-up card, and the calculator shows the best play under basic strategy: hit, stand, double, split or surrender. Below it, the trainer deals random hands so you can practise the decisions and keep score.

Blackjack Strategy Calculator and Trainer

How to Use the Calculator

1. Choose your two cards. Pick “10/J/Q/K” for any ten or picture card; they all count as 10.
2. Choose the dealer’s up card.
3. Set the table rules. Tick “Dealer hits soft 17” if the game rules say so, and untick “Surrender allowed” if the table has no surrender option.

The answer updates as soon as you change anything. Where the best play is to double or surrender, it also tells you what to do if the game does not let you.

What the Advice Is Based On

The calculator uses basic strategy for 4 to 8 decks with doubling allowed after a split, the usual setup at online and live dealer tables. It holds two complete strategy tables, one for each soft-17 rule, and every one of the 350 cells in the stand-on-soft-17 table was checked against two independent published sources (Wikipedia’s basic strategy table and Wizard of Odds’ strategy rules). Every combination of cards, dealer card and rule setting on this page was then tested against those tables.

Switching to “dealer hits soft 17” changes six plays: you double 11 against an ace, double soft 18 against a 2 and soft 19 against a 6, and surrender hard 15, hard 17 and a pair of 8s against an ace.

Some hands worth checking

These are hands where the right play surprises many players:

What a Strategy Calculator Can’t Do

• It only covers your first two cards. After you take a third card, use the hard or soft total. If the play is to double but you have three cards, hit instead, except with soft 18, where you stand.
• It does not count cards. Basic strategy uses only your hand and the dealer’s up card, not the cards already played.
• It does not change the house edge. Basic strategy keeps the edge as low as the table rules allow, typically between 0.5% and 1% of what you bet, but the casino keeps its edge.
• Tables without a hole card play differently. Where the dealer takes a second card only after everyone has acted, it is rarely right to double or split against a 10 or an ace.

For the full strategy charts, the same rules in plain words and how each table rule changes the odds, see our blackjack basic strategy guide. Our blackjack rules guide covers card values, payouts and table options, and the blackjack odds page covers the probabilities.