Blackjack Charts: What They Are and How to Use Them

Blackjack is an intriguing table game, because it is both attractive to total casino novices because of its straightforward rules, but also loved by experienced gamblers because of the depth of strategy and mathematical complexity it provides.

When getting to grips with the game, you might use blackjack charts to improve your play and shape your decisions. So what are they and how can you take advantage of them?

What are blackjack charts?

Blackjack charts go by many names, but whether you call them decision matrixes or anything else for that matter, the purpose they serve will be the same; to give you the strategic edge depending on the state of play at any given moment without needing to go as far as learning to count cards.

Typically, these charts are made up of columns and rows, with the columns representing the dealer’s cards, and the rows representing the player’s cards.

Before we get into the specifics of how to use these charts, it’s important to ensure that you know how to play, and what betting options are available. For example, what is blackjack double down betting? Bring yourself up to speed with these types of terms and you should be well placed to start harnessing blackjack charts.

How do you interpret blackjack charts?

For the most part, these charts are very useful in the case that you are not sure how to play the hand you’ve been dealt and you need guidance as to what decision will give you the best odds of beating the dealer.

In blackjack, your aim is to accumulate cards with a face value of 21 or lower. Go over this, and you are bust. Go below this but get outdone by the dealer’s hand, and you also lose.

Interpreting the charts is as simple as matching the total value of the cards in your hand in the relevant row against the dealer’s revealed card, and seeing what is the most statistically sensible move to make next.

Say, for example, you have been dealt a 10 and an 8, giving you a total of 18. Every blackjack chart ever made will advise you to stick, or stand, with a hand like this, which means not taking any more cards, and not changing your bet.

The obvious reason is that you will have a very low probability of hitting a card which has a low enough value to not bust your hand if you requested another.

At the other end of the scale, if you were dealt a 2 and a 6, totalling 8, then irrespective of the dealer’s upcard, you should hit, and get another card to try and boost your total.

Where things get really interesting is in the instances that sit between these two extremes. For example, if you have a hand with a value of 11, lots of blackjack charts will recommend that you double down, which means to double the amount you are wagering on your hand.

If, on the other hand, your total is 9 and the dealer is showing a 10, it’s better to hit rather than doubling down.

Are all blackjack charts the same?

Another important thing to note about blackjack charts is that not everyone agrees on the strategies you should use in certain situations, and so there may be some inconsistencies when you compare the instructions given across two or more charts with different authors.

In this situation, you might be wondering which is the right route to pick, and the answer is that this depends. The whole point of blackjack being a game which casinos offer is that it is orchestrated in such a way that the house has the edge over players, in order that operators can make money out of their customers.

This also means that no blackjack chart should be seen as a foolproof way to win every hand you play, because of the element of luck and randomness that is always involved.

Instead, you should really just use these charts as a way to gather information about how experienced players approach each hand, rather than treating them as gospel.

One interesting insight that lots of charts give comes to pair splitting, which is an option when you are dealt two cards of identical value. A pair of aces should always be split, while a pair of 10s is never advised to be split, for example.

The best advice is to take a look at several blackjack charts, see what they suggest and test out the strategies for yourself.