🃏Blackjack

About this tool

Set your bet and press Deal. You and the dealer get two cards each, with one dealer card face down. Hit for another card, stand to keep your total, or double your bet for exactly one more card. Tick the hint box to see the basic-strategy play for your hand. You start with 1,000 play chips, and Reset chips starts again. There is no real money and no sign-up.

Blackjack rules and basic strategy

The aim of blackjack is to finish with a higher total than the dealer without going over 21. Number cards count their face value, jacks, queens and kings count 10, and an ace counts 11 unless that would bust you, when it counts 1; a hand with an ace counting 11 is called soft. An ace with a ten-value card as your first two cards is a blackjack, which beats any other 21 and pays 3 to 2. After you finish, the dealer reveals the hole card and must draw until reaching at least 17, standing on all 17s in this game. If the dealer busts, you win; otherwise the higher total wins, and equal totals push, returning your bet. Basic strategy is the mathematically best decision for every combination of your hand and the dealer's up-card, worked out by computer simulation in the 1950s and 1960s. For example: always stand on hard 17 or more, stand on 13 to 16 when the dealer shows 2 to 6 and hit when it shows 7 or higher, and double on 11. Played perfectly under these rules, it reduces the house edge to around half a percent. Cards are dealt from a six-deck shoe shuffled with the browser's cryptographic random generator. Honest limits: this is a free game with play chips only. Splitting, insurance and surrender aren't available, so the hints ignore splits. No strategy beats the house edge long-term; if gambling with real money stops being fun, seek support. The dice roller and the coin flipper are related. Dice probability explained: why 7 is the most common roll, and how to work out any odds covers the maths of chance.

Frequently asked questions