Blackjack: Basic Strategy for Multiple Decks
by Ralph Stricker
You should know Single Deck Basic Strategy before learning the Multiple Deck Strategy. Why learn Single Deck if you don't intend to play? This is asked by those who live on the East Coast and play in Atlantic City, which offers no Single Deck games. The answers:
- It is easier to understand the probabilities of blackjack in Single Deck than in Multiple Deck, as we are dealing with strictly 52-card probabilities.
- If the person eventually wants to learn card counting, it is much easier to start with Single Deck and become proficient at it, before proceeding to Multiple Deck. If you make a mistake counting down a single deck, it is easier to find your mistake. If you cannot count a single deck proficiently, how in the world can you expect to count multiple decks? There are many similarities between the Single and Multiple Deck Strategy, so the transition from one to the other is no problem. There is one important difference in the Surrender category. In Single Deck, the surrender strategy is for late surrender, while in Multiple Deck there is a strategy for both late and early surrender.
The difference between the two is that in late surrender, if the dealer has blackjack, the player cannot surrender and loses the entire bet. In early surrender the player surrenders immediately and the dealer consumates the transaction and takes half of the player's bet. This avoids losing to a dealer's blackjack.
The difference in advantage percent-wise is enormous. Early surrender adds .623 percent to the player's advantage, while late surrender is only worth .07 percent. Early surrender is so advantageous that the Basic Strategy player has a .25 percent advantage playing just Basic Strategy. There is no early surrender offered in any casinos in the United States, though it was offered initially in Atlantic City when the casinos first opened in 1978. The governer of New Jersey abolished it in 1981.
You may ask, why do you still advocate learning it, since it is no longer offered? It is still offered in Panama, Santo Domingo, Korea and the Philippines, and since I have no way of knowing where the reader is going to play, I advise learning it so that you may have it at your disposal if the game arises. Atlantic City at one time had NO surrender and I still taught the option, and they eventually brought back late surrender, so my students did not have to re-learn the surrender option.
Basic Strategy for Four or More Decks
(*) No Double After Splits Allowed
(**) If Early Surrender Is Offered, the 8,8 Are Only Split When the Dealer Shows 2-9, Otherwise Surrender the 8,8 to the Dealer's Ace and 10
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Surrender Strategy |
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| Dealer Shows |
Late Your Hand |
Early Your Hand |
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| A |
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| 10 |
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14-16 | ||||
| 9 |
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Soft Doubling Strategy |
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| Your Hand | Dealer Shows | ||
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5,6 | ||
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4-6 | ||
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3-6 | ||
| A,8 | DON'T | ||
| A,9 | DON'T | ||
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Soft Standing Strategy |
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| Dealer Shows | You Stand On |
| 2-8 | 18 |
| 9 or 10 | 19 |
| A | 19 |
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Hard Standing Strategy |
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| Dealer Shows | You Stand On |
| 2 or 3 | 13 |
| 4-6 | 12 |
| 7,8,9,10,A | 17 |
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Pair Splitting Strategy |
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| Your Hand | Dealer Shows | ||
| 2,2 |
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| 3,3 |
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| 4,4 |
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| 5,5 | NEVER | ||
| 6,6 |
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| 7,7 | 2-7 | ||
| 8,8** | ALWAYS | ||
| 9,9 | 2-9 Except 7 | ||
| 10,10 | DON'T | ||
| A,A | ALWAYS | ||
Notice the pair of 8's, we surrender them to the Ace and 10 if early surrender is offered, because they are in the two-card total of 16. In Hard Doubling Strategy we do not Double any Hard total of 8 as we do in Single Deck Strategy. The reason is that it is not strong enough in Multiple Deck play. In Multiple Deck the dealer does not bust as frequently as in Single Deck and the dealer gets more blackjacks than in Single Deck.
Ralph Stricker, also known as the Silver Fox, is an expert gambler selling books and tapes called the Silver Fox Blackjack System.
