Video game blackjack borrows its rules from real casino blackjack, but the details vary. GTA Online, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Fallout: New Vegas each put their own spin on the game.
Learning basic blackjack strategy is the single biggest improvement you can make to your blackjack results, in a game, at a friend’s game, or even at the casino.
Where you’ll find blackjack in games
GTA Online: The Diamond Casino & Resort opened in 2019 with blackjack among its table games. Play works with chips bought using GTA$ (although in some countries the casino-style games are locked because of local gambling laws).
Red Dead Redemption 2: Blackjack is one of the parlour games you’ll find on the frontier, alongside poker and dominoes. The stakes are small, which makes it a good place to practise.
Fallout: New Vegas: The casinos on the Strip and in Freeside offer blackjack, but there’s a special advantage you won’t find in a real casino. Your Luck SPECIAL stat directly influences the cards you’re dealt. At Luck 7, you start to see favourable outcomes more regularly, while Luck 10 can make winning considerably easier.
Choose your casino carefully. The Tops and Ultra-Luxe offer more favourable blackjack rules than the Atomic Wrangler, which pays only 6:5 on a natural blackjack. Win too much, though, and each casino will eventually ban you.
Blackjack rules in gaming or casinos can differ from game to game, so it’s worth checking the table details before you play. The two that matter most are whether the dealer hits or stands on soft 17, and whether you can double down after splitting.
What is basic blackjack strategy?
Basic strategy is mathematically calculated to give you the best expected result for every possible hand against the dealer’s upcard. It isn’t an opinion or a system. It’s just the plays that lose the least and win the most, over time.
Strategy is not card counting either. You don’t need to track cards. You look at two things: your total and the dealer’s card. The strategy charts tell you what to do.
Under favourable common casino rules, basic strategy can reduce the blackjack house edge to around 0.5%, equivalent to an RTP of approximately 99.5%. The exact figure depends on the number of decks, blackjack payouts, and other table rules. Players who go on gut feel typically give away several times that.
Blackjack plays that feel wrong but aren’t
Most blackjack strategy is common sense, especially when you see the maths behind it. A few plays aren’t, and they’re where most players lose money:
- Hit 12 against a dealer 2 or 3. It feels risky, but the dealer busts less often against those cards than you’d think.
- Hit 16 against a 7 or higher. Standing on 16 wins only when the dealer busts, and against a high card they usually don’t.
- Don’t take insurance. It pays 2:1, so it only breaks even if the dealer has blackjack more than a third of the time. Ten-value cards make up less than a third of the deck, so it loses in the long run.
- Never split tens. A total of 20 wins most hands. Splitting it into two average hands throws that away.
- Always split aces and eights. Two hands starting with an ace are far stronger than a soft 12, and 16 is the worst total in the game. Splitting eights gets you out of it.
- Double down on 11 against anything but an ace. An 11 is a strong starting total because any ten-value card gives you 21. Doubling lets you increase your bet when the odds are favourable.
Learn strategy in three blocks
Trying to memorise all optional plays at once is why most people give up. Break it into three parts and learn them in order. These plays assume the most common game rules: several decks, dealer stands on soft 17, and doubling after a split allowed.
Block 1: hard totals
A hard total is any hand without an ace counted as 11.
| Your hand | What to do |
| 8 or less | Hit |
| 9 | Double against 3-6, otherwise hit |
| 10 | Double against 2-9, otherwise hit |
| 11 | Double against 2-10, hit against an ace |
| 12 | Stand against 4-6, otherwise hit |
| 13-16 | Stand against 2-6, otherwise hit |
| 17 or more | Stand |
Block 2: soft hands
A soft hand has an ace counted as 11, so you can’t bust by taking one more card.
| Your hand | What to do |
| A,2 or A,3 | Double against 5-6, otherwise hit |
| A,4 or A,5 | Double against 4-6, otherwise hit |
| A,6 | Double against 3-6, otherwise hit |
| A,7 | Double against 3-6, stand against 2, 7 or 8, hit against 9, 10 or an ace |
| A,8 or A,9 | Stand |
If the table doesn’t let you double, hit instead, except with A,7, where you stand.
Block 3: pairs
| Your pair | What to do |
| A, A and 8,8 | Always split |
| 10,10 | Never split |
| 9,9 | Split against 2-6 and 8-9, stand against 7, 10, or an ace |
| 7,7 | Split against 2-7, otherwise hit |
| 6,6 | Split against 2-6, otherwise hit |
| 5,5 | Never split; play it as a hard 10 |
| 4,4 | Split against 5-6, otherwise hit |
| 2,2 and 3,3 | Split against 2-7, otherwise hit |
If you want to see where these plays come from, the basic strategy section on Wikipedia explains how the numbers were worked out.
Drill it before you play
Reading the chart once won’t make it stick. What makes it stick is the same thing that makes you better at any game: repetition with instant feedback.
A free blackjack trainer deals you hands against random dealer upcards and flags every mistake as you make it. Spend ten minutes a day on it for a week, and strategy turns into reflex. By the time you sit down at the Diamond Casino tables, or try your luck at the Tops, you won’t need to think about whether to double that 11.
A word on in-game chips
In GTA Online, you can buy GTA$ with real money through Shark Cards and exchange that currency for casino chips. Red Dead Redemption 2 and Fallout: New Vegas use their own in-game currencies. In all three games, setting limits on your spending and avoiding reckless bets is sensible. Basic blackjack strategy lowers the house edge. But it can never remove it.
The short version
- Basic blackjack strategy is mathematically the best play for every hand.
- Learn it in three blocks: hard totals, then soft hands, then pairs.
- Drill it until you don’t need the chart, then go and empty the Strip’s casinos before they throw you out.
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