Blackjack Hand Calculator

How the blackjack calculator works

Blackjack has a known, mathematically optimal decision for every combination of your hand and the dealer's up card — this is called basic strategy. Our calculator looks up your exact situation and returns the play that loses the least (or wins the most) over the long run.

What the moves mean

• Hit — take another card to improve a low total.
• Stand — keep your current hand and pass to the dealer.
• Double — double your bet and take exactly one more card. If your table doesn't allow doubling, hit (or stand on soft 18–19).
• Split — when you hold a pair, split into two hands with a bet on each.

Hard hands, soft hands and pairs

A hard hand has no ace, or an ace that must count as 1. A soft hand has an ace counting as 11 (like A-6 = "soft 17"), so it can't bust on the next card. A pair is two cards of equal value, which opens up the option to split. The calculator detects all three automatically.

A note on the odds

Even with perfect basic strategy, blackjack keeps a small built-in house edge. No strategy, calculator or system can turn that edge in your favour over time. Treat every session as entertainment, set a budget before you play, and use our bankroll simulator to see how variance behaves.