Blackjack - The Book

You kiss by th' book.

William Shakespeare;
Juliet in Act I, Scene V of "Romeo and Juliet"

"The book" is nothing more than some kind of "cheat-sheet" for the game of Blackjack. Technically, its usage cannot be discriminated as cheating, since it merely shows the "best (basic) strategy". And since the game is quite limited in possibilities, it actually isn't really a book; it's just a sheet. A really small sheet you can find different, even purchaseable versions printed on a credit-card size plastic sheet.

Still, it's funny (but not unusual) when sitting at a casino table (yeah, I'm a sort of gambling addict :-)) to hear questions like "What does the book say?".

Well, check it out for yourself!

   \ Dealer shows:                     (T = 10)
You \ +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
Have:\| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | T | A |
+-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|17-21| S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S |
|13-16| S | S | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H |
|  12 | H | H | S | S | S | H | H | H | H | H |
|  11 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
|  10 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | H | H |
|   9 | H | D | D | D | D | H | H | H | H | H |
| 5-8 | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | H | H |
+-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|A+8-T| S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S |
|A+7  |S/D| D | D | D | D | S | S | H | H | H |
|A+6  | H | D | D | D | D | H | H | H | H | H |
|A+5/4| H | H | D | D | D | H | H | H | H | H |
|A+3/2| H | H | H | D | D | H | H | H | H | H |
+-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|2xA/8| P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P |
|2x 10| S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S |
|2x  9| P | P | P | P | P | S | P | P | S | S |
|2x  7| P | P | P | P | P | P | H | H | H | H |
|2x  6| P | P | P | P | P | H | H | H | H | H |
|2x  5| D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | H | H |
|2x  4| H | H | H | P | P | H | H | H | H | H |
|2x2/3| P | P | P | P | P | P | H | H | H | H |
+-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
H = Hit; S = Stand; D = Double down; P = sPlit;
"-" = up to; "+" = AND; "/" = OR; "2x" = twice;

I assume you can play Blackjack, I'm not here to teach you that. Some nice beginner/intermediate references can be found on Wikipedia ("Blackjack" entry), as well as on many more pages which also describe the many Blackjack rules/variations and their impact on house edges, odds and strategy. One nice overview and starting point is on The Wizard of Odds.

Last modified: 15:03 07/Apr/05 |•| What does all this mean?