Blackjack hands ranked from best to worst

Every starting hand, ranked

Average result per initial bet when the hand is played by the basic strategy chart, over every dealer up card and including the rounds where the dealer has blackjack. +1 means you win your bet, −1 that you lose it. “Dealt” is the share of all starting hands. 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17, double after split, no surrender, blackjack pays 3:2.

Starting hands come in four kinds: hard totals, soft totals (an ace counted as 11), pairs and blackjack. What each kind means is on the card values page.

Only 11 of 34 hands win on average

The 11 hands above the line come in about 32% of deals. The other 68% of the time you start behind.

Weighted by how often each hand is dealt, all starting hands together average −0.006 per bet, a loss of 0.62%. That is the house edge with these rules: the good hands do not make up for the bad ones. More on the house edge.

Even hard 18 is slightly behind on average (−0.021): it beats a dealer 17, but loses to every dealer 19, 20, 21 and blackjack.

Every hand against every dealer up card

Against a 10 or an ace the dealer has already checked for blackjack, so these columns show the hands you actually get to play. Pairs are split where the chart splits them. 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17, double after split, no surrender.

The best and worst moments

The dealer's up card changes a hand's value a lot. Here are the best and the worst starting hands to hold against one particular dealer card, with the chart's move in brackets.

Hard 16 against an ace is the worst spot: −0.540 per bet even after the dealer has checked for blackjack. The dealer will usually finish on 17 to 21, and 16 can only stand and hope for a bust, or hit and risk one.

Why 12 to 16 are the worst hands

Hard 12 to 16 come in 37% of deals, more than one deal in three. Standing wins only when the dealer busts; hitting can bust you first, and a busted hand loses even if the dealer busts later.

• Hard 12: −0.314 per bet
• Hard 13: −0.345 per bet
• Hard 14: −0.369 per bet
• Hard 15: −0.393 per bet
• Hard 16: −0.412 per bet

Each step from 12 to 16 costs more, because more cards bust a hit. The chart still hits these hands against a 7 or higher: standing would lose even more there. The numbers for each move: should you hit on 16 and on 15.

Hard 17 (−0.296) is worse than hard 5 (−0.219), hard 6 (−0.240), hard 7 (−0.217) or hard 8 (−0.131): a low hand can take cards safely, while 17 must stand and then loses to every dealer 18 or more.

10 and 11: the hands you double

Hard 11 averages +0.311, more than hard 19 (+0.257), and hard 10 +0.207. They cannot bust on one card, and the chart doubles them against most dealer cards, so they win twice the bet when they win. See when to double down.

Pairs: splitting changes the value

A pair of 8s adds up to 16, but it ranks far above hard 16: −0.132 against −0.412, because the chart splits it into two hands that start from 8. A pair of 9s (+0.059) does better than hard 18 (−0.021) for the same reason.

Two ten-value cards are already 20, and splitting them would give that up. The chart stands. The full list is on when to split.

Soft hands: the ace gives you room

Soft 17 (−0.078) loses much less than hard 17 (−0.296). One more card cannot bust a soft hand, so the chart hits or doubles it instead of standing on 17. Soft 18 averages +0.028, soft 20 +0.576.

What the average does not tell you

• An average comes from many hands. A hand at +0.575 still loses or ties some of the time, and a hand at −0.412 sometimes wins.
• You do not choose your cards. What you choose is the move, and the chart picks the move with the best average for each hand.
• The figures are for 6 decks with the dealer hitting soft 17. Other rules shift them a little; the strategy chart can show the average result of every move for your table.

Questions people ask