This post is syndicated by the Las Vegas Advisor for the 888 casino group. Anthony Curtis comments on the 888 article introduced and linked to on this page

AC says: Experienced blackjack players might get the initial impression that this article is too rudimentary to bother reading. Resist that urge. While it addresses aspects of the game that you may already know about, John Grochowski clarifies things in an interesting way using the “numbers” theme. I’ve never seen the 34/55 discussion before, but it helps sum up what you’re looking at in a basic strategy chart and, as a bonus, touches on the little-discussed topic of composition-dependent basic strategy, which is something many won’t have already known about. 

This article was written by John Grochowski in association with 888Casino.

Blackjack and Numbers

Blackjack is a game of numbers.

Regardless of whether you play live or online casinos, you have numbers for card values: 1 or 11 for an Ace, 10 for 10s and face cards, and face values such as 2 for 2s, 3 for 3s and so on for the rest.

Those lead to hand totals. A 9, a 3 and a 5 total 17. A Queen and a Jack total 20.

Twenty-one is an important number. If your total exceeds 21, you lose. If it’s 21 or less, you win if your total is higher than the dealer’s.

Another important number is 17. Dealers must hit a total of less than 17 and must stand on any total greater than 17. Seventeen itself is murky territory. Dealers always must stand on hard 17, but some casinos require dealers to hit soft 17.

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