The Playing 21 Blackjack Program -- Basic Strategy

Basic Strategy
“The Shocking Truth”

A Lot To Remember?

You will hear the term “Basic Strategy” in most books or sites you read about Blackjack. After all, it is the most important thing you should know about Blackjack. You may even have some “Basic Play Charts” given to you from your favorite casino, or maybe worse, had to buy from their gift shop.

The term refers to best way to play the game Blackjack, using the rules offered in a particular casino, without Card Counting. An example of this would be, if you have a Hard 11 and the dealer has an Ace showing, what is the correct play? Would you Hit or maybe Double Down on this hand?

If you factor in all the first 2-card hand totals a player can receive, vs. the 10 possible Dealer Up Cards, referred to by us as First Hit Rules (on the right), you find the following total decisions:

Hard Hands 17 x 10 = 170 (Hands between 4 and 20, although 4 and 20 are only referred to as Hard totals when a person reaches the maximum split limit)

Soft Hands 10 x 10 = 100 (All soft hands, remembering a soft A-A is only used here once maximum split of Aces is reached, which is further dependant on casino rules for splitting Aces)

Pairs 10 x 10 = 100 (Assuming players are looking here for the Pair Ace-Ace, and Pair 10-10 Rules)

Not to scare a beginner but a player has to worry about 370 different First Hit Rules!

The First Hit Rules are different from what we call the Additional Hit Rules (on the right), which are the Hit and Stand decisions players must make after the dealer has added a third card to their hands. A simpler distinction between First Hit Rules and Additional Hit Rules is this; once the casino affords you no other options but Hit or Stand, you are using the Additional Hit Rules. The following is a breakdown of Additional Hit Rules:

Hard Hands 17 x 10 = 170 (Hands between 4 and 20)

Soft Hands 9 x 10 = 80 (A-2 to A-9. An A-A can never be considered for Additional Hit Rule and if you have A-10 or Soft 21, and can only hit or stand, here is a hint, Get Up)

There are 250 more Additional Hit Rules involved with Basic Strategy!

A Blackjack player who is not counting cards is faced with a minimum of 620 different decisions they have to make while playing any normal Blackjack session. This is why we love this game! It is simply amazing when you actually think of the complexity of the game. It’s no wonder it took us 3 years of research and development to make the Playing 21 Program.

How Important Are These Decisions?

This is one of the many questions we’d expect asked. If you do not card count, you are left with a Betting Strategy based on some type of system. Even if you never alter your bet, you are still betting using a rudimentary system. After betting, you are left with Basic Strategy, which is simply the decisions you use to play each hand you receive. This is the point that will separate you and your money the quickest. The worst decision making player will gain some back by proper betting and the good decision maker will lose some of his edge, by poor betting habits. The best player is the one who combines the two; proper betting and playing decisions.

You must understand the importance of Basic Strategy. Each of the 620 First Hit Rules and Additional Hit Rules, has only one way to play that is mathematically correct. If you are not making that correct decision, you are simply playing incorrectly, adding to the casino’s overall advantage over you.

Who And What To Believe?

We’ll be the first to admit we are more than just a tad pissed off. We spent several 1,000 hours analyzing the game Blackjack, from reading books and factoring in everything we could get our hands on. We even collected over 40 “Basic Play Charts” given to us by different casinos. It is the one thing beside matchboxes casinos give away for free (Although I have seen them charge for the Basic Play Charts more often than they do matches, unless you’re at the Horseshoe in Vegas. The pit bosses are very sticky with their matches there…especially if you’re “with that other guy”).

So you can imagine how much we thought we knew about Blackjack. We had every Blackjack book we ever saw, subscribed to four Blackjack magazines, 40-some basic play charts and 10’s of thousands of hands we personally flipped ourselves. We could Card Count and count cards. We knew where and when to play, where and when not to play. We knew the rules we liked, and the ones we didn’t. We even knew the little things it takes others literally years to find out, like the best steakhouse in Vegas and the one and only place to watch hockey in Reno. Was there anything we hadn’t already figured out?

Did I mention we were upset about a few things? Imagine our shock when we realized that much we had ever read about the game Blackjack was right? Oh sure, there was the Stand the Hard 12 vs. the Dealers Up Card of Five, that was still right, but so much of it was wrong, we were absolutely lost (Update: Certain counting has proven we should be hitting the Hard 12 vs. a 5 at certain counts. Damn program!!!) Nothing made sense, logically or mathematically.

We made the gross error of taking the word of someone “Selling” something as fact. That should have been clear just from the used car salesman we know (Just checking to see if you guys actually read the site or not! You know I love all used car salesman). Even more obviously ignorant on our part; we had taken the word of someone who had the most to lose when we won the most. If we succeeded in what they taught us, they would lose. Why did we trust, even for a minute, what many casinos had given us? I guess the question remains to this day; why wouldn’t we have trusted them? But think about it, if you were about to duel with someone at thirty paces with pistols on a fine Georgia morning, would you rather load the gun yourself, or have your opponent hand it to you and say, “Don’t worry, I loaded it for you, you can use it…Trust me…”? Yeah, us too.

Before we go on, McB Duplin is selling something. That is how we make our living. We are selling the best Blackjack program ever made. The one with all the answers. The one that both exposed the truth, and the fact that the casinos were misleading their customers. We are selling, but we want you to use your own common sense. When you have the facts, confidence comes naturally. When you never lie, you never have to remember your lies. Bottom line, we are selling you a program so you can discover the truth about Blackjack. You never have to sit down at a Blackjack table and wonder what to do…EVER.

Obviously we had placed our trust in others and only now did we realize that we had been completely mislead. Looking back at the story, the word “Basic” in itself says so much. The casinos even use this word today to describe these charts. Basic means “excluding extra’s”, or that there is a more advanced way to play. It is so hypocritical to make Card Counting a taboo, and yet promote it on their own cards by placing the word "basic" there. It can only be assumed they are referring to card counting, because if you are not card counting, 100% of the decisions they recommend even on their charts should be correct. Sadly many of these charts are mathematically incorrect. Actually, each and every one should be the best way to play the hand, not Basically WRONG.

What Was Wrong?

Before the Playing 21 Program we had pretty much realized it all. We realized that these books telling us how to play the game were mathematically wrong. We compared our research with their Basic Play Charts, and usually found differences. That’s decisions just plain wrong. Unreal! This held true for the Basic Play Charts we were given from almost all casinos (of course we say almost, for we have not seen every casinos charts). We found other logical problems on card counting, several theories we never heard of, and questions about little things we knew were incorrect. But how do you prove all this to the world? Why would anyone take our word on this?

We decided that there was only one way to do all this. We had to develop the best Blackjack program ever made. To do that, we asked Blackjack players, and ourselves, what they wanted to know the answers to. Some of the questions were simple:

· “If the Dealer starts with a 5, how often does he make 19?”

· “I want to bet any amount of money at any card count.”

· “I want to count any card, any way, placing different weights on different cards.”

· “I want to have all the differing rules that casinos offer, so I can set up my own game.”

· “I want to play any Starting hand, any way, at any count. So at Plus 6 I might want to hit it, but at Minus 2, I might want to surrender.”

"I want to see my wins and losses at every count, so I know for this counting method, house rules, and playing strategy at what counts I win and at what counts I should bet more money."

“If the count is minus 6, any way I want to count, and I have a Pair of 7’s, and the dealer has a 6 showing, I want to see how I do every time I split that hand, keeping track within there things like double down wins and losses, busts, wagers, wins, losses, pushes and more.” (So we ended up settling for 45 different ways to track each of these in the Hand Breakdown vs. Dealer Up Card)

These were the kinds of things we wanted to show everyone, plus a bunch more in-depth and complicated things we need not get into right now. We wanted to do it very simply, so everyone could understand what we found out. So that’s what we did.

The Playing 21 Program provided answers to all the questions we wanted to know about Blackjack. Now, seeing is believing; for everyone. You ask the question, and we show you the answer. That was the goal, and we are extremely proud to be able to say that we realized that goal.

After the program was finished, we were able to prove we were right. Anyone with the program could see for themselves we were right. They too should be pissed off if they ever spent money in casinos playing the casino’s way, or followed misleading books they paid good money for. Everyone should be mad, very upset and demand some answers from the industry. I don’t know much about inquiries, but I hope the gaming commissions in charge of the casinos call me as a witness if they have the balls do what is right, and demand the casinos answer the who’s, what’s and why’s we all want to know.

All The Answers

The Playing 21 Program supplies you with all you need to know. Make all those 620 decisions correctly. The program includes all the proper rule variations and all the player options that can take place in the game. Now instead of referencing the Internet, a book, or the casinos’ incorrect charts for the correct plays, you can simply go to the Hand Breakdown vs. Dealer Up Card. You have set up the program to play millions of hands and before you finish your coffee, there are all the answers. What hand do you want to see? You are about 4 mouse clicks from seeing any answer you want, and proving to yourself who, and what, is right.

You have a Hard 12, the Dealer has a 3 showing, how did you do? After the program does its magic, there is the answer, broken down into more detail than any program ever made on the game has done before, into 45 different criteria. As simple as, click, click, click.