Basic strategy is based on table rules. Fortunately, nowadays, most casinos use the same ones:

• The dealer hits on soft-17 (ace + 6)

• Double allowed after splitting a pair

• No surrender

These rules give the house a 0.5% edge over the player if and only if the player makes the statistically correct decision to stand, hit, double, split, or surrender.

A few casinos use variations on these rules where: the dealer stands on soft-17, where surrender is allowed, or both. An even smaller number of casinos use one or more of the hundreds of other rule variations.

If we put aside the rare instances of variations and exceptions, we can use the decisions chart shown to learn 100% of basic strategy.

Every decision charts is organized the same way:

With a section for hard hands, soft hands, and pairs; with player and dealer points on the vertical and horizontal axes; and with the recommendation at the intersection of player and dealer points.

Blocks are those large sections of the decision chart that have the same recommendations. For example:

• The player always hits when he has a hard hand (no aces or pairs) and eight points or less, no matter what card the value of the dealer’s up card.

• The player always stands when he has a hard hand and 17 points or more no matter what the dealer’s up card.

Knowing what to do with the seven blocks that fit in the “blocks” category is mostly just common sense. For example, why would a player do anything other than hit when he has an eight or less? He has nothing to lose and everything to gain by taking another card.

With doubling it’s useful to remember two memory-jogging cues…

• The “down escalator for hard hands,” used for a hard 9, 10 or 11, and

• The “up escalator for soft hands,” used for a player’s 2 though 7.

Inside the outline of these cues, the player always doubles. Outside the outline but on the same rows, the player always hits.

A pair of fives is also doubled unless the dealer has a 10 or an 11 then the player hits.

It sounds complicated, but study the chart for a few minutes and your mind will be able to recall the shapes and remember the action.

It’s necessary to removes fours, fives, eights, and aces before using the splitting cue. Here’s why…

• Fours are only split when the dealer has a five or six, the worst cards for the dealer, otherwise they are hit.

• Fives are handled the same way as a hard ten — by doubling — unless the dealer has a 10 or 11, then the hand is hit.

• Eights and aces are always split.

• What’s left to remove are a pair of nines, which are oddballs and too complicated to visualize.

Which leaves us with the “pairs’ slot for 2s, 3s, 6s, and 7s, which are always split when the dealer has less than 7 except for sixes, which are split when the dealer has less than six.

Again, split inside the cue’s outline and hit outside the outline.

Again, this sounds complicated when it’s described in words, but the brain can easily remember the shapes.

There are four rows that are not easily remembered with memory devices like blocks or cues. These need to be memorized.

If it’s too hard to memorize them then just write them down for those few times when they appear in a game. (There’s no restriction against using a physical cheat-sheet at the tables, just make sure it’s not on a smartphone, which are forbidden at the tables.)

So, why not use a cheat-sheet or a card for everything? It’s a good question, and some players do refer to their cards, but it’s rare…perhaps because it slows the game and labels the player a beginner.