Blackjack Basic Strategy Trainer
The trainer deals a dealer upcard and your hand and asks for one thing: the correct play. Hit, stand, double, split or surrender — graded instantly against a chart built from your own table rules, with the reasoning underneath.
Getting the most out of this drill
- Pick a hand type
All, hard totals, soft totals or pairs. Drilling one category at a time is how you find the handful of cells you actually get wrong.
- Answer fast
Click an action or press its key — H, S, D, P or R. Double, split and surrender only appear when the hand and your rules allow them, so the buttons on screen are already a hint.
- Read the why
Leave “explain the why” on and every verdict arrives with a sentence of reasoning rather than a bare right-or-wrong mark.
- Add index plays later
At blackjack level 4 a count-deviations switch appears. The trainer then shows a true count with each hand and expects you to leave the chart when the count says to.
What “correct” means here
Correct is resolved from the engine's multi-deck basic-strategy chart.
Three settings move it: whether the dealer hits soft 17, late surrender and double after split. Out of the box the dealer stands on soft 17 and both are allowed; deck count does not change the chart.
Those rules genuinely move the answer, which is the point of grading against them rather than a generic chart. Hard 11 against an ace doubles when the dealer hits soft 17 and hits when the dealer stands. Soft 19 against a 6 doubles under H17 and stands under S17. Change the setting and the graded answer changes with it.
Hard totals, soft totals and pairs
The category filter decides the shape of hand you get.
Hard hands total 17 or less with no ace counted as 11, soft hands hold an ace counted as 11 (soft 13 through soft 20), and pairs are matched ranks — including the ten-value pair you are never supposed to break. Each shape has its own small set of decisions people get wrong, and mixing them together hides which one is yours.
Once you have a first Decisions rating, about one hand in five arrives after a hit, as three or four cards. You can no longer double or surrender it, so the right play can differ from the chart's two-card cell: a three-card soft 18 against a 5 stands, and a three-card 11 simply hits. These hands pay XP and count in your set, but stay off the Decisions rating for now. Pairs are always two cards, and so is the first hand of every visit.
Index plays unlock at level 4
Basic strategy is the floor.
Above it sit index plays: the departures a counter makes once the remaining shoe has shifted far enough to flip a close decision. The engine carries fourteen of them, all from the Hi-Lo Illustrious 18 — standing on 16 against a 10 at a true count of 0 or higher, standing on 12 against a 3 at +2, doubling 11 against an ace at +1, and so on. Every one is a hit, stand or double; there are no surrender indices in the trainer.
They stay locked until blackjack level 4 on purpose. An index play is a departure from the chart, so there has to be a chart to depart from — learning the exceptions before the rule just leaves you unsure of both at once.
Blackjack Basic Strategy Trainer FAQ
Do I need to memorise the chart before I start?
No — this is how you memorise it. Answer, read the explanation when you are wrong, and let the repetition do the work. In our experience the chart resolves into a handful of rules plus a short list of exceptions well before you can recite it cell by cell.
Why do the double, split and surrender buttons come and go?
Because the action is not legal on that hand. Double needs a two-card hand, split needs a matched pair, and surrender needs both a two-card hand and surrender switched on in your rules. The action grid never offers a play the table would not let you make.
Is this the same chart as the reference page?
Yes — one engine drives both. The reference renders the chart you can read, the trainer quizzes you against the same resolver, and both follow the soft-17, surrender and double-after-split settings you have chosen.
How do I find my weak spots?
Finish a set and tap Drill these. The trainer keeps a list of the hands you miss, cell by cell, beside a starting list of hands players often miss, and deals a short run of them mixed with their neighbours on the chart, so no button gives the answer away. A hand leaves the list once you play it right on three separate days. A run pays its XP once, at the end, and stays off your Decisions rating. Misses made with index plays switched on are not listed.