Test Your Knowledge: Part 1

The basis of playing winning Blackjack is knowing the proper play for each hand. Called 'basic strategy', it won't, by itself, make you a long term winner at the game, but it will cut the house edge to a minimum. A lot of players out there honestly believe they know how to play the game, but in reality, few play perfect basic strategy. As explained in a previous article ("In Pursuit of Basic Strategy"), the rules of the casino determine just what the proper basic strategy is. For example, if the dealer must stand on a hand of A-6, proper basic strategy is for the player to stand with a hand of A-8 against a dealer's up card of 6. If, however, the dealer must hit A-6, proper basic strategy says to double a hand of A-8 against a dealer's up card of 6.

For this test, I am assuming rules which are fairly common all over the world: six decks, dealer stands on A-6, double on any first two cards and double after splitting pairs. The answers are on a separate page so that you can print out this test and later check your accuracy. Unless you can answer all these correctly, you're giving up more to the casino than you should. Miss more than 2 and you're kidding yourself if you think you know how to play the game.

I may damage your ego a bit with this test, but the casino will damage your wallet; my way is less painful.

	Player's Hand	Dealer's Up Card	Decision
1.	5,3	6
2.	A,6	7
3.	5,4	2
4.	A,2	3
5.	8,3	K
6.	A,7	A
7.	7,5	2
8.	9,7	7
9.	8,8	Q
10.	9,2	2
11.	2,2	4
12.	A,7	5
13.	A,4	3
14.	5,5	6
15.	6,6	3
16.	7,5	3
17.	6,3	7
18.	6,4	9
19.	A,7	J
20.	9,9	8

A final note: If you think you're really good, do this in under a minute.

Need some help? Here are the answers.