European Blackjack Basic Strategy

The basic strategy table below applies to European blackjack, except for the United Kingdom. The following are the specific rules:

• There are six decks in total (this chart is also accurate for 4 or 8 decks)
• The dealer is on the soft 17th.
• The player can double only hard totals of 9-11.
• After a split, the player has the option to double.
• No peeking (player loses total bet, including after doubling or splitting, if the dealer has a blackjack)

Under these regulations, the house has a 0.62% advantage.


This only affected players with fours in basic strategy, boosting the house edge by 0.003%. The new law allows all splits, as well as double on either of the first two cards. The basic strategy for post-9/1/07 U.K. guidelines is as follows.