Like poker black jack is the game of strategy. The first mathematically and scientifically sound efforts to devise a blackjack basic strategy were made and published in 1953 by Roger R. Baldwin. Nine years later, Edward O. Thorp revealed his conclusions concerning the optimal blackjack basic strategy devised with the help of a high-speed computer. Julian H. Braun carried on this work and brought out what the majority of players recognize today as the correct blackjack basic strategy.

Further improvements for both single and double deck games were ushered in by Peter Griffin who made public what is recognized, by nearly all professional blackjack players in our day, as the exact blackjack basic strategy. Even though most of the blackjack strategies published have been well-known for a number of years you might find different opinions on some of the higher points of play.

Like in all casino card games, the houses have a statistical advantage over the gamblers which will play itself out sooner or later. But since blackjack, contrasting some other casino games, involves a part of player's choice, gamblers can in fact decrease the advantage of the house to an insignificant percentage by following what is acknowledged as blackjack basic strategy.

 The strategy settles on when to stand and when to hit, and also establishes when splitting or doubling down is the right action. Basic strategy is founded on the visible card of the dealer and the player's point total. There are minor differences in the strategy dependent on the number of decks in play and exact house rules. Under the most auspicious conditions (downtown Las Vegas rules, single deck), the advantage of the casino over a player playing blackjack strategy card hand may be as small as 0.17%.

Without a doubt, casinos that offer unusual rules like double-after-split and surrender may in that way offer a positive probability to players playing basic strategy; houses are counting on the mistakes of the players to make money.

The following set of rules is beneficial to the experienced blackjack player:

-- Doubles are acceptable on any hand with two cards except for a blackjack.
-- Doubles are allowed following splitting.
-- Early surrender; the capability of giving up half your bet against an ace or face earlier than the dealer will check for blackjack.
-- Normal (also known as "late") surrender.
-- Aces re-splitting.
-- Drawing over one card next to a split Ace.
-- Five cards and more with the total point still under the 21 as an automatic victory (a "Charlie")

The following set of rules is disadvantageous to the experienced player:

-- Under 3:2 payout upon blackjacks.
-- Dealer hits upon the soft seventeen (six, ace).
-- Splitting a highest of once.
-- Double down limited to definite totals, such as 10-11 or 9-11.
-- Aces cannot be re-split
-- No-Peek blackjack (a.k.a. European Blackjack) -- a player loses doubles and splits to a dealer blackjack
-- Player looses ties.

A player ought to always play the hand derived from the relevant basic strategy if he is not card counting or has supplementary information on the situation. Card counters regularly denote blackjack basic strategy as the strategy for a neutral card deck.