Adjusting to the Single Deck Blackjack Basic Strategy

There'll be times when you have to adjust your blackjack basic strategy. This is truer for single deck blackjack than the multi-deck version. Every card that is put into play or dealt by the dealer in a single deck game has a reasonable effect on the rest of the cards that are still in the deck.

The adjustment to your basic strategy is really necessary especially when you do card counting. You should have no second thoughts in adjusting your basic strategy due to your count. It is a must for players to adjust the current strategy according results of the true count if you expect to get anything out of this exercise.

Another occasion where players need to change or adjust some parts of single deck game strategy is when dealing with four, five, or even six cards in a single hand. The more cards in the players' hands means less cards there are in the deck. The really tough scenarios are times when you have to deal with five or six cards in your current hand. Decisions will be harder, so an adjustment to basic single deck strategy is a must to win such hands when they do come.

We'll take playing five card- and six card hands as examples of strategy adjustments in blackjack. There are other adjustments as well but we'll only deal with these two first. Here are the adjustments when playing five cards in your hand:

When playing five cards and your hand totals to 12 and the dealer shows an up card of three you have to stand. You should also stand when your total comes up to 16 against a Ten card or a Nine from the dealer.

Here are exceptions if your hand totals 12 against the dealer's three up card. You should hit only when your cards are: Two Aces, two Threes, and a Four, Ace, three Twos, and a Five, Ace, two Twos, a Three, and a Four Ace, Two, three Threes Four Twos and a Four Three Twos, and a pair of Threes

Here are the adjustments when playing six cards in single deck blackjack: Stand if your hand totals 12 against the dealer's Three up card. Stand if your hand totals 16 against the dealer's Seven, Nine, or Ten up card.

Here are times when you have to do otherwise: Hit if you have a total of 12 against the dealer's Three up card only if your hand consists of three Threes and three Aces; or two Threes, two Twos, and two Aces; or a Three, four Twos, and Ace; or Four, three Twos, and two Aces.

Hit if playing a 16 versus a dealer's Seven up card if your hand already has three or four Aces on it (rare combination to get, but may also happen).

There'll be times when we would have to adjust our single deck blackjack strategy. Start with the basics then add the adjustments mentioned here as well.