Lesson description
Basic strategy takes practice and time, but you can trick your brain into learning this skill faster. Mr Blackjack reveals his one trick to memorizing basic strategy quickly.
Basic strategy takes time and practice to learn. For some players, memorizing the rules can be a struggle, so we've got one simple tip that will help you trick your brain into learning basic strategy faster.
In a deck of cards, you have 13 values. 2-9 are taken at their numerical value. Four cards (10, J, Q, K) have a value of 10, and the Ace has a value of 11.
So, out of 13 cards, you have four that are 10s. Statistically, that means you have a 30% chance of getting a 10 for every card that comes out.
The easiest way to learn basic strategy is to look at the dealer's up-card and pretend they have a 10 under it. Then look at your cards and pretend your next card will be a 10. You also apply that logic to the dealer's third card.
In practice, you have 10 with a combination of 6-4, and the dealer has a five. You pretend the dealer will get a 10, giving him 15, and then his next card will be another 10 giving him 25.
Now look at your hand of 10. If you consider your next card could be a 10 giving you 20. You are in a great position to double down, and you do so because your odds of making 20 versus their odds of making a better hand are definitely in your favor.
Let's see how this plays out.
So, you got a 10 as predicted, and the dealer flips 15 and gets a 7, which makes 22. Perfect textbook blackjack.
The 10 predictor is simply an easy way to remember what to do to learn basic strategy. It will not work in every situation but it does make you think about the mathematics behind blackjack.
Ultimately you should refer to a strategy card on any hand you're unsure of. It is the best resource, and once you memorize that, you can move on to Ace tracking and Hi-Lo card counting, which we discuss in our card counting classes.
