Rules
Card values, the deal, your four moves, the dealer’s rules, payouts and a full round.
Read more →Blackjack: rules, strategy and the maths
Every page here is written for one table: the Hall of Thoth in Anubis City, with six decks, a dealer who stands on all 17s and blackjack paid 3 to 2.
Guides and tools
Basic strategy chart
The right move for every hand at our table, how we calculated it and what it saves.
Read more →Strategy trainer
Deal a hand, pick a move, see whether the chart agrees and what each move is worth.
Read more →Soft and hard hands
How to tell them apart, why soft hands are played boldly, and the soft 17 and 18 traps.
Read more →When to double down
Hard 9, 10 and 11, the soft doubles, the doubles that cost money, and what doubling is worth.
Read more →When to split
Every pair against every dealer card, our split rules and what each split is worth.
Read more →Insurance and even money
The exact arithmetic for six decks, why “insure a good hand” is backwards, and what it costs.
Read more →House edge
Our 0.40%, how it was calculated, what every rule changes and how simple styles compare.
Read more →The short answer
Blackjack is the one game against the house where your decisions change the odds. Play every hand by basic strategy and the house keeps about 0.4% of what you bet — far less than roulette’s 2.7% or the 5% or so of a slot machine. Play by feel and it is usually somewhere between 2% and 6%.
The guides below take you from the rules to that 0.4%. You don’t need to be good at maths: the chart does the thinking, and the trainer drills it until it becomes habit.
Where to start
- Rules — card values, the deal, your four moves and what the dealer has to do. Fifteen minutes, with one round played out in full.
- Basic strategy chart — one move for every hand against every dealer card. Begin with the hard totals: they are three hands out of four.
- Strategy trainer — it deals, you choose, it tells you whether the chart agrees and why.
- Soft hands, doubling down and splitting — the three places where beginners lose the most, with numbers for every case.
- Insurance — why the side bet you are offered against an ace loses 7.4% of whatever you put on it.
- House edge — what 0.4% means for your balance, and how much each rule of the table is worth.
Numbers we checked ourselves
We did not copy the chart from a book. A program went through every two-card hand against every dealer card in a six-deck shoe and picked the move with the best average result; the chart it produced matches the published charts for these rules cell for cell. A simulator then played 50 million rounds with it through our shoe: the house kept 0.43% ± 0.03%, against 0.40% from the exact calculation.
Debens in Anubis City are free and can’t be cashed out, so none of this is advice on gambling for money. Learning the strategy is like learning chess openings: it gives you a better game, not a payday.
Questions about learning blackjack
Can basic strategy beat blackjack?
No. It brings the house edge down to 0.40% at our table — the best you can do without counting cards — but the average is still a small loss.
How long does it take to learn basic strategy?
The hard totals take an hour or two with the trainer. Soft hands and pairs come up less often, so give them a few more short sessions.
Do I play blackjack for real money in Anubis City?
No. You play with debens, which we give out for free. They can’t be bought back or exchanged for money.
Take a seat in the Hall of Thoth
The Scribes’ Table starts at 100 debens a hand — the right place to try the chart with real cards.
Play free