Place your bet — true count 0
Dealer
What's the correct play?
You
Cards left312
Decks left6.0
Losing Slower = More Free Booze 🍺
Beat the dealer's hand without going over 21. You win if your total is higher than the dealer's, or if the dealer busts (goes over 21). You don't need 21 — you need to beat the dealer.
An Ace + any 10-value card on your first two cards is a blackjack. It beats any other 21 and pays 3:2 (bet 2, win 3), unless the dealer also has blackjack — then it's a push (tie).
The dealer has no choices. They reveal their hole card and must draw until reaching 17 or more, then stop. Whether they also hit a soft 17 (S17 vs H17) is a table rule that changes a few correct plays — set it, along with the deck count and the rest, under Settings & rules. The strategy chart and the grading both follow whatever you pick.
Every decision you make is graded against basic strategy — the mathematically optimal play for each hand vs. each dealer upcard. Then the hand plays out for real: hit as many times as you like, split and play each hand, then the dealer draws and the round is settled win/lose/push. Your accuracy %, streak, and per-type breakdown track your progress toward the 95% mastery goal. Wrong answers and weak categories come up more often.
Turn on counting mode to train the Hi-Lo system: each 2–6 is +1, each 7–9 is 0, each 10/J/Q/K/Ace is −1. Add these up as cards appear (the running count), then divide by the decks remaining to get the true count. A high positive count means lots of tens and aces remain — good for the player. Counting doesn't change the correct play of most hands; it tells you when the deck favors you so you'd bet more.
Basic strategy is fixed, but once you're counting, a few hands flip when the shoe gets rich or poor. The Illustrious 18 are the eighteen highest-value of those index plays: stand on 16 vs 10 at a true count of 0 or higher, double 11 vs an Ace from +1, and so on. Turn on the deviations drill and the trainer grades against the count instead of the flat chart; the full index table appears in the strategy matrix. With surrender on you also get the Fab 4 surrender indices. Note that 15 vs 10 carries two: hit below 0, surrender from 0, and stand from +4.
Counting only pays off if you bet more when the count is high. With the bet-sizing trainer on, you'll size each bet before the deal using a 1–12 unit ramp: true count ≤1 → 1 unit, 2 → 2, 3 → 4, 4 → 8, 5+ → 12. Flat-betting a counted shoe earns nothing; the spread is the edge. The Bankroll stat tracks your net units (blackjacks paid 3:2) so you can watch good betting compound over a session.
Tap the Strategy matrix for the full chart — every cell is clickable and explains itself.