Blackjack Simulator: Play Free Blackjack
Play free blackjack in your browser with a $1,000 chip bankroll, adjustable shoe and payout rules, and an optional basic-strategy hint. No signup, no download.
Dealer
You
Select your chip stake ($25) and press Deal.
- Bankroll
- $1,000
- Current bet
- $25
- Session net
- $0
- Hands played
- 0
- Table house edge
- 0.41%
How to Play & What the Numbers Mean
Choose your shoe rules, select a chip stake ($5 to $500), and press Deal. Starting from our benchmark shoe (6 decks, dealer stands on soft 17, double after split, blackjack pays 3:2, 0.41% house edge, where 100 hands at $25/hand has an expected loss of $10.14 with a 1.15-unit per-hand standard deviation of ±$287.50), every rule toggle shifts your expected return by a fixed amount:
| Rule Change (from 6D S17 DAS 3:2) | New House Edge | Edge Shift (pts) | Hourly Cost ($25/hand, 80 hands) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blackjack pays 6:5, not 3:2 | 1.77% | +1.36 | $35.31/hr |
| Dealer hits soft 17 | 0.62% | +0.21 | $12.36/hr |
| Double on 10 and 11 only | 0.60% | +0.19 | $11.96/hr |
| No double after split | 0.55% | +0.14 | $10.95/hr |
| Split once, no resplits | 0.46% | +0.05 | $9.20/hr |
| 8 decks, not 6 | 0.43% | +0.03 | $8.65/hr |
| Resplit aces | 0.34% | −0.07 | $6.74/hr |
| Late surrender | 0.33% | −0.07 | $6.66/hr |
| 2 decks, not 6 | 0.19% | −0.21 | $3.85/hr |
| 1 deck, not 6 | −0.14% | −0.55 | $-2.89/hr |
Sources & further reading
- Where Basic Strategy Came From, and What 6:5 Costs You
- Shuffle Machines vs. a Cut Card: What Changes for the Player
- Baldwin, R. R., Cantey, W. E., Maisel, H., & McDermott, J. P. (1956). The optimum strategy in blackjack. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 51(275), 429–439. doi:10.1080/01621459.1956.10501334
- Thorp, E. O. (1962; 2nd ed. 1966). Beat the Dealer: A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One. Random House / Vintage Books.
- Griffin, P. A. (1979; 6th ed. 1999). The Theory of Blackjack: The Compleat Card Counter's Guide to the Casino Game of 21. Huntington Press.
- Schlesinger, D. (1997; 3rd ed. 2005). Blackjack Attack: Playing the Pros' Way. RGE Publishing.
- Shackleford, M. Cut Card Effect. Wizard of Odds. wizardofodds.com/games/blackjack/cut-card-effect/
Printable Charts for Every Shoe
Single deck, dealer stands on soft 17Single deck, dealer hits soft 17Double deck, dealer stands on soft 17Double deck, dealer hits soft 176 and 8 deck, dealer stands on soft 176 and 8 deck, dealer hits soft 17
Frequently asked questions
- How is this free blackjack simulator different from the strategy trainer?
- The free blackjack game deals ungraded hands with a $1,000 chip bankroll, selectable chip stakes ($5 to $500), and full rule controls including 3:2 vs. 6:5 payouts and double after split. Check “Show the right play” whenever you want the chart’s exact move.
- Why does switching from 3:2 to 6:5 jump the house edge so much?
- You are dealt a natural two-card 21 on 4.75% of hands (192/4,043) in 6 decks and 4.83% (32/663) in single deck. Paying 6:5 instead of 3:2 clips 0.30 bets off every winning natural, adding 1.36 percentage points and taking a 0.41% shoe to 1.77%.
- Are the cards rigged or weighted in this simulator?
- No. Every round is dealt without replacement from a standard 52-card deck (or 2, 6, or 8 decks) shuffled with an unbiased Fisher-Yates draw.
- Does a continuous shuffling machine (CSM) increase the casino’s edge?
- Per hand, Shackleford (Wizard of Odds, "Cut Card Effect") shows a CSM lowers the basic-strategy house edge by 0.020 percentage points in 6 decks and 0.014 percentage points in 8 decks compared with a cut-card shoe, but eliminating shuffle breaks deals 20% to 25% more hands per hour and wipes out card counting.
- When should I turn on Late Surrender?
- Turn it on whenever offered: it trims 0.07 percentage points off a 6-deck S17 shoe. Basic strategy surrenders hard 16 against 9, 10, or Ace, and hard 15 against 10.