My website BlackjackInfo.com has probably delivered more free blackjack basic strategy charts than any other source in the history of the game. The popular "Basic Strategy Engine" feature allows visitors to choose the exact rules of their local blackjack game and get a free printable strategy chart that shows a perfect basic strategy for that specific game. The Strategy Engine has delivered millions of charts over the nearly one dozen years since it launched. Located for the first few years at the complicated (and long since retired) web address of http://www2.netdoor.com/~kensmith/index.html the site moved to its current home at www.BlackjackInfo.com in early 1996.

Free printable strategy charts were nice, but many site visitors also wanted a professionally produced strategy card they could carry to the table with them. In 2003 when I added an online bookstore to BlackjackInfo.com, I looked around at a few commercially available wallet-size strategy cards like the ones you have probably seen for sale in casino gift shops. However, none of the cards that I found met my standards for accuracy. In every case, the available cards used a "one size fits all" approach to the rules, and featured a generic strategy intended for use in all games regardless of rule differences. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but in addition, most of the cards had strategies that were just plain wrong on some decisions.

After continued searching, I finally found a product I felt comfortable selling in the BlackjackInfo.com store. Hal Marcus had published a set of strategy cards with separate versions for each of the one-deck, two-deck and four-or-more deck games. The strategies were almost perfect, with only one insignificant error on the single deck card (It advised standing with A8v6 in a single deck S17 game, while doubling is better by a tiny amount.)

I added Hal's cards to the site store and sold them for the next five years. Still, the size of the cards was an issue. The wording that appeared on the strategy cards advised against placing them on a blackjack table because the casino might suspect you were using them to hide playing cards! While I know of only a handful of complaints from casino personnel about customers using the cards at the table, a wallet-size card wouldn't have that problem.

Another similar product was introduced later by RGE. The "Ultimate Blackjack Strategy Cards" provided a completely accurate strategy for the various games, and also included a "composition-dependent" strategy that takes into account the actual cards that make up your hand. The strategy cards still used the larger format, and I also found the composition dependent plays made the cards a bit difficult to understand for many possible users. Also, at a retail price of $6.99, the cards were noticeably more expensive. For those reasons, I chose to stick with Hal's cards instead.

When Hal recently announced that he would no longer be producing his cards, I had a decision to make. I could switch to the excellent RGE cards at the higher price, or I could finally bring the wallet-size strategy card world up to the standards of BlackjackInfo-style accuracy. I chose the latter, and designed and produced a new set of six blackjack basic strategy cards under the BlackjackInfo.com brand name. With separate versions for the 1 deck, 2 deck and 4/6/8 deck games in both S17 and H17 varieties, each card also includes strategies appropriate for both the double after split (DAS) game and the No DAS game.

To fit both varieties of strategies on each small wallet-size card required an innovative approach. As an example, here's the pair splitting section from the six-deck S17 card:

Take a look at the line for the hand (2,2) and you'll see what I mean. Against a dealer two or three, the strategy is indicated by the orange colored "P*" designation. The key below shows this means to split if double after split (DAS) is allowed. If DAS is not allowed in the game you are playing, you should just hit instead.

By including the strategies that are dependent on DAS in this way, it accomplishes two things. It keeps the strategy small enough to appear on a wallet-size card, and it also allows the user of the card some insight into how that rule changes the game. By looking at the pattern of the orange strategy squares above, it is easier to begin to understand and remember the appropriate strategy changes caused by the presence or absence of the DAS rule. After all, using a strategy card at the table is a great way to improve your game, but the eventual goal should be memorization of basic strategy so you can play quickly and accurately without it.

The cards show the decisions for hard and soft total hands on the front with the pair splitting strategy on the back.

I contend that these are the most convenient and accurate wallet-size strategy cards ever produced. Did the world need a new blackjack strategy card? Why, yes, it did. Six of them in fact.