almost perfect but simple exceptions to the basic strategy in Single Deck Blackjack

I created a player-friendly table of exceptions to the Single Deck Blackjack (Wizard's Appendix 3A). It's almost as good as the Composition-Dependent Strategy on five separate (and unreadable) tables, but much simpler. I combined a few tricks: focused only on changes to the basic strategy, used the same colours, merged cells where possible and found some simplifications. Effect: a clean second table worth 0.03% and more fun from the game. Ideal to keep printed next to the basic strategy and use when a hand marked with a black circle (likely deviation from the basic strategy) is drawn.
Hopefully it will be added to the Appendix 3A.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tJdhidTRQfDfpMABn8Ukyu0vjgN8JCaQ/view?usp=sharing

Quote: MattUK

I created a player-friendly table of exceptions to the Single Deck Blackjack (Wizard's Appendix 3A). It's almost as good as the Composition-Dependent Strategy on five separate (and unreadable) tables, but much simpler. I combined a few tricks: focused only on changes to the basic strategy, used the same colours, merged cells where possible and found some simplifications. Effect: a clean second table worth 0.03% and more fun from the game. Ideal to keep printed next to the basic strategy and use when a hand marked with a black circle (likely deviation from the basic strategy) is drawn.
Hopefully it will be added to the Appendix 3A.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tJdhidTRQfDfpMABn8Ukyu0vjgN8JCaQ/view?usp=sharing
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Is this 8 decks, or 6 decks, or 2 decks?

Start from the title.

Single deck is just one rule. What are the rest?

The basic strategy doesn't match any game I've played regardless of number of decks, if I should only hit, not double down, on 11 vs dealer 10, A. Is it no dealer peek?

Quote: MattUK

Start from the title.
link to original post

Should have been on the graphic card itself. when you're in a casino at a table, you shouldn't have to look at the last words on a long title of a thread in the WOV forum to find out how to apply the card.

Single deck blackjack? Where exceptions make the biggest difference; but single deck BJ is extremely rare in brick and mortar casinos.is this card meant for online use?

Single deck has dozens of exceptions, and worse still - double exceptions (exceptions from changes to the basic strategy) that are hard to present in a useful form. So far we've had five convoluted tables for each number of cards from 2 to 6 (see Appendix 3A to blackjack on the website). The solution to that was a simple table showing only Hit or Stand for any number of cards (Appendix 3A on the bottom). But that reduces the effectiveness to the point is almost misses the point of using it atop the basic strategy.
My table is best of both words - covers almost all exceptions in a simple table.

I haven’t understood your goal here. Single deck blackjack games have disappeared in America. Are you from UK?

Yes, I use it in online casinos playing Microgaming's Classic Blackjack or a new take with these rules - Perfect Strategy Blackjack by Switch Studios. The latter advices best play according to the basic strategy (hence 99.87%). I was annoyed by wrong advices like Hit 16 v 10 with 3+ cards but needed something better than the existing five convoluted tables on four pages.

Regarding the hit/stand decision on 16 vs. Ten, I had a post in this forum to summarize all composition-dependent strategies for this particular hand. Find it and tell us what you think about it.

Yes, mate. We do have Single Deck Blackjack in many online casinos. Google "Perfect Strategy Blackjack Switch Studios" if you'd like to find them. At 99,9% Return To Player, it matches Craps with 20x Odds on Pass Line (best in Las Vegas).

The complete list of all exceptions is known. As you can see, I came with "Stand with 3+ cards" as the best practical advice. Otherwise you must use double exception for composition that you Hit anyway and with a list for that. That's where the last 0.01% is hiding.

In my post earlier about composition-dependent strategy for 16 vs. Ten, I emphasized the importance of these two cards, 5s and 6s, that are held in player’s hand. Do you agree?

Can you paste the link to your thread? I will gladly look into.
Generally speaking, we're looking for a simple rule that covers more exceptions than "Stand with 3+ cards".

Here is one of the these I made in this forum:

“ November 2nd, 2025 at 5:54:36 AMpermalink
For single-deck games, Mental of this board has listed all possible 16 vs. T hands. Here is the link.

https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/gambling/blackjack/39079-blackjack-odds-of-winning-chart/#post924107

Here is my summary: Player stands on any hand that contains a 5; player hits only a few hands that contain a 6.

Let me list out all possible 3-card 16 hands

Stand: 259, 277, 349, 358, 448, 457, 556, 24T, 33T, A5T, A78.
Hit: 268, 367, 466, A69.”

Quote: aceside

I haven’t understood your goal here. Single deck blackjack games have disappeared in America. Are you from UK?
link to original post

Late to the party here, but while less common, I still find single deck around in certain niches.

I rearranged Mental's list of double exceptions for that particular cell (16 v 10) as follow:

2 cards: 88, 79, 6T – INCORRECT, ALWAYS HIT WITH 2 CARDS
3 cards: 466, 367, 268, A69
4 cards: 2266, 222T, A366, A267, AA68
5 cards: AA266, AA22T, AAA67, 22336
6 cards: A22236, AAAA66

This is a correct list except for two cards, where there are no exceptions (seems to be a mistake in his calculation).

Now, how to present it on the table is a matter of balancing table simplicity versus effectiveness. You can have:
1 two-level rule --> changed basic strategy with exceptions (or without if you decide to ignore them for simplicity)
2. one-level rule --> list of exceptions, in this instance all compositions where you stand

Generally speaking, two-level rule (double exceptions) is where is gets complicated on the human-friendly table because you need a table within a table (cell, eg. 16 v 10). For us biologics it's much simpler to list exceptions from the rule presented in the basic strategy chart (in that example: Hit). I agree with you on that! Especially if you have a stronger rule than listing each possibility, ie. binding a few with one rule.

Kudos to you my friend for finding such a rule! I salute you! As you can see from my table, I found that too! Especially "all cards are between Ace and 5" is more accurate than "stand on everything".

As for using it on 16 v 10, I'm sceptical. With a number of exceptions ranging from 2 to 5, introducing second level rule doesn't look beneficial.

A list of exceptions from the basic strategy for each particular cell (16 v 7, 16 v 8, 16 v 9, 16 v 10 etc.) for 2-6 cards is a better idea than doing it other way (listing all cells for given number of cards). It's one of those things so obvious, nobody thought about it.

Quote: MattUK

I rearranged Mental's list of double exceptions for that particular cell (16 v 10) as follow:

2 cards: 88, 79, 6T – INCORRECT, ALWAYS HIT WITH 2 CARDS

It has been a while since I looked into this part, but I’m not sure about this part. The 88 pair should be split, I believe. I guess it also depends on this particular rule: dealer peek for blackjack or not.

Other things, I still need some time to digest.

I'm proud to present a user-friendly complete list of exceptions. It now fits on a single page.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dltibddvy5NPphM9DYVbIRuDnIRT4zW4/view?usp=sharing
The cards are arranged from A to T (any 10 value card).
That's been hiding in 5 computer-generated extremely messy charts.
I still think that my even more simplified table (on the top of the thread) is more fun when playing - for the cost of around 0.01%.

12 v 3: Stand on
2 cards: 48, 57
3 cards: everything
4 cards: everything except A227, A236, A335, 2226, 2235, 2334 (Hit those)
5 cards: everything except AA334, A2225, A2234, A2333, 22224, 22233 (Hit those)
6 cards: everything except AAA333, AA2224, AA2233, A22223 (Hit those)

12 v 4 or 6: Hit on
2 cards: 2T

13 v 2: Hit on
2 cards: 3T
3 cards: A2T

15 v 10: Stand on
3 cards: 366, 456, 555
4 cards: A266, A356, A455
5 cards: AAA66, AA355
6 cards: AAAA56

16 v 7: Stand on
4 cards: 2455, 3355, 3445, 4444
5 cards: AA455, A2355, A2445, A3345, A3444, 22255, 22345, 22444, 23335, 23344, 33334
6 cards: everything except AAAA39, AAAA66, AAA229 (Hit those)

16 v 8: Stand on
4 cards: A555, 2455, 3355, 3445, 4444
5 cards: AA455, A2355, A2445, A3345, A3444, 22255, 22345, 22444, 23335, 23344, 33334
6 cards: AAA355, AA2255, AA2345, AA2444, AA3335, AA3344, A22245, A22335, A22344, A23334, 222235, 222244, 222334, 223333

16 v 9: Stand on
3 cards: 358, 448, 556
4 cards: AA59, A249, A258, A348, A456, A555, 2248, 2338, 2446, 2455, 3355, 3445, 4444
5 cards: everything except AAA3T, AAA67, AA22T, AA257, AA266, AA347, A2247, A2337, A3336, 22237, 22336 (Hit those)
6 cards: everything except AAAA66, AAA337, AA2237, A22227, A22236 (Hit those)

16 v 10: Stand on
3 cards: everything except A69, 268, 367, 466
4 cards: everything except AA68, A267, A366, 222T, 2266
5 cards: everything except AAA67, AA22T, AA266, 22336
6 cards: everything except AAAA66, A22236

Soft 18 v 10: Stand on
4 cards: AA33, A223
5 cards: AAA23, AA222

I guess it also depends on this particular rule: dealer peek for blackjack or not.

That would explain it. I am using it for the European Blackjack Classic aka Single Deck Blackjack.

I converted the above complete list of exceptions into a slightly more user-friendly table. 16 v 7 and 16 v 8 cells are merged.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_ZrWCrJqZGOucfb9Azy5qu_65SDoZco2/view?usp=drive_link
That's the best you can do with exceptions from exceptions (changing basic strategy). However, it's much simpler than five separate charts in Appendix 3A.
Now I am on the fence whether to use "almost perfect" with ≈99.9% or perfect with 99.91%. It's a personal preference, I guess. Ideally, all three tables should be included in the game description for players to chose their appropriate level:
1. Skilled - basic strategy - 99.87%
2. Expert - basic strategy + almost perfect exceptions - 99.90%
3. Nerd - basic strategy + perfect exceptions - 99.91%

Every exception that I posted was printed out using Eric Farmer's code. See: https://github.com/possibly-wrong/blackjack

Eric's code is awesome and very fast!

The dealer peeks. The RTP is 99.87% and the house edge is 0.17% in agreement with:
https://www.blackjackinfo.com/blackjack-basic-strategy-engine/?numdecks=1&soft17=h17&dbl=all&das=no&surr=ns&peek=yes

1 deck
H17
Double any 2
No DAS
No surrender
Peek

With peek, you always split 88. Play around with the blackjackinfo calculator to see what else changes in BS.

I very seldom play BJ online. Playing BJ , even with very good rules, is not the best way to extract money from online casino. Some online casinos won't even allow table games for their wagering requirement, and that suits me fine.

If the only tool in your toolbox is a BJ hammer, every promotion looks like a nail.

Thanks Mental, the devil is in peek rule. With it, all numbers hold.
There is no peek in Microgaming Classic Blackjack or Switch Studios Perfect Strategy Blackjack.

BTW, I invented a fair odds "T pays double" (working name of course) side bet to the single deck blackjack. Whenever there are four A-9 cards on the table, that side bet (fifth card being 10 points value) is / can be triggered, including after the bust. For example, 8+8+6 v A triggers the bet despite player's bust.
I envision three options to select in the settings: always, always ask me, never.
That bet could replace traditional insurance / even money (predatory - 5.88% house edge) and offer alternative to Double Up feature in video poker.