Found a bug or have an idea? Leave a comment. Prefer the older version? It is still here.
How To Use The Trainer
Basic strategy is the mathematically correct play for every hand against every dealer upcard, and played perfectly at the trainer’s default table it brings the house edge down to about 0.64%. Most players give money back by hitting, standing, splitting or doubling in the wrong spots, and practicing with feedback on every hand builds the right habits fast.
Play each hand the way you normally would: hit, stand, double, split or surrender, and take or turn down insurance when the dealer shows an ace. Every decision is graded against correct basic strategy for the rules you have set, and the Accuracy pill in the middle of the top bar keeps your score for the session as you go: green from 95%, amber from 85%, red below that.
Settings and sit at the top left of the game, and and at the top right. On a laptop, Fullscreen gives the table the whole screen.
Start With The Learn Course
New to the chart? Open (top right of the game) for seven short lessons: hit or stand, doubling down, soft hands, pairs and splitting, the full chart and your casino’s rules, then how to use the coach and how to find your leaks. Each takes two to four minutes, and most end with ten practice hands dealt from the spots the lesson just taught, with the coach switched on.
Never played at all? The game in 60 seconds covers the rules first. When you feel ready, Check yourself deals 20 hands with the coach off, and 19 right marks the unit done. Already know the basics? Choose I know this unit and go straight to the table.
Choose How The Coach Helps
Open Settings and set the Strategy Coach to match how you want to practice:
- Before warns you before a wrong play goes through, so you can change your mind or make the play anyway. The attempt still counts as a miss.
- After lets your play stand, then shows the correct play and the reason for it.
- Off gives no feedback at all, but every play is still graded, so it works as a real test.
Find Your Leaks In Stats
Click the Accuracy pill to open Stats. It shows how accurate you are this session, today, over 30 days or across everything kept, then lists your leaks: the hands you keep getting wrong, costliest first, each with what the mistake costs you as a share of your bet under your rules.
The leak map lays your hard, soft and pair hands out as a chart, shaded by accuracy or by cost. Click Practice these spots and the table deals only the hands you have been missing, until you stop the drill.
Customize The Rules
Blackjack strategy changes with the game. Click the settings icon at the top left to match the tables you play, and both the grading and the strategy chart follow:
- Decks: 1, 2, 4, 6 or 8 (default 6)
- Dealer hits soft 17 (default on)
- Double down on any two cards, 9 to 11 only, or 10 and 11 only (default any two)
- Double after split (default allowed)
- Re-split aces (default off)
- Surrender: none, late or early (default none)
- Dealer peeks for blackjack (default yes)
- Insurance offered (default yes)
The same panel sets the deal speed, hand totals, sounds and the coach.
Use The Strategy Chart
The built-in strategy chart, under at the top left of the game, gives you a full visual reference for hard hands, soft hands, and pairs, built for the rules you have set. Open it mid-hand and your hand is already highlighted against the dealer’s upcard. If you want to study first and play second, it works as a quick lookup tool; if you prefer learning by doing, use it after a mistake to lock in the right move.
A Real Shoe And A Play Money Bankroll
Cards come from a real shoe, six decks unless you change it. A discard tray on the felt fills as hands are cleared away, and the shoe reshuffles when the cut card comes out with about a quarter of it left, just as a casino game does. You start with $1,000 in play money and can top it up at any time.
Drill One Kind Of Hand
Want to hammer one kind of hand until it is automatic? The blackjack strategy drills turn the chart into focused sets: Common Mistakes, Stiff Hands, Soft Hands, Pair Splitting, Doubling, Surrender, the Illustrious 18 and the Fab 4. A spot retires once you get it right three times in a row.
You can also build a custom drill from any cells of the chart.
Next Step: Count Cards
Once basic strategy feels automatic, the next skill is keeping track of the cards. The card counting trainer runs this same table with two more units in Learn, Keep the count and Use the count: Hi-Lo count checks before the deal, the true count and decks left, Illustrious 18 index plays, and a bet ramp with its own coach.
Practice On Your Phone
The free Blackjack Strategy Trainer app puts this trainer’s basic strategy course, coach and Stats on your iPhone, iPad or Android phone. On the App Store it is called Blackjack Trainer: Perfect 21.
What’s New
This is the rebuilt version of the old flash strategy trainer created by blackjack legend Ken Smith, and it keeps improving.
Every update, newest first
1 October 2026
- Learn. A short course inside the trainer: seven lessons from hit or stand to the full strategy chart, most ending with practice hands, plus The game in 60 seconds for brand new players.
- Coach: Before, After or Off. Choose whether the coach stops a wrong play before it goes through, explains it afterwards, or stays quiet for a real test.
- Stats and leaks. Your accuracy for this session, today, 30 days or everything kept, and the hands you miss listed costliest first. Practice these spots deals only those hands.
- A real shoe. A discard tray on the felt fills as the shoe is dealt, and the shoe reshuffles when the cut card comes out.
- Drill Library. Focused practice sets for stiff hands, soft hands, pairs, doubling and the Illustrious 18, at blackjack drills.
6 September 2026
- Clearer cards. The cards have been redrawn with larger, easier-to-read rank and suit indices in the corners, so hands stay legible even on a small phone screen.
- Split hands in casino order. After you split, your hands line up the way a real table deals them, with your first hand on the right.
- Better on phones. On narrow screens the action buttons now sit on a single row and the table fits the viewport without awkward scrolling.
- Steadier table. The felt stays the same size as you move between betting, playing, and results, so the layout no longer jumps around.
31 August 2026
- Insurance. The trainer now offers insurance when the dealer shows an Ace, and grades your decision. You can turn it off in settings.
- Sound and motion. Cards deal from the shoe, chips move on payouts, and subtle sound effects mark wins, losses, and shuffles. Mute anytime in settings.
- Smarter shoe. The shoe reshuffles automatically at the cut card, so the deal never runs deeper than a real game would. You can also top up your bankroll at any time.
- Fix. The dealer no longer draws cards after every player hand has busted.
BlackjackInfo.com administrator
Tum administers BlackjackInfo.com and moderates its forum, and has worked across the LCB network of casino, poker and sports affiliate sites for more than ten years.
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I would like a leave game button(take the money and run)
Ho do I see how many cards are left in the shoe?
Hi, I like the new updates, especially our ability to do some control on our pot size.
Next time, can you include an option in the settings so we can practice “Free Bet”, that is a Push when dealer gets 22? That would make this good thing even better!
not as good as old versions, too many bugs
Hi bob, can you be a more specific? What sort of bugs did you run into
big improvement
Prefer the older version. The trainer has been updated to be quicker and more mobile friendly. If you prefer the older version, click here. Cannot get to the older version. When clicking for the old version– only the new version appears. Steve
Hi Steve, my mistake it should be fixed now. You might need to do a hard refresh to get it working or load it in an incognito/private window
I had an ace and 7 against a 2. I chose to double because that’s what many of the charts I’ve found said to do, but the system flagged it as incorrect. Am I wrong, or is the system wrong?
Depends on whether the dealer hits soft 17. Our trainer defaults to S17 (stand), where the correct play is Stand, the charts you found assume H17. You can change this in Settings.
My mistake though I should have set the default to H17(which it is now)
Any way we can make the dealers total visible? I can’t count that fast
Done
The trainer is perfect but would it be possible to add an option to enable/disable the early surrender vs an ace which is really rare now? To choose between ES10 and full early surrender. Thank you !!
Thanks for the feedback. Good suggestion I’ll look into it!
Also really appreciate the kind words about the trainer. If you know anyone who might find it useful, feel free to share it around Reddit, forums, Discord, or wherever. Always looking for more feedback
I had an A7 vs K, I draw another A so it is AA7 vs K. I understand I have a soft 19, and strategy says to stand, but the trainer told me I should hit as I have a soft 18, is this an error or correct?
a had the same issue.
correct play is to always stand on soft 19 (european, no hole card)
Thanks for the feedback! This has now been fixed
Thank you for the trainer! Would it be possible to add an option to hide the hand total, to practice basic strategy using only the cards?
Also, there seems to be an issue with the early surrender rule: after hitting, the coach still recommends surrender, for example with a 3-card 16 vs 10. But with early surrender, surrender should only be possible before hitting.
Thanks for the feedback. I’ve added the option to the hide the hand total, click on the settings cog to enable. Also fixed the early surrender issue
Nice the trainer is perfect thank you !
When you get two cards under 9-10-11 and you draw another card that equal hard 9 (3-2-4) the program thinks that you should double VS 3 to 6 against dealer card. Same applies to total of 10 (3-3-4) VS 9 or less against dealer, 11 VS dealer 10 or less. It applies to Soft counter such as soft A-6 when you draw A-2-4, the program think that you draw A-6 and should double against dealer 4. It even marks it at an error in the statistics.
Ahh good find. This has been fixed now
What has happened to the old format. It was great.
The old format was a bit slow, had some bugs and wasn’t mobile friendly. I’ve ported across the same functionality from the old to this new one but if you still want to play the old one you can find it here
Bring back the old strategy trainer – PLEASE!!!!!
The old format was a bit slow, had some bugs and wasn’t mobile friendly. I’ve ported across the same functionality from the old to this new one but if you still want to play the old one you can find it here
It said a hard 8 against a 5 and 8 should double when that’s not the basic strategy.
Can you add some options to cover off practising for Freebet
I had two aces, I split, I got another ace, but when I tried to split again the game closed. I think it’s a bug.
This is now fixed in the new trainer
Would it be possible to add this feature to the strategy trainer: that we can set the amount of $ in our pot to play with? And / or add to it without having to reset our game?
I’m playing late surrender. I’m dealt 7/3; dealer, ace. Surrender is offered BEFORE dealer peeks. WRONG.
1-When we surrender the dealer doenst show the second card, its good for us to know what card was for the count
2-having a card counter and true counter hidden that when we press it shows these two values, just for checking
3-having a graphical representation of the cards (decks) at the beggining of the round and the same but for the discarded cards and so that we can make guess the true count