Lesson 17 of 24

Lesson 17 – The Advanced Course – Part 5

Basic Strategy Variations: Test Yourself

By putting my classes up on the internet, I know I’m reaching a much larger audience than I ever had while teaching classes in person, but I do miss the ability to see how you all are doing in learning the material. In my ‘in-person’ classes, I always tested my students to gauge their progress and thus determine how effective my teaching methods are. We can’t do that here, but I want you to test yourself with the methods I’m going to show you, if for no reason other than the fact that it will build your confidence when you see how much you really know. Much like we did when learning proper basic strategy, you should first complete one copy of the test directly from the material I taught in order to give yourself an answer sheet to use when correcting subsequent tests.

This test just asks you to ‘fill in the blanks’ with the correct index number from -2 to +10. Print as many copies of this as you’d like.

Advanced Course Practice Matrix
Dealer’s Up Card 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 A
Player’s Hand A,2 H H __ __ __ H H H H H
Player’s Hand A,3 H H __ __ D H H H H H
Player’s Hand A,4 H H __ D D H H H H H
Player’s Hand A,5 H H D D D H H H H H
Player’s Hand A,6 H D D D D H H H H H
Player’s Hand A,7 __ D D D D S S H H __
Player’s Hand A,8 S S __ __ __ S S S S S
Player’s Hand A,9 S S S __ __ S S S S S
Player’s Hand 8 H H H __ __ H H H H H
Player’s Hand 9 __ __ D D D __ H H H H
Player’s Hand 10 D D D D D D D __ H H
Player’s Hand 11 D D D D D D D D D __
Player’s Hand 12 __ __ __ __ S H H H H H
Player’s Hand 13 __ S S S S H H H H H
Player’s Hand 14 S S S S S H H H H __
Player’s Hand 15 S S S S S __ __ __ __ __
Player’s Hand 16 S S S S S __ __ __ __ __
Player’s Hand 17 or more S S S S S S S S S S
Player’s Hand 2,2 P P P P P P H H H H
Player’s Hand 3,3 __ P P P P P H H H H
Player’s Hand 4,4 H H H __ __ H H H H H
Player’s Hand 5,5 NEVER SPLIT; TREAT AS ’10’
Player’s Hand 6,6 __ P P P P H H H H H
Player’s Hand 7,7 P P P P P P H H H H
Player’s Hand 8,8 P P P P P P P P __ P
Player’s Hand 9,9 P P P P P __ P P S __
Player’s Hand 10,10 S S S S S S S S S S
Player’s Hand A,A P P P P P P P P P P

THIS MATRIX ASSUMES DOUBLE AFTER SPLIT IS PERMITTED AND ALSO ASSUMES THAT YOU DON’T CHOOSE TO SPLIT 10s.

Homework

Start on this and try to do one a day for the next two weeks.

See you here next lesson.

Ken Smith
Written by

Ken Smith

Founder of BlackjackInfo.com and lifelong advantage player

Ken founded BlackjackInfo in 1998 and built it into one of the most trusted blackjack resources on the web. A professional tournament player with thousands of events behind him, he appeared in every broadcast season of GSN’s World Series of Blackjack and has taught players to count and play with an edge for over 25 years.

  • Won the premiere event of the Ultimate Blackjack Tour on CBS in 2006
  • Author of the two-volume “How to Win More Blackjack Tournaments” series and columns in Blackjack Confidential and All In Blackjack
  • Publisher of the plastic basic strategy cards (2008) and the Advanced Strategy set with card counting indexes (2013)
LV Bear
Reviewed by

LV Bear

Advantage player and longtime BlackjackInfo forum administrator

LV Bear has played advantage blackjack for decades and helps run the BlackjackInfo community, where he moderates the advantage-play and game-protection discussions. He reviewed this article for accuracy on the mechanics of counting, casino countermeasures, and the realistic economics of playing with an edge.

  • Decades of hands-on advantage play across shoe and single-deck games
  • Administrator and moderator of the BlackjackInfo advantage-play forums
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4 Comments
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Mike
Mike
9 years ago

Is the empty field for 9,9 vs A correctly empty? I haven’t noticed any info here about potential deviance here.

Steve
Steve
9 years ago

You may want to check the A5 line in the chart for accuracy vs 4 and vs 7. i love all of the material you have made available.