The first thing that everyone who plays blackjack needs to do is learn basic strategy. It is absolutely essential to know it off by heart before you even consider going to the casino to play blackjack. It is the difference between having a decent chance of leaving the casino a winner and almost none whatsoever. When playing blackjack using your intuition. i.e. playing the game whilst guessing what the best strategy should be will yield a loss of approximately 6 or 7 percent. If however, you play exactly to basic strategy it will yield a loss of only around ½%. So for every £100 you bet instead of losing 6 or 7 pounds on average you will lose only 50p.

It is fairly easy to learn basic strategy and is possible to learn it completely in a day. Unfortunately due to the fact different rules are played at different casinos, basic strategy needs to be altered slightly depending where you play. This website lists basic strategy for a number of different playing conditions.

What is basic strategy you may ask. Basic strategy is a set of rules you should adhere to which dictates whether you "hit", "stand", "double down" or "split" depending on the cards you hold and the dealers up-card. Sticking to this set of rules will give you the optimum chance of winning a particular hand. This set of rules has been devised by running millions of hands through a computer and finding out what statistically is the optimum way of playing the game, so there really is no argument for not using this method to play the game.

The best way to learn basic strategy is to download an online casino and play the free version of blackjack. Sit down with the correct basic strategy table for the rules you are playing and play as many hands as you can and follow the directions exactly. When you have done this for a few hours you should have learnt it completely. Then try some hands without the basic strategy table and check to see if you can do it without any help. Only when you are able to do this should you consider using your new found knowledge in a real casino.

One thing to remember is when playing don't ever stray from this basic set of rules as doing so will definitely lessen your chances of winning. It is very tempting to try something different as some of the rules don't seem like the correct thing to do but don't be in any doubt, they absolutely definitely are!