The Four Horsemen of Blackjack are quite possibly the most important people in the entire history of the game of blackjack. Whether you are a regular of USA online blackjack, like to play a few hands whenever you’re in Vegas or play at home with your buddies, if you have ever used Basic Strategy when you’ve played blackjack, you owe a great debt to The Four Horsemen of the Aberdeen Proving Ground – to use their full and proper title.

Basic Strategy is the mathematically proven optimum strategy for playing blackjack and effectively tells you whether you should hit, stand, double or split in any given situation. Working this complex algorithm out now would be relatively simple with a cheap computer and a decent grounding in math, but back when the Four Horsemen figured it all out, they used just a pencil, some paper and their collective brainpower.

William Cantey, Herbert Maisel, Roger Baldwin and James McDermott were stationed at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland in the 1950s and decided to see if they could crack the game of blackjack. Upon learning that the dealer had to hit to 16 and stand on 17, Baldwin, who had a Master’s in Math, decided he could try and calculate the best move following the initial deal.

Given there are a fixed number of cards in the deck it seemed right that in any given situation there must be a “right” and a “wrong” call. Previously blackjack players went on received wisdom and hunches but these four bright army men decided they would attempt to work out what choices would yield the best results in the long term.

From 1953 onwards the four soldiers worked on their theory, testing and analyzing, using nothing more than army “adding machines”, as primitive calculators were then known. In fall 1956 they published “The Optimum Strategy in Blackjack” which essentially codified, created, invented, call it what you will, Basic Strategy.

Their original document is almost perfect, with some very minor alterations having been made over the years that produce returns a tiny fraction higher. Amazingly it wasn’t until 2008 that they were inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame but since then their amazing feat has been more widely and fully appreciated.

Blackjack is one of the very best casino games around and if you want to play USA online blackjack we have a range of great casinos and blackjack sites that offer great games and even better bonuses. However, when playing blackjack, online or in a real casino, the best way to give yourself the best odds of winning is by using basic strategy and here we explain what exactly that is.

The house edge is the name given to the advantage the casino holds over the player in any given casino game. In online blackjack the precise house edge varies according to the exact rules you are playing, with, for example, using more decks increasing the casino’s profitability.

Generally speaking though the house edge for most USA online blackjack variants ranges from around 0.5% to 1.5%, although it can be a little lower… or a LOT higher. However, the key thing to note is that the quoted or calculated house edge is the lowest possible on that blackjack variant.

Your individual choices impact the house edge and, therefore, your chances of either making a profit or of walking away without a dollar to your name. In other games, for example online roulette, the house edge is fixed and your own actions don’t affect the house edge. In blackjack, in order to achieve the lowest possible house edge and thus give yourself the highest chance of winning, you need to use optimum play and in blackjack that means using basic strategy.

Basic strategy is said to have been developed by four soldiers in the 1950s who whiled away the hours on base working through the math of the game. They created the optimal way of play that gave you the correct call to make in any given situation at the blackjack table. Basic strategy depends on the cards you have and the card you can see of the dealer, but not the cards that have gone before or that other players are showing (as that would move us into the realms of card counting).

This is scientifically and mathematically the best way to play and tells you whether to double, split, hit or stay in any situation. If you want to play blackjack and you like money, ALWAYS use basic strategy – it really is that simple.

More and more people are playing USA online blackjack and there are certainly a growing number of excellent sites that accept US players. However, if you’re going to play blackjack online, you might as well give yourself the best chance possible of making a profit and to do that, knowing when to double down is essential.

Doubling involves doubling your stake once your two-card total is known in exchange for only receiving one more card. It is one of the key elements of basic strategy and whilst playing entirely to basic strategy is highly recommended, at least knowing when to cash in on a good hand by being aware of when to double gives you a better chance of success to some degree.

First of all, it’s worth knowing that some casinos will only let a player double 10 or 11, whilst others will allow doubling on 9, 10 or 11, whilst the most generous blackjack rules will allow a double on any two cards. These days more and more online casinos allow a player to double on any two cards and this is great because this is the option which has the lowest house edge and therefore gives the player the best long-term prospects.

However, just because you CAN double, doesn’t mean you SHOULD! Based on fairly standard blackjack rules that you are likely to encounter playing USA online blackjack, there are a few simple rules you should bear in mind and these are:

• Never double on less than nine
• On 10 or 11 double if your total is higher than the dealer’s (or hit if you can’t double)
• Double a nine only against a dealer’s 3, 4, 5 or 6 (as above, hit if you can’t double)

The above three basic principles cover all “hard” hands, including a pair of fives which is doubled assuming the dealer has 9 or less.

The slightly more confusing options are doubling on “soft” hands (those formed with an ace). Always stand on soft 19, double 17 or 18 to a dealer 3-6 inclusive, hitting on 17, standing on 18 if no double is allowed. For soft 15 or 16, double only to a dealer 4, 5 or 6, whilst on 14 or 13 only double to a dealer’s 5 or 6, with all these options hitting if you can’t double.