Your hand
What the game costs
Strategy chart
- Maths reviewed by Josh Miller
- Tested by Diana Westfield
Free Bet Blackjack strategy looks generous at first: the casino pays for your doubles on hard 9, 10 and 11 and your splits on every pair except tens. The catch is one rule. If the dealer finishes on exactly 22, every hand still standing pushes. This free chart and hand checker are worked out for that game, not borrowed from normal blackjack.
Free Bet Blackjack strategy: what changes
Three things stand out once you run the numbers.
Take every free bet. Hard 9, 10 and 11 are free doubles against any dealer card, even an ace. A free double can’t lose you more than your original bet, so 11 against an ace goes from a hit worth about +6% to a free double worth about +43%. The same logic splits 8,8 against a 10: +21% for the free split, against −56% for hitting 16.
Never split 5s or 10s. 5,5 is a hard 10, so it’s a free double. 10,10 isn’t a free split and 20 is too good to break.
Play stiff hands more aggressively. A dealer bust on 22 no longer pays you, so standing and hoping is worth less. 12 against a 4 is a stand in normal blackjack and a hit here, and soft 18 against a 2 becomes a plain stand rather than a double.
How much the 22 rule costs
The dealer ends on exactly 22 about 7.4% of the time (dealer hitting soft 17), and that’s a lot of winning hands turned into pushes. The free bets give most of it back, but not all. With the CasinoCalcs chart above the house edge comes out at about 1.08%, against roughly 0.5% to 0.8% for an ordinary six-deck game with 3:2 blackjack. At £10 a hand and 60 hands an hour that’s about £6.50 an hour on average.
The figures use an infinite-deck model with these rules: dealer hits soft 17, blackjack pays 3:2, free doubles on hard 9 to 11, free splits on all pairs but tens, doubling for real on any two cards, doubling and resplitting after a split, one card to split aces. A six-deck shoe plays almost the same and is about 0.1% kinder.
Reading the chart
Pick your cards and the dealer’s up card for the exact decision and the value of every option. In the chart, Df and Pf mark free doubles and free splits. Tap any square to load that hand into the checker.
For the standard game, use the blackjack strategy chart. Other variants with the push on 22: Blackjack Switch. To compare the edge with other games, see the best odds in casino games.
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