How to Play Blackjack Switch

Today we’re going to look at another game invented by Englishman Geoff Hall.  You may recall he is the inventor of ‘Free Bet Blackjack’, a fun blackjack variant that we reviewed in a previous article. 

Once again, Mr. Hall has come up with a game that is fun, creative and gives the player an interesting and challenging blackjack variant to play. 

To learn more on Blackjack Switch, you can watch our informative video below:

When you have finished reading this guide, you will know how to play Blackjack Switch, how to make the most of the switching opportunities it offers, and the best way to play the various hands that present themselves.

Let’s get started.

What is Blackjack Switch?

Blackjack Switch is a variation of blackjack where players are dealt two hands and can switch the second card of each hand to improve their totals. This rule increases strategic options, but to balance it, a dealer's 22 results in a push (tie) against all player hands, except for a blackjack.

Blackjack Switch is found in land-based and online casinos – so you have lots of opportunities to play the game in whatever configuration you prefer.

It has become popular all over the world with variants being played in Europe with the ‘no hole card’ rule, in Australia and in Russia with early surrender and the dealers stand on a soft 17.

So – lots of variants and different places and jurisdictions to play.

Blackjack Switch Rules

As you can see, the rules have been changed slightly depending on where you’re playing and if you’re playing in a bricks and mortar casino or online.

Listed below are the most common rules you will find, and with these rules, the House Advantage on the game is 0.58%: 

• The game is dealt face up from a 6-deck shoe.

• Dealer hits a Soft 17 (so H17).

• All players play two hands, with both bets being of equal size.

• The player may switch the second card dealt between the two hands.

• A switched player hand of blackjack counts as 21, not a blackjack.

• Dealer peeks for blackjack with an Ace or 10-value card as their up card.

• If the dealer has a blackjack, all player hands lose except blackjack, which is a push.

• Player may double down on any 2 cards.

• Player may double down after a split.

• Player can split 3 times into four hands.

• Winning player blackjacks pay even money.

• A dealer total of 22 is a push against any player total of 21 or less. 

• A player blackjack wins against a dealer 22.

How to Play Blackjack Switch

The game plays like a regular blackjack game, but each player is playing two hands instead of one, and both the player’s hands must have an equal amount bet on it. 

The players cannot switch their cards until after the dealer checks for blackjack. 

If the player wants to switch cards in their hands, they let the dealer know when it is their turn to act and the dealer switches the cards for them.  

The players don’t touch the cards.

Each player plays their hands in order, splitting and/or doubling as they normally would.

Once the dealer has played out the dealer’s hand, the dealer pays, pushes or takes the player’s bet depending on the outcome of the hand. 

If the dealer has 22, all remaining player hands are a push, except a player blackjack, which wins even money.

Blackjack Switch Strategy

There are several experts who have come up with their take on the best strategy to follow, with some of them being very similar.

Having looked over the various strategies, I believe the two most useful are those by the late Arnold Snyder – a highly-respected blackjack expert and first-ballot inductee into the Blackjack Hall-of-Fame, who sadly passed away just last year, and Cindy Liu – a Blackjack Switch expert player and writer.  

The first one, and the one we’re starting with, is Cindy Liu’s ‘Simple Strategy’.

With apologies to a certain W. Shakespeare, the first decision for the player to make is:

Some of the switch decisions to be made are very easy to spot.
 
For example, you have two hands, 16 with a 10 + 6, and a 15 with a 5 + 10.  Obviously, you switch the 10 in the second hand with the 6 in the first hand to give you two hands – a 10 + 10 for a 20, and 6 + 5 for an 11.

Easy decision, right?

But some are not so easy – and the way the decision then gets made can be with Cindy’s Simple Strategy (CSS).

Cindy Liu’s Simple Strategy (CSS) 

The following is the CSS and is based upon this list of the hands ordered by strength of the hand:

So 21 is the strongest hand, 20 the second strongest and so on.  

Note that a pair of Aces is the 4th strongest hand.

1. 21
2. 20
3. 19
4. AA
5. 11
6. 10
7. 9
8. 18 or 8
9. 8,8 with 2-8 as the dealer’s up card

Here’s how you apply the strength of hands within the CSS:

• Against a dealer’s up card of 7 or 8, make your weaker hand as strong as possible using the above scale of hands, if you can.
• Against any other dealer up card, make your stronger hand as strong as possible, using the CSS scale above. 
• If you can't make one of the hands in the list above, make the strongest hand you can from the list below, presented in order of strength:
  • 7 or 17.
  • any hand that should be split.
  • any 12.
  • any 13.
• With the following exceptions:
  • With A,A + 3,8 — keep the aces together.
  • With A,A + 2,9 — keep the aces together if the dealer has 2-6.
  • With A,A + 2,8 — keep the aces together.

This is a simple strategy which makes it easier to remember and manage.  But this simplicity comes with a cost.  

And that cost, when compared to the optimal strategy, results in an increase in the House Advantage against you of 0.17%.

Which isn’t very much and may be something you’re happy to give up in return for the ability to use (and remember!) the simplified system.  

Another way of assessing the downside is once every 18 hands there is a smallish error, and an error of more than 10% once every 82 hands.  Which is less than once an hour.

Cindy Liu’s More Advanced Strategy 

Cindy’s more advanced strategy assigns a point value to all the two-card hands.

To use this advanced strategy, determine the point value of both of your hands, and add the totals together.

That amount represents the total value of staying with the hands you’ve been dealt.

Then determine the point values of the two hands if you were to switch the cards and add those two totals together. 

That amount represents the total value of switching the cards in the two hands you’ve been dealt.

Compare the two total scores and go with the higher score.

If the scores are equal, use the CSS list to break the tie.

And once the switch decision has been made, then use the following Blackjack Switch Basic Strategy chart to decide how to play your hands going forward.

Arnold Snyder’s Blackjack Switch Strategy 

This strategy from Arnold Snyder employs a different way of looking at the various hands.

This strategy involves deciding on whether to switch based on four different hand categories. 

These are Winner, Push, Chance, and Loser.

The first decision is to decide if you should switch cards in your initial two hands or not.  

And the first part of that decision is to rate the dealer’s up card as Strong, Weak or 2.

Strong and Weak are obvious, but why 2?

Because in Blackjack Switch, a dealer total of 22 results in a push for any remaining player hands.  And with the most common hit card being a 10, we assume a dealer 22 may be coming.

It changes the dynamic significantly, so the 2 becomes its own heading, and must be treated that way.

Rating the Dealer’s Up Card

There are three different ratings for the dealer’s up card.

Strong: 

Any card from a 7 through an Ace is ‘Strong’.

Weak:

Any up card from a 3 to 6 is ‘Weak’.

2:

Any 2.  A 2 is less likely to bust because a dealer total of 22 is a push.

By assessing the dealer’s up card you can choose whether you should switch between two weak hands into two different (but still weak) hands.

For example, if you have A + 6 and 10 + 7, you can switch hands so now you have a hard 16, and a soft 18.  Is the soft 18 a better hand to play against a specific dealer’s up card – and how does the hard 16 play instead of the hard 17?  

And how do both the hands play together as a set vs. the dealer’s up card?
  
What is the dealer’s up card – and should you switch?  

Does switching give you a better play to make?

Read on . . .

The WPCL Hand Evaluation Tool

Using the WPCL hand-rating system means you can easily judge if your hand is likely to Win, Lose, or Push.  

If that is not an easy decision, then your hand is a Chance hand. 

All the definitions and examples below for the four categories of hands can be summarized simply like this:

1. If the player and the dealer hands are both Weak and show no clear Winner or Loser, it automatically becomes a Chance hand. 
2. The only exception to this rule is if the dealer has a 2 up card.  The 2 up card is stronger than the other small cards (3 – 6), and if the player has a 7 or a 17 it is never considered a Winner or a Push.

Winner:

• Any player blackjack or any hard or soft total of 18 through 20 that beats the dealer’s total (and we’re assuming a 10-value card in the hole plus a player’s hit card is also a 10, remember) is rated as a Winner.
• Any player total of 8 through 11 that beats the dealer’s up card is a Winner.
• So a player total of 18 vs a dealer up card of 7?  Winner.
• A player’s 9 vs. a dealer up card of 8?  Winner. 
• A player’s total of 7 or 17 is rated as a *Very Good* hand but it is never rated as a Winner.
• A pair that should be split is rated as a Winner only if each of the split cards would be a Winner vs the dealer’s up card.
• So 8+8 vs a dealer’s up card of 7 is a Winner.
• 7+7 vs a 6 is not a Winner, because we never rate a 7 or 17 as a Winner. 

The only player’s hands that are rated as a Winner vs a dealer’s up card of 2 are 10, 11, 19, 20 and 21.  Once again, this is because of the ’22 is a push’ rule in Blackjack Switch which means the dealer is less likely to bust with an up card of 2.

Push:

Any player hand from 18 through 20 or 8 through 11 that would push the dealer’s *Very Good* up card is a Push.  Note that 16 vs a dealer’s up card of 6 is not a Push because it’s not from 18 through 20, and 6 is not a *Very Good* up card.

Chance:

A Chance hand is a hand where the player’s hand is weak, but so is the dealer’s up card.

Loser:

Any player’s hand that is beaten by the dealer’s *Very Good* up card (7 through Ace) is a Loser.  

Any player hand of 3 through 7, or 12 through 17 against a dealer up card of 2 through 6 is a Chance hand.

The pairs 2+2, 3+3, and 6+6 that should be split against a Weak dealer hand is a Chance hand.

All hard and soft totals, except 10, 11, 19, 20, and 21 vs a dealer’s up card of 2 is a Chance hand.

A player hand of 7 or 17 vs a dealer hand of 7 is a Chance hand.

A player’s hand of 17 vs a dealer’s up card of 6 is a Chance hand.

The Two-Hand Set Ratings

And now the game gets really interesting. 

You have two hands in play and must be able to quickly assess the relative value of your hands as a pair versus the dealer’s up card.

To do that, first look at your two hands and assess their value against the dealer’s up card.  

Now decide if switching the top two cards will give you a stronger pair of hands to play against the dealer’s up card.

For example (the switchable card is always listed on the right):

Player Hands: 10-7 and 6-9, Dealer up card: 8

These two hands (17 and 15) are both Losers (remember we always assume a 10 as the dealer’s hit card).  

But by making this potential switch, the outcome would change:

Player hands: 10-9 and 6-7, Dealer up card 8

Now you have a 19 and a 13.  A Winner/Loser.

Winner/Loser versus Loser/Loser.  

A much stronger pair of hands to play against the dealer’s 8, so of course, you switch the cards. 

Arnold’s Sweet Sixteen Rules for Blackjack Switch

Hard Hit/Stand Rules

• Stand on all hard totals of 17 through 21.
• Hit hard 12 through 16 vs. dealer’s hand of 7 through Ace.
• Hit hard 12 vs. 2, 3, and 4 and hit hard 13 and 14 vs. dealer’s up card of 2.
• Stand on 15 and 16 vs. dealer’s up card of 2 through 5.

Soft Hit/Stand Rules

• Stand on soft 19 and soft 20.
• Stand on soft 18 vs 2 through 8, and hit vs. 9, 10, and Ace.
• Always hit soft 17 and less, unless doubling down (see soft doubling below).

Hard Doubling Rules

• Always double down on 10 and 11 vs a dealer’s up card of 2 through 8.
• Double down on 9 vs. a dealer’s up card of 6.

Soft Doubling Rules

• Double down on soft 17 and soft 18 vs. a dealer’s up card of 5 and 6.
• Double down on soft 16 vs. a dealer’s up card of 6.

Pair-Split Rules

• Always split Aces vs. a dealer’s up card of 2 through 10*.
• Split 8+8 vs. a dealer’s up card of 2 through 9*.
• Never split a pair or 4s, 5s, or 10s.
• Split 2s, 3s, 6s, 7s, and 9s vs a dealer up card of 4, 5, or 6.
• Always split 9s vs. a dealer’s up card of 8 and 9.

In live US casinos, where the dealer gives themselves an up card and a hole card as their initial two cards, always split Aces and 8s.

Here are some sample hands to get you started on your WPCL Blackjack Switch journey:

• A7 vs. 7 = Winner
• A7 vs. 8 = Push
• A7 vs. 9 = Loser
• 16 vs. 8 = Loser
• 16 vs. 6 = Chance
• 19 vs. 9 = Push
• 5 vs. 8 = Loser
• 5 vs. 2 = Chance
• 18 vs. 2 = Chance
• 15 vs. 2 = Chance
• 19 vs. 2 = Winner
• 8-8 vs. 6 = Winner
• 8-8 vs. 2 = Chance
• 7-7 vs. 7 = Chance
• 7-7 vs. 2 = Chance

As you can see, he put lots of 7s and 2s in the samples because those are the ‘seam’ hands, which are more challenging to assess.

Everything else is pretty straightforward.  

18 versus 6 is clearly a Winner.

18 versus 2 is a Chance, because of the possible 22 push hand that’s always out there.

Once you can easily assess both your two-card hands, then you rank each of your hands according to their potential to win versus the dealer’s up card.  

It’s a logical step to classify the hands from strongest to weakest as:

1. Winner
2. Push 
3. Chance 
4. Loser 

Obviously, Winner and Loser are easy to assess.  

Push is better than Chance, because Chance can easily become a Loser, whereas Push cannot (remembering the ‘dealer’s hit card is a 10’ assumption).

The Two-Hand Strength List 

1. Winner/Winner
2. Winner/Push
3. Winner/Chance
4. Winner/Loser
5. Push/Push
6. Push/Loser
7. Chance/Chance
8. Chance/Loser
9. Loser/Loser

Why is Winner/Loser better than Push/Push?

Because having a Winner in your hand means you get paid, which is always better than not getting paid, as you would for a Push.  So mathematically, having Winner/Loser is stronger than Push/Push.

Why is there no listing for Push/Chance?  

If we go back to the criteria on how we decide to classify the hands, we see that a Push hand must have a dealer’s up card of 8 through Ace.  

A Chance hand requires a dealer’s up card of 2 through 7.  

So you can only have either/or, but not both. 

Let’s talk through a few practice hands:

Player Hands: 10-A and 9-10, Dealer Up card: 9

You have a blackjack and a 19 versus a dealer 9: A Winner/Push combination.

If you switch, you have 10-10 and 9-A vs. a dealer 9: Winner/Winner. 

You may think you shouldn’t touch that blackjack, but you will sometimes be better off switching out of a blackjack because you may turn the Push (the 19) into a Winner (the soft 20). 

(Remember, a blackjack only pays even money.  If it paid 3 to 2, we would not switch. But at even money, it’s just another winning hand to be managed.)

Player Hands: 10-A and 9-10, Dealer Up card: 10

The same two hands, blackjack and 19, this time versus a dealer 10: A Winner/Loser. 

If you switch, you have 10-10 and 9 -A versus a dealer 10: Push/Push. 

Because Winner/Loser beats Push/Push in our Two-Hand Strength List, you do not switch.

Player Hands: 10-A and 7-10, Dealer Up card: 7

You have a blackjack and a 17 versus a dealer 7: Winner/Chance. 

If you switch, you have 10-10 and 7-A versus a dealer 7: Winner/Winner. 

Again, it is better to switch from the blackjack to turn a Chance into a Winner. 

Player Hands: 10-5 and 9-6, Dealer Up card: 10

You have a 15 and a 15 versus a dealer 10: Loser/Loser. 

If you switch, you have 10-6 and 9-5 versus a dealer 10: Loser/Loser. 

Same Strength List rating.  Loser/Loser.

No escape.  

Nothing’s going to change based on the Hand Strength List, but if by switching I was in a situation that I could make one of the hands into a made hand (i.e. 17 or more), I would do it because you never know what salvation the dealer’s hole card and/or hit card may offer.

Expert Advice and Blackjack Switch Tips

1. Practice online at a site that allows you to play for free.  This will give you the time to review how you want to play some of the difficult hands. The strategies I have included from Cindy Liu and Arnold Snyder will put you in a good position to maximize your opportunity to win.  Blackjack Switch is a very different game, and trying the strategies for free to determine which works best for you is the best way to learn how to play them.
2. Be aware that you must bet two hands and that you may go through your bankroll quicker than when playing a regular blackjack game.
3. Always remember that a dealer total of 22 is a push.
4. Never bet the side bets.  They look attractive, but the only reason they are there is to increase the casino’s win – which means take more of your money.
5. Don’t take Insurance because it’s not a good bet for you.  There is one time you might consider it, and that is when you have a big bet out there and winning it would get you to your ‘and if I win $x, I’m going to quit’ number.  Then it may be a good option for you if you’re going to meet your gaming goal for the day.  Apart from that, don’t take Insurance.  Ever.

References

Thank you to our friends at ‘The Las Vegas Advisor’ for permission to include information on the late Arnold Snyder’s strategy for this game that was published on their site.