Once a player receives all his cards. In our case 4 and the dealer his face-up card, the player has a very interesting choice. He can switch his cards with each other. The second card from each hand is dealt later. After the player decides whether to exchange cards or not, the game continues according to the rules of blackjack.

Thanks to the fact that the player can switch cards, the strategy deviates from the classic version. We will introduce to you three available strategies today. From simple to complex. Clearly, a more comprehensive strategy will be more successful.

A Simple Strategy for Blackjack Switch

In the simplest version of the BJ Switch strategy, the player must first remember the following list of hands, which are ranked from the strongest. It is also a great opportunity for beginners to get familiar with the strongest combinations.

• 21, 20, 19, AA, 11, 10, 9, 18 or 8 and 8.8.

If the dealer's face-up card is 8 or 7, the player must exchange cards when he can increase the value of both hands above the dealer's value. If the dealer has another face-up card, the player changes cards only if he increases the value of his higher hand to the highest possible.

If a player cannot reach any of the above situations, he/she should switch cards in these following situations:

• 7 or 17
• Any other hand that can be split
• 12 or 13

In all other cases, refrain from exchanging cards. However, this simple strategy offers players a 0.17% lower return compared to the optimal strategy.

Advanced Strategy

The more advanced strategy uses a table that is the same as the one for classic blackjack. The values of the dealer's face-up card are shown at the top and the value of the player cards on the side. However, the fields in the table do not contain the player's moves, but there are numbers from 0 to 3. The value 3 is a symbol for the card combinations that have the best chance of winning. A value of 0 then indicates combinations with the least chance of success.

Therefore, the player must first deal with the situation after the cards have been dealt and find out what his chances of winning on each hand. Then he has to check how it will be after changing the cards. He only exchanges cards if he has a better chance of success after exchanging cards in both hands. This strategy has a 0.08 lower return than the optimal strategy.

Blackjack Switch Optimal Strategy

Values from 0 to 3 divide the cards into 4 groups. In reality, however, not all combinations carrying the same value. The perfect BJ Switch strategy is based on computer simulations of individual card combinations, in which their mean value is determined. It can range from +1 to -1.

A mean value approaching +1 indicates a high probability of success with this combination. A mean value approaching -1 means that the hand has a very low chance of winning.

As with the advanced strategy, this means value is determined for both the combinations dealt and the combinations after a possible exchange. The switch is only carried out if the combinations after the exchange are stronger than the deal. The optimal strategy guarantees the player an average return of around 99.4%.