What I call the "original" blackjack rules are as follows:

• 6 decks
• Dealer stands on soft 17
• Player may double on any first two cards
• Player may double after splitting
• Player may only split once
• There is a mixture of U.S. and European rules on what happens if the dealer gets a blackjack. Here is what happens if the dealer gets a blackjack according to the situation.
  • Dealer has ace up, player doubles and/or splits: entire bet lost.
  • Dealer has 10 up, player splits: entire bet lost.
  • Dealer has 10 up, player doubles: only original bet lost.
  • Dealer has 10 up, player splits and doubles: additional bets from splitting lost but doubling returned.
• No surrender
• Otherwise standard rules

The house edge under these rules is 0.52%. Blackjack surrender offers the same or better rules on all points. So there is no reason a player should play the regular blackjack game, except if the better games are excluded for bonus purpoes. Following is the basic strategy under these rules.

Key to basic strategy:

H = Hit
S = Stand
D = Double
Ds = Double if allowed, otherwise stand
P = Split