Double Down at Blackjack

The most favorable situation comes up when you have the chance to double down. If you double down you will be allowed to double your bet also after you obtain your first two cards. You will then obtain only one card on your hand. Nearly all casinos will let you double down on any of the two cards. Many casinos will limit your doubling to hands for a total of 10 or eleven. The DOA is a favorable rule for you. And another favorable rule is that when the casino will allow you to double after you split or DAS.

Let say you are in a game with 8 decks of cards in the shoe and you can double on everything, the standard casino edge is at -0.55% this is more than half of the 1%. On other rules connecting to doubling it can either increase or reduce this basic casino edge.

The casino edge will reduced by .13% to about -0.42% when double after splitting and double on 10 or 11 only at -.12 that increase the casino edge to -0.76%.

Using the basic strategy you can identify when you must double down from the mathematics of the game. One reason why doubling down is favorable is that you are doubling your bet when you have the best chances of beating the dealer.

Oftentimes, when the dealer is at his weakest, it happens when the dealer display a card up that is possibly the cause of his bust. Most of computer simulations are tested to identify the frequency of the dealer if he will be busted that is based on his card up.

The dealer can have the worst cards, which are from 2 to 6. If these are the dealer's cards he will be busted most of the time. Your double down will then be successful more than the cards of the dealer. However, there are other circumstances where you will double down with the card ten as opposed to the dealer's nine or eleven and against the dealer's ten also.

Despite this you will be not successful with this kind of play as often as the dealer. In the end you will win big bucks by doing doubles in these circumstances than you will lose.

Most players hesitate to double down because they are afraid of losing their bet. I suggest that you only double down and double your bet in the most favorable times or you might lose all your bet.