DOUBLE DOWN
Double down is to double your bet and only take ONE (1) card (total is 3- we can’t hit more even if our cards sum is small). I double down to win more when the chance to take 1 card and win more than lose. I never know what the next cards are for both me and the dealers. If I play 6 decks shoe, normally, the house allow us to double down on any 2 cards, but for single or double decks, they may only allow 10 or 11. Again, I only play 6 decks shoe, the reason will be explain in the betting section.
My rule of thumb is NOT to double if my sum of 2 cards is not at least 2 points over the dealer shown card. i.e, I double down at 9 if dealers show 7, 11 if dealer shows 9, and Never double down when I’m in the down trend, losing streak. Again, Positive and Negative trends exist as if they’re in a sine wave. If I’m not patient to ride out the negative trend, I’ll be out of money before the uptrend comes, so my philosophy of playing Blackjack is this, ride hard on the uptrend and don’t ride at all on the downtrend.
DOUBLE DOWN when dealer shows 3,4,5,6 (NOT 2) when I have 9,10,11. My logic is this, regardless of any 1 card I get, I still stay and with 9,10,11 the chance to have 19,20,21 is high + the chance the dealer has to hit to bust also high, take a chance to win double. I’m reluctant to double down when dealer shows a 2, because 2 is a very hard card to bust.
Double Down when the dealer shows 4,5,6. I will double down with 8,9,10,11 and soft 13 (A +2), 14 (A+3), 15 (A+4), 16 (A+5), 17 (A+6). My logic is the same as above except I expect dealer to bust at 14,15,16 although soft 13,14,15,16,17 chances to hit 17,18,19,20,21 are slim (I normally double down on soft hands when I’m on the uptrend, I seldom double down on the downtrend regardless (when I did, that’s when I lose, didn’t stick to my rules). Again, I NEVER double down on soft 18 (A + 7), 19 (A + 8), 20 (A+9) regardless what dealer card shows even on the UPtrend.
HOW TO PLAY TO WIN