Basic Blackjack Strategy: Double Down

One of the options available in blackjack is to be able to double a player's wager right in the middle of a game. This is a great opportunity for a player to get more cash out of a single hand in a game when players have the advantage. Knowing when to be aggressive and double down on a wager and when not to will make a player be more profitable in a game.

Unfortunately, you don't have to double down every single time. By knowing when to double down and when to hold on to your money will make players really profitable in the long run. Here's the basic strategy for doubling down. Since we are only dealing with the basics, we assume that the players are not card counting. With this part of basic strategy we deal with hands that have no Aces on them.

The best doubling down hand you can ever have in blackjack is one that totals to 11. The rule is that if you get this hand then you should double down. This hand has a four out of 13 chance of getting a 21 and a four out of 13 chance of making a really strong hand. The only hand that can beat this one is for a dealer get a natural (Ace and a Ten value card). So the strategy is to double down with this hand whatever the dealer's up card is except if the up card shows an Ace.

The second strongest hand is a Ten. This hand will definitely have a harder chance of getting a 21 in the game but you have more chances of getting a really powerful hand in the game. The biggest total you can ever achieve with this hand is to get a 20. The basic strategy is to double down with this hand only when the dealer shows an up card from Two to Nine.

Here's what you have to do when you have a total of Nine. With a hand of this total the goal is not to establish a strong hand but to exploit the dealer's weak hand, doubling when the dealer is most likely to bust. The strategy here is to double only if the dealer's up card is from Three to Six.

Now if your hand totals to Eight remember not to double when playing multiple deck games. The strategy is to double down only when the dealer's up card shows Five or Six.

This is the basic strategy for doubling down in blackjack. A lot of this is very easy to remember and players who practice the concepts mentioned here would be more profitable.

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