Understanding Online Blackjack Double Down Strategy

• Published: October 8, 2015
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Online blackjack offers players an optional move called double down, which involves placing an additional wager equal to the ante wager. The condition is that you can draw only one more card after you double down. Many new players avoid exercising this option altogether because of the additional wager and the condition involved. They lose out on the advantages that this bet offers. There are other players who double down indiscriminately, thereby unnecessarily losing the extra wagers. Like for every other move in blackjack, there is an optimum strategy for double down. This article outlines and explains this blackjack double down strategy.

The ideal situation in which to double down is when your dealt cards have a value of 11. Almost 50% of the cards in the deck have a value of 8 or more. Therefore with only one additional card there is a 50% chance of ending up with a final hand value of 19 or more. In this situation you should always double down irrespective of the dealer’s face up card.

If your dealt cards have a value of 10 or less, then your situation is comparatively weaker. So you double down only when the dealer’s face up card is correspondingly weaker. You double down with 10 when the dealer has 9 or less. Consider a pair of 5s as having a value of 10, and double down instead of splitting. If the dealer’s face up card is an ace it counts as 11 for these decisions. You double down with 9 when the dealer has 6 or less. The dealer’s weakest face up cards are 5 and 6. If the dealer has 4 or less his position becomes stronger, because he can expect a formidable total after drawing two cards. If you have a starting hand value of 8 you double down only if the dealer has 5 or 8. You never double down with hand values of less than 8 or hard values of 12 or more.

However, if you start with soft totals of 12 or more you have the possibility of reassigning 1 to the ace instead of 11, should the need arise. Hence there are some instances when you can double down with soft totals of 13 or more. To put it simply, you should double down with starting soft totals of 13 to 17, if and only if the dealer has a face up card of 4, 5 or 6.