Nine-Count Blackjack Strategy Review

Doubling down is a valuable player option in that a player may double his wager in favorable situations. The only disadvantage to the player is that when he doubles down, he may draw only one additional card. Doubling down is used in two ways to increase the player’s prospects of winning a hand. A player will double down when the dealer’s up-card is so weak and the dealer so likely to bust that the player wants to take advantage of the dealer’s weakness to try to double his winnings. A player may also wish to double down if his first two cards are so strong that he is likely to win against the dealer by beating the dealer’s total.

The most important thing to consider in doubling down is the high probability of drawing a 10-value card. Thus, the player will double very aggressively when his totals are hard hands of 10 or 11, as by drawing a 10-value card his totals will become 20 and 21. With a hard 9, he will double less aggressively, as the prospect of drawing to a total of 19 does not give him as strong a hand as a 20 or 21.

The player will never double on hard hands of 12 or more as drawing a 10-value card will bust his hand.

The ten factor affects doubling against the dealer stiffs. The player will double very aggressively against the dealer up-cards of 4, 5, or 6 as the dealer’s probability of busting is high.

In contrast to doubling with the hard totals of 9, 10, and 11, where the player expects to beat the dealer’s total, with soft hands he will double with the expectation of exploiting a dealer’s stiff hand and doubling his winnings when the dealer busts. Consequently, the player will double certain soft hands only against the dealer’s stiffs of 3 to 6.

Soft hands of A,2 and A,3 are the weakest soft hands for doubling, and they will be doubled only against a dealer’s weakest cards of 5 and 6.

Soft hands of A,4 and A,5 are slightly stronger candidates for doubling in a multiple deck game, and the player will double these hands when the dealer shows an up-card of 4, 5, or 6.

A with 6 and A with 7 are the best soft hands for doubling. Because of the high probability of drawing a ten, these hands have a good chance of becoming 17 and 18 respectively. The player will double these hands against any dealer up-cards of 3, 4, 5, or 6.

A and 8 totaling 19, and A with 9 totaling 20, are powerful totals in themselves. They will never be doubled as the risk of destroying a good hand is greater than the possibility of improving the profit picture by doubling.