Doubling on Blackjack

[GrandMaster]

No secret. All these numbers are listed in the BJmath glossary.

Can you give me a link? I have calculated the numbers myself. I should have mentioned that they are for 8 decks, dealer stands on soft 17.

You lose less. Two eights as the initial card beat the hell out of one hard 16, whatever the dealer's showing.

The two 8's aren't exactly great either. The possible decisions in the order of decreasing expected value are: split, surrender, hit, stand and double, and there is not much difference between the first four. The point is that it does not matter whether your moves have positive or negative expected value, you should make the one with the highest expected value, even if it just means that you expect to lose less than with the other choices. Some of the soft doubles mentioned earlier are not particularly great either, but doubling in those situationd is better than hitting or standing.

[antibes]

Tks for the replies.

So it is best then to stick exactly to the WoO chart.

I use the basic chart if I don't know what software they are using. Does that matter much?

[bpb]

The software doesn't matter, it's the rules that dictate what strategy chart is optimal.

The key rules are

Whether the dealer hits or stands on soft 17 (it's worse for you when the dealler hits)

Can you double after splitting (you split less often when you can't double)

Can you double on 10/11, 9/10/11, or any 2 cards.

Can you surrender.

Does the dealer peek for blackjack. The key here is whether you lose multiple bets if you double/splilt and the dealer has blackjack. If the dealer doesn't peek, but you get any double/split bets back, then you can treat the game as if the dealelr is peeking.

[caruso]

Can you give me a link?

BJmath ~ Table of contents ~ Reference ~ Expected value tables.

[GrandMaster]

Those are only expected value tables, they don't give the probabilities of the various outcomes. The can calculate the expected values from the probabilities, but not the other way around.