Dear
Mark,
I saw a player double down with a soft 19 against a
six, lose the hand, but he still claimed it was the
correct play. I'm thinking that can't possibly be right
since the player had a near winning hand. Who's right?
Justin A.
Any
time your chances of winning the hand are better than
those of the dealer, you should always want to double
your bet. Doubling down is an offensive strategy that
allows you to earn more of a profit than you'd rake
in just by hitting the hand, or in the case of a 19
versus a six, just standing pat. The player you mentioned
correctly saw doubling his 19 against a six as a favorable
opportunity, but only IF he happened to be on a multiple
deck game, and the dealer hits a soft 17.
If
the house rules force the dealer to stand on a
soft 17, than the player should also have stood,
even if the dealer was showing a six as his or
her up-card. Sticky thing about probability: no
warrantees on a single event; he played right
and lost. Happens. Dear Mark, Your column in the
past has recommended surrendering a hard 16 versus
a 10 with the exception of a pair of 8s. What
are your rules for a 15 versus a 10? Todd K. Surrender
is an option in which the casino allows players
to "surrender" half of their original
bet total after both viewing the dealer's up-card
and examining their own first two cards. Here
is the simple late surrender rule when you have
a hard 15 on a multi-deck game: Surrender a hard
15 versus 10 with one exception. If your 15 consists
of a 7 and an 8, just hit it. The reasoning is
that when you hit a 15, you are hoping primarily
for a 5 or 6. Either hand combination: a 9-6 or
a 10-5 has one of those needed cards, while the
7-8 uses two cards that you don't want to receive.
Therefore, with a 7-8 you are a bit more likely
to receive a better hit card, so proceed with
just hitting it.
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