Interestingly enough,
there is one area that tends to trouble even relatively
experienced players, and has been driving slot expert
John Robison crazy, and that is what to do on certain
soft hands -- soft doubling, in other words. (Quick
refresher. A soft hand is any hand with an ace where
that ace can be used as a one or 11.) When you get
that A:3 and the dealer shows a 3, what do you do?
Or when you have an A:6 and the dealer is showing
that same 3, what’s the move?
Interestingly
enough, soft-doubling is the least important doubling
area in terms of overall player expectation, but still,
you want to make the right moves all the time to maximize
your chances to win more (or lose less). Step in blackjack
expert Fred Renzey, author of the critically acclaimed
Blackjack Bluebook. He has come up with a handy way
to decide what to do with most soft doubles in multiple-deck
games, the most common games to be found in America.
Renzey has come up
with an ingenious method for deciding when to double
and when to hit those maddening soft hands. He calls
it the “rule of nine.”
Here is what Renzey
has to say about soft doubling:
“First, understand that as a basic strategy
player, the only soft hands you should even consider
doubling with are when you have Ace/2 through Ace/7
against a dealer’s 6 or lower in multiple-deck
games. Okay, now with some of those hands you should
soft double and with some you shouldn’t. The
easiest way to keep them straight is to break them
into the following three groups.
Against a deuce up: Never soft double — you’ll
get burned too often!
Against a 5 or 6 up: Always double down (with any
A/2 through A/7). This is when the dealer is at
her weakest.
Against a 3 or 4 up: Here it gets tricky. This is
where the Rule of Nine comes in. What you do with
the Rule of Nine is add together the dealer’s
up-card (be it a 3 or a 4) with your kicker (the
side-card next to your Ace). If the two add up to
9 or more, double down. If they’re less, just
hit.”
So if you have a hand that is Ace-5 and the dealer
is showing a 3, what do you do? Rule of Nine says
to just hit because 5 and 3 equals 8! But if you
have a hand that is Ace-5 and the dealer is showing
a four, then you double! Renzey sums up his soft
doubling thusly:
“To even think about soft doubling, you must
have Ace/2 through Ace/7 and the dealer must have
a 3, 4, 5 or 6 up. Against a 5 or a 6, you’ll
always pull the trigger, and against a 3 or a 4
you’ll play by the Rule of Nine.”
There you have it, an easy way to remember what
to do on those soft hands. As the Beatles’
song so aptly put it, the key number is “number
9, number 9, number 9....” Are you listening,
Mr. Robison?
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Columns By Franki Scoblete
