Double Down variation

One of the Oklahoma casinos has a "special" game they offer for a couple of hours on Sunday and Wednesday. I watched for a while and there was a lot of money being won. The tables are CSM dealt. Dealer Hits 17. Split and resplit anything including Aces. Double on any first two cards. But the "special" is that if you double down and draw a card you don't like, you can burn it and draw another.

Wondering if there is a "basic strategy" for this? Obviously, you can't count on them because of the CSMs. The guy I was watching bought in for $1600 ($5 to $500 limits on the tables). He colored up for over $11,000 when the 2 hours was over. He doubled anything that wasn't a "made hand" no matter what the dealer was showing.

I thought this thread would generate some speculation. For example, the DDDD (Double Down Double Draw) would probably be a better bet as a defensive maneuver. You have a $50 bet out and draw a 14. The dealer is showing a Face card. What do you do?

1. Hit as basic strategy would indicate?
2. Break Basic Strategy and stand on it?
3. Double Down....FOR LESS!

It would seem that under those circumstances, you would want to Double for Less. Put a Dollar out to buy insurance so that if you don't hit with the first card, you have a second chance!

You draw an 11 and the dealer has a 6. Of course you would Double Down, but with this game, you have two chances of drawing a Paint!

I'm going to definitely think seriously about breaking my resolve NEVER to play at Oklahoma casinos! Even with the $.50 ante this might be a good game. They do allow Late Surrender.

There are four tables...three with CSMs and 5 decks. One solitary table is a hand shuffled 6-deck game with the same rules though there is seldom anyone playing at it.

Which casino is offering this? Never heard of it. Also you said dealer hits 17? I presume you mean soft 17?

Yes, Soft-17. Sorry. The casino is Native Lights about 2 miles south of the State line (Ok Ks) on hi-way 77. As far as I know, they still have this game going two days a week.

They have 4 tables. Three are CSM. They only open the handshuffled and dealt table when they have the other tables full and they ARE full when this promotion is in effect. The handshuffled table is a 6-deck with the same rules.

One correction...the minimum bet (which would include the double down) is $5, so you couldn't double for $1 like I originally suggested.

They do have late surrender.

I'm kind of guessing that this rule would only help at the margins of doubling down? for instance, you might double 9v2 or 8v6 where you wouldn't otherwise, or maybe even 10 vs 10?

At first blush, I wouldn't expect massive strategy variations.

I think you may have actually stumbled onto a possible goldmine.

The casino's have an ante, $0.50 and that is what they are supposed to make their money off of.

Remember in oklahoma by law there isn't supposed to be a house-banked game (yeah right ). In Oklahoma by law it's supposed to be player-banked (what the difference is I don't know ).

The casino is just supposed to make their money off of the ante and not from the money a player contributes when they lose at blackjack. The casino is supposed to give back to the player's the difference in blackjack revenue minus the ante's and paying off winning players.

One of the ways they get back the money back to the player's is the blackjack tournaments that they have. You cannot buy a seat into these tournaments, at least not the tournament where they "give the player's back their money", you have to qualify for the tournament, i.e. hitting a suited blackjack with a side bet having been placed, etc.. (There are blackjack tournaments you can buy a seat at but this isn't what I am talking about when I say a casino promotion to give the player's back their money.) They have these promotions specifically for blackjack player's and it's to give them the money they contributed to the house-bank, over and beyond the ante and paying players off who won. They also have drawing for "$30 matchplay", raffles and it's to give the player's back their contribution to the house-bank, again over and beyond the ante's and paying off winning players.

I think this double-down redraw is one of those promotions where they are giving the player's back their money. During these promotions it seems they would have more relaxed rules than when they are trying to take your money from you since they want to hurry up and get the promotion over with. It also would explain why they don't have it but twice a week and only for a short period of time at that.

I don't expect this to last very long so if you are going to play it I would go the next time they have it. It could be the last time they have it for awhile.

At Santa Ana in Albuquerque I play in a double-down redraw promotion and did very well. HHMMMM..........I think I remember seeing my CVData having an option to generate a double-down redraw strategy.

How many seats/tables were participating in this promotion?

Power Blackjack

I came across this thread while checking the comments for 'Blackjack Switch' out on the site. This double down feature is something that I added to a game that I developed last year called 'Power Blackjack'. The game will be available on the Internet at the end of this month.

Basically, I had the player option called a 'Power Double' whereby a player could double 9,10 & 11 and 'burn' and receive the next card if they were not happy with the first card. I have the doubling strategy available if anyone wishes to see it although most of the decisions are fairly obvious.

What appears more interesting in this game is that I get the impression that you can 'Power Double' on any total. When I initially had the analysis done, I was told that if you allowed 'Power Doubles' on all hands and the dealer pushed on 22 (as in 'BJ Switch') then, if my memory serves my right, the house edge was 0.5%. However, I shied away from this game as I felt that the strategy was too distant from the regular game (I think that doubling 16 verses 7, for example, was correct, rather than just hitting).

If, in this game, the dealer is playing under normal rules, I would guess that the player edge would be around 8% for perfect play. Anyway, I dug up the basic strategy for 'Power Doubling' and the chart I have appears to be far more conservative than I thought. So now I'm not too sure what the correct play is for 16 verses 7, for example.

The 'Power Doubling' plays that were sent to me are :-

Double 8 verses 5,6,7
Double 9 verses 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
Double 10 & 11 verses everything
Double 'Soft 17' verses 6 and 'Soft 18' verses 5 & 6.

Please bear in mind that the above plays included the 'Push 22' rule. So, it's possible that additional 'Power Doubles' would be expected in the regular game.

The main differences that stood out for me was doubling 8 v 7 and 9 v 7,8,9.

(I've just edited this as I realised that my game, 'Power Blackjack' allows something called 'Power Splits' as well. This means that you can split any hand that totals 15 or 16. When I first had the analysis done, the charts included allowing 'Power Splits' for totals between 12-16 so this would explain why 'Power Doubling' was not included in totals 12-16 as 'Power Split' would have been a better option.)

On another note, I have got the 'Power Double' issued under the US Patent Office. Although it is still in pending status, it would be interesting to find out if they have a current patent pending too. Chances are, however, that this game will not last once the value has been taken by the players.

Hope this helps.

Best regards

Geoff

Are you allowed to double down for less? Because if you can that game could be killed, doubled down for $1 on practically any stiff hand because you get 2 chances to hit a low! incrediable. Working out exactally how to play might be difficult but winging it surely you couldn't go wrong. Keep in mind that playing BS without doubleing is about 1% house edge that falls to 0.5% with normal doubling, so extra doubling should give player advantage easily.

The average catch on the double down would go from 6ish to 8ish.

Double Down

At the promotion I played at in New Mexico they wouldn't let anyone double-down for any less than what the initial bet was. I asked if they ever let anyone double for less and the answer was no not with this double-down redraw promotion.