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Atlassino Academy · Blackjack · Lesson 20 of 21

Double Down Madness: one card, many doubles

One card to start, a chance to double again with every card after it, and a dealer total of 22 that pushes: the rules, the chart from one card, and what each table rule costs.

  • About 23 minutes
  • Illustrated hosts: Leo and Maya
  • Last checked 2 October 2026

You start with one card, and every card after it is a chance to double again, while a dealer 22 pushes. So when is one more double worth putting up?

The short answer

When the hand in front of you is worth something on average, and not when it is not. A double here does not end the hand: the next card comes and you choose again, so a double only multiplies whatever the hand was already worth. With a strong first card that means doubling early; with a weak one it means taking cards. The table charges for that freedom with a dealer hand that ends on exactly 22, which pushes the main bets still standing, and played by its own chart the game still keeps a share of every bet.

  • One card to startEach player is dealt one card face up, and the hand grows one card at a time.
  • A double with every cardWith each card you receive you may stand, take a card, or double, and a double does not end the hand.
  • A dealer 22 pushesA dealer hand that ends on exactly 22 hands back the main bets still standing, doubles included.
Leo holds a second chip low behind the betting circle, where one chip already lies, while the only card in front of the seat is a single ace of hearts; Maya looks at it from the rail, and across the felt the dealer has a ten of clubs beside one face-down card.
Leo smiling, explaining with an open hand.

Leoformer dealer · rules and maths

The first time I dealt this game, a player doubled on a 4 and looked at me as if the cards had let him down. They had not: a double here does not mean the hand is good, it means more money rides on whatever the hand turns out to be. Every card at this table asks you the same question, and the answer is not “is this a doubling hand?” but “is this hand, played on, worth anything at all?”

One card, then a choice with every card

Each player is dealt one card face up to start, with the chance to double on the second card and on every card after it. At the table with the face-down card, the dealer takes one card face up and one face down. From there the hand is played one card at a time, and with every card you choose one of three moves.

  • StandKeep the total you have, and the hand is finished.
  • Take a cardOne more card, with no money added to the bet.
  • DoublePut up a second bet as large as everything already on the hand, or less, and take one more card. Then choose again.

Three moves where an ordinary table offers more: there is no split and no surrender at this table. The double is the move that is new, and it is new twice over: it does not stop the hand, and you may make it again with the next card.

An ace as the first card is the one exception: it gets exactly one more card, whether you take that card or double for it, and the hand stands there.

Every double is a bigger bet

Each double brings one more card and doubles everything on the hand. At the table with the face-down card, the largest and smallest bets are posted.

  1. Before any doubleOne bet on the table: the bet you started the hand with.
  2. After one doubleTwo bets: the first bet, and a double as large as the first bet.
  3. After a second doubleFour bets: everything on the table, doubled once more.
  4. After a third doubleEight bets: everything on the table, doubled again.

So the rule for doubling at this table is short:

What the chart for this game does, by what the hand is worth on average if it is played on.
The hand, played on by the chartWhat the chart does
Is worth more standing than played onStands: neither a card nor a double is worth as much as the total already in hand.
Otherwise, is worth something on averageDoubles: the double makes twice as much on average, and the hand is still open afterwards.
Otherwise, is worth less than nothing on averageTakes a card: a double would lose twice as much on average.

“On average” is the whole of that rule. A hand the chart doubles still loses often, and when it does, the double goes with the first bet; across all hands, the house keeps a share of every bet at this table as at any other.

Two settlements decide what a double can cost and bring. A hand that goes over 21 loses the first bet and every double that went up on it. A blackjack that arrives after a double is paid at 3 to 2 on the whole amount — the first bet and the double together — at the table with the face-down card, and no further double is allowed on that hand. That second settlement is what makes an ace or a 10 as the first card worth doubling at once.

The chart from one card

Here is the chart worked out for this game at the table with the face-down card: six decks (assumed), the dealer hitting a soft 17, and the face-down card checked for a blackjack before anybody’s second card. Read the first table by your first card down the side and the dealer’s card along the headings.

Your first card
First card2345678910A
2HHHHDDHHHH
3HHHHDHHHHH
4HHHHDHHHHH
5HHHHHHHHHH
6HHHHHHHHHH
7HHHHHHHHHH
8HHHDDDHHHH
9HDDDDDDHHH
10DDDDDDDDDD
ADDDDDDDDDD
  • Hhit
  • Ddouble: add up to the whole bet and take a card

One row per first card. The strong first cards are doubled at once against many dealer cards; the weak ones take a card and wait for a hand worth putting money on.

Once a second card has come and no double has gone up, the hand is read from the hard or the soft table, by its total. The three moves are the same in every cell: stand, take a card, or double.

Hard totals, before any double
Hard2345678910A
4HHHHDHHHHH
5HHHHHHHHHH
6HHHHHHHHHH
7HHHHHHHHHH
8HHHDDDHHHH
9HDDDDDDHHH
10DDDDDDDDHH
11DDDDDDDDDD
12HHHSSHHHHH
13HSSSSHHHHH
14SSSSSHHHHH
15SSSSSHHHHH
16SSSSSHHHHH
17SSSSSSSSSS
18SSSSSSSSSS
19SSSSSSSSSS
20SSSSSSSSSS
  • Hhit
  • Sstand
  • Ddouble: add up to the whole bet and take a card
Soft totals, before any double
Soft2345678910A
12HDDDDDDHHH
13HHDDDDDHHH
14HHHDDDHHHH
15HHHDDHHHHH
16HHHHDHHHHH
17HHHDDDHHHH
18SSSDDSSHHH
19SSSSSSSSSS
20SSSSSSSSSS
  • Hhit
  • Sstand
  • Ddouble: add up to the whole bet and take a card

Every cell is worked out for the same rules as the first table. A double shows up in cells an ordinary chart would never double, because a double here costs you none of your later choices.

After a double, the chart for this game is the same chart, cell for cell, after one double and after two: more money rides on the hand, and the hand is worth exactly what it was worth before. That holds at the table with the face-down card; at the table without one, a few cells move.

What the dealer’s cards change

Two rules on the dealer’s side decide how much the doubles are worth. The first: a dealer hand that ends on exactly 22 pushes every main bet still in action, and every double is part of the main bet. A blackjack of yours is the exception, because it was paid when it came.

  • 22Every main bet still in action is a push, doubles included; a dealt blackjack was already paid
  • 23Every hand still standing is paid
  • 24Every hand still standing is paid
  • 25Every hand still standing is paid
  • 26Every hand still standing is paid

The second rule is when a dealer blackjack is found, and here two tables that deal this game part company. At the table with the face-down card, a dealer blackjack is settled before anybody’s second card. At the table without a face-down card, the dealer starts with one card face up, and a dealer blackjack is found after the players act, when doubles may already be up; the rules there say what happens to them.

Two tables dealing the same game, side by side.
The ruleThe table with the face-down cardThe table without a face-down card
A dealer blackjackSettled before any second card: the first bets lose, and no double has gone up yet.Found after the players act: the first bets lose, and every double is a push.
Your blackjack against the dealer’sThe two cannot meet: the dealer’s blackjack is settled before you hold two cards.Yours loses to the dealer’s — only the first bet, if you had doubled.

The same name over two tables, and two different prices. What the rules do with a dealer blackjack is printed on each table’s rules, and it is the first thing worth reading before the first chip goes down.

One operator’s English and French pages deal the game differently: the English page deals two cards to each player, the French page one. The full rules prevail where the pages differ; the chart and the prices here follow the one-card deal.

What each table rule costs

Each table’s rules come to one figure: the share of every bet the house keeps on average from a player who never departs from that table’s chart. Four of them, side by side:

Face-down card, dealer stands on a soft 17 (a what-if)1.53%

The table with the face-down card, if its dealer stood on a soft 17.

Face-down card, dealer hits a soft 17, six decks2.02%

The table with the face-down card, as its rules card prints it, from six decks.

The same, from eight decks (a what-if)2.07%

The table with the face-down card, dealt from eight decks.

No face-down card, dealer hits a soft 17, six decks2.28%

The table without a face-down card, from six decks.

The longer the bar, the larger the share of every bet the house keeps. At the table with the face-down card the dealer hits a soft 17; the bar for a dealer who stands shows what that one line is worth — about 0.49 of a percentage point. Eight decks instead of six add about 0.05 of a percentage point, and the table without a face-down card costs more than the table with one.

  • What the rules card tells youOne card to start, a double with every card, the push on a dealer 22, and what happens to a dealer blackjack.
  • What the table postsThe smallest and largest bet the table takes.
  • What nobody printsHow many decks are in the shoe. The figures above assume six.

At two casinos a side bet sits beside the main bet: one on the dealer’s hand ending on exactly 22, and one on the dealer’s hand going to 22 or more. Both are bets on the dealer’s cards, and neither is counted in the figures above. A side bet is a risky gamble, and no way to get back what is already lost.

The game is on the table lists of casinos in more than one province, and a casino may change what it deals.

Maya with a hand on her chest, speaking gently and seriously.

Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks

Every double is a bigger bet. The chart says when a double pays on average, not that any one hand will, and at this table one hand can carry many times the bet you sat down with — eight after three doubles, sixteen after four. So decide the amount for the evening and how long it runs before the first card, and stop when either one is used up. A losing run is not a debt the table owes you: putting more money down to get it back only makes the hour dearer. If the money on the table starts to feel like money you need, call one of the lines below — that is what they are for.

If it stops being fun

If gambling stops being entertainment, help is available. 19+ in most of Canada; 18+ in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec. More on responsible gaming.

1-866-531-2600Ontario · ConnexOntario · 24 hours
1-800-461-0140Quebec · Jeu: aide et référence · 24 hours
1-888-795-6111British Columbia · Gambling Support BC · 24 hours
1-866-332-2322Alberta · Addiction Helpline (Recovery Alberta) · 24 hours
1-800-463-1554Manitoba · Problem Gambling Helpline · 24 hours
1-800-306-6789Saskatchewan · Problem Gambling Help Line · 24 hours
1-888-429-8167Nova Scotia · Mental Health and Addictions Crisis Line · 24 hours
1-800-461-1234New Brunswick · Gambling Information Line
1-855-255-4255Prince Edward Island · PEI Gambling Support Line · 24 hours
811Newfoundland and Labrador · Gambling Help Line · 24 hours
1-844-533-3030Yukon · Reach Out Support Line (CMHA Yukon)

If you are thinking about suicide, call or text 9-8-8

The chart on one card

That is the lesson. The chart for this game is on one card: print it, or keep it on your phone.

Double Down MadnessSix decks assumed · dealer hits a soft 17 · face-down card
Your first card
First card2345678910A
2HHHHDDHHHH
3HHHHDHHHHH
4HHHHDHHHHH
5HHHHHHHHHH
6HHHHHHHHHH
7HHHHHHHHHH
8HHHDDDHHHH
9HDDDDDDHHH
10DDDDDDDDDD
ADDDDDDDDDD
Hard totals, before any double
Hard2345678910A
4HHHHDHHHHH
5HHHHHHHHHH
6HHHHHHHHHH
7HHHHHHHHHH
8HHHDDDHHHH
9HDDDDDDHHH
10DDDDDDDDHH
11DDDDDDDDDD
12HHHSSHHHHH
13HSSSSHHHHH
14SSSSSHHHHH
15SSSSSHHHHH
16SSSSSHHHHH
17SSSSSSSSSS
18SSSSSSSSSS
19SSSSSSSSSS
20SSSSSSSSSS
Soft totals, before any double
Soft2345678910A
12HDDDDDDHHH
13HHDDDDDHHH
14HHHDDDHHHH
15HHHDDHHHHH
16HHHHDHHHHH
17HHHDDDHHHH
18SSSDDSSHHH
19SSSSSSSSSS
20SSSSSSSSSS
  • Hhit
  • Sstand
  • Ddouble: add up to the whole bet and take a card

19+ (18+ in AB, MB, QC) · Set a limit before you sit down · Play responsibly · the line for your province is at Helplines by province

If you are thinking about suicide, call or text 9-8-8

Practice: double again?

Every hand below is a cell of the chart for this game at the table with the face-down card. Level 1 is your first card against the dealer’s up card: take a card or double. Level 2 is a hand of two cards or more with no double yet: take a card, double or stand. Level 3 is the same choice after one or two doubles, with more money already on the hand.

Nothing is bet here, and the table without a face-down card is not dealt: its chart is a chart of its own, and the practice run keeps to one set of rules so that every answer means one thing.

The practice table needs JavaScript. Here is one hand from it, with the answer.

Double Down Madness · one card to start · six decks · dealer hits a soft 17

Your first card is an ace and the dealer shows a 10. Take a card, or double?

The answer: Double: add up to the whole bet and take a card.

With an ace as the first card, this game’s chart says “double” against every dealer card. An ace as the first card gets exactly one more card, taken or doubled, and the hand stands there.

Every answer in the practice table comes from the engine that works out the chart for this game; none of them is typed in by hand.

How the practice run works

Where the hands come from. Each hand is a cell of the chart for this game, and every move that led up to the question — each card taken and each double — is the move the same chart names, so the practice run never sits you in a hand the chart would not have reached. The answer is the cell itself, worked out when the page is built and never typed in by hand.

One strip, and no rounds. Every square on the strip is one hand of this lesson, and all of the squares are there from the start. Your first answer fills the square it belongs to; when the squares of one level are full, the next level begins by itself, with no button in between. Practising a hand you got wrong turns its cross into “fixed in practice” and does not change the count, because only first answers count.

Your progress stays in this browser, and nothing is sent anywhere.

Check yourself

Maya with a finger raised and a knowing look.

Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks

Five quick ones. Pick an answer, then check it. No timer, no points: just whether it stuck.

1Your first card is an ace and the dealer shows a 10. What does the chart for this game say?

Show the answer

Answer: Double: a blackjack after a double is paid on the whole bet. An ace as the first card gets exactly one more card, whether you take that card or double for it. When that one card is worth ten, the hand is a blackjack, and at the table with the face-down card a blackjack after a double is paid 3 to 2 on the whole bet.

  • Take a card: an ace is worth nothing until a second card comes. An ace as the first card is worth something against every dealer card, and its one card can be a blackjack paid on the whole bet. Taking that card instead of doubling for it leaves one bet on a hand the chart puts a second bet on.
  • Double only when the dealer shows a 6 or lower. That is the shape of the doubles in an ordinary chart. The chart for this game doubles an ace as the first card against every dealer card, and that includes the 10.
  • Double: a blackjack after a double is paid on the whole bet. The ace gets one card either way, so the double gives nothing up, and a blackjack that arrives is paid on the first bet and the double together. The chart for this game doubles an ace as the first card against every dealer card.
2At the table with the face-down card, the dealer takes one card face up and one face down. What does the face-down card change?

Show the answer

Answer: A dealer blackjack is settled before you hold two cards: no double is up yet, and your blackjack never meets the dealer’s. With a face-down card, a dealer blackjack is settled before anybody’s second card is dealt, so it can only take the first bets. At a table without a face-down card the dealer blackjack is found later, and the rules there have to say what happens to the doubles.

  • A dealer blackjack is settled before you hold two cards: no double is up yet, and your blackjack never meets the dealer’s. The face-down card lets a dealer blackjack be found and settled before the second cards are dealt, so the bets you started with are the only money on the table when it is.
  • Nothing: a dealer blackjack is settled the same way at every table. At the table without a face-down card a dealer blackjack is found after the players act, when doubles may be up; with the face-down card it is settled before anybody’s second card.
  • It lets you see the dealer’s total before you double. The face-down card stays face down while you play. What it changes is when a dealer blackjack is found, not what you can see.
3At an ordinary blackjack table a double brings exactly one card and ends the hand. Can you take another card after a double at this table? new situation

Show the answer

Answer: Yes, and you may double again too. You may take a card or double with each card you receive, until you stand or the hand goes over 21. The game is built on exactly that: a double anytime, and a card after a double.

  • No, the same as at an ordinary table. That is the ordinary rule, and this game drops it: the double brings one card, and then you choose again.
  • Yes, and you may double again too. Each card brings the same three choices: stand, take a card, or double again — unless the first card was an ace, which gets one card only.
  • Yes, but only one more card. The rules let you take a card or double with each card you receive until you stand or go over 21, without stopping you after one more card.
4You have doubled twice, so four bets are on the table, and you stand on 19. The dealer’s hand ends on exactly 22. What happens to the four bets?

Show the answer

Answer: A push: all four bets come back, and nothing is added to them. A dealer hand that ends on exactly 22 pushes every main bet still in action, and a double is part of the main bet.

  • A push: all four bets come back, and nothing is added to them. The push on a dealer 22 reaches every main bet still in action, the doubles included.
  • The first bet comes back and the doubles are paid. The push does not split the bets apart: the first bet and every double on the hand are pushed together.
  • All four bets are paid, because the dealer went over 21. That is how a dealer over 21 is settled at an ordinary table, and here it still holds from 23 up. Exactly 22 is the exception.
5You doubled once, took one more card, and the hand went over 21. What does the hand lose?

Show the answer

Answer: The first bet and the double, together. A hand that goes over 21 loses the first bet along with every double that went up on it.

  • Only the first bet: the double was a second try. A double is money put down on the hand, not a second try at it. When the hand goes over 21, the money on the hand goes with it.
  • Only the double: the first bet is pushed. Nothing on a hand that goes over 21 is pushed. A push belongs to a dealer hand that ends on exactly 22.
  • The first bet and the double, together. Every bet riding on the hand is lost when the hand goes over 21, and after one double that is the first bet and the double.

Back to the question we opened with. One more double is worth putting up when the hand, played on by the chart, is worth something on average — and the double leaves you every choice you had before it.

Where to play, and further reading

Blackjack in Canada The casinos that list blackjack, with the minimum bets they quote.

19+ (18+ in AB, MB, QC) · Play responsibly · the helplines are further up this page

Further reading

  • Double Down Madness Blackjack · Fallsview Casino ResortOne card to start, a double with every card after it, and the dealer’s face-down card that decides how much a dealer blackjack takes.

How it’s worked out

Rules, numbers and hosts

Where this happens. Every table on this page is a table in a room you can walk into, and every rule quoted from it comes from a rules card or a page its publisher makes public. A game on a screen at home is asked for different things by a different book of rules, and it belongs to a track of its own.

Numbers. Every share of a bet on this page, and every cell of every chart, is worked out when the page is built by the same engine as our blackjack strategy tool, for a player who never departs from the chart worked out for that table’s rules. The table with the face-down card follows its own rules card: one card to start, the dealer hitting a soft 17, a dealer blackjack settled before any second card, an ace as the first card getting one card, and a blackjack after a double paid 3 to 2 on the whole bet. The table without a face-down card follows its own page; that page states the dealer’s rule on a soft 17 only in its general section on blackjack, and the calculation applies that rule to this game. It does the same with a blackjack there: the game’s own section leaves the payment to the posted odds, and the calculation takes the 1.5 times the bet that the general section prints. Every double in the calculation is for the whole amount already on the hand, though the rules let you double for less. A difference in percentage points is the difference between two figures as printed on this page, so it is what you get by subtracting the two yourself.

What nobody prints. No rules card or table page we could read gives the number of decks. Six is our assumption for every figure here, and eight is shown as a what-if. The figure for a dealer who stands on a soft 17 is a what-if too: the rules card of the table with the face-down card prints a dealer who hits.

What is deliberately absent. There is no money figure on this page: an amount in dollars per hand is not worked out for this game. There is no price for either side bet, and no figure for how long money lasts at this table. Other games have lessons of their own on this track: Free Bet Blackjack, Spanish 21, Blackjack Switch, Zappit and Bahama Bonus. The side bets that sit beside a main wager, what a single table rule costs on its own, and the chart of the ordinary game each have a lesson further along the same track.

Sources. Every claim on this page carries a button with the sentence it rests on, the publisher who wrote that sentence and the date we read it.

Hosts. Leo and Maya are illustrated characters. Their backstories, a former dealer and a former floor supervisor, are written for the course: neither is a real person, and neither speaks for any casino. The rules and numbers on this page come from the sources it cites, not from their experience.

No promise. This game is played against the house, like every other game in this course. A double the chart names can lose, and the money on it goes with the first bet; nothing on this page makes the game free of cost, and nothing here says how an evening will end.

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