The "Sting" vs "Prevailing Wisdom": Limit on Number of Double Downs?

[SteinMeister]

That thought should never enter your mind.

With a dealer 6 up those 10 and 11 doubles must be made.

Thanks, that's the confirmation I expected, just wanted to verify that none of the experts "tweaked" doubles play in the rare extreme circumstances.

[Three]

Thanks, that's the confirmation I expected, just wanted to verify that none of the experts "tweaked" doubles play in the rare extreme circumstances.

If it were 10vT it might get tweaked depending on your BR. This is what is called risk aversion. See pages 370-378 for the math, a great explanation, and some illustrative charts. True risk aversion is when the gain at or well beyond an index that you put more money out for is anemic. This is usually because of poor correlation of count tags to the play. The size of your bet compared to your BR is the deciding factor where this is considered. But if a double is right at the index with max bet out you can forgo the double, especially if it is a weak double. Most hard doubles are pretty strong doubles but some just have the EV maximizing index fall where the gain is small at the index despite gaining EV quickly after the index is exceeded. 10vT is very ace influenced. You know the dealer doesn't have on ace in the hole because he checked for BJ. The ace gives your 10 a total of 21. The ace and the 7 are the most important cards. You want a surplus of aces and a deficit of sevens. The T is worth significantly less than either of these but is the next most important card. The proper tag weight for the A is twice the T. The mis-tagging of the two most important cards gives a poor correlation of the playing EoRs to the typical count tags. With properly used additional information on aces the play is better correlated to the count tags. Add 7 info the play becomes strong. Of course that is for side counting those ranks and making the right adjustments for surplus/deficit. Unless you are using an ace neutral count, which all require an ace side count, most don't bother with side counting.