Knowing When to Double Double Down in Spanish 21

Published: September 11, 2014

One of the really cool rules in Spanish 21 is that you have three different options after doubling. You can double again, surrender or simply stand. With correct play, this allows you to get in a ton of extra value to make up for the fact that there are no T's in the deck. We want to walk you through knowing when to double double down in this game and knowing how to play after the initial double to begin with. It's anti-intuitive in a lot of spots, especially if you're used to regular blackjack where you hardly ever surrender.

Let's start with soft hands since they are the easiest to learn. With a soft hand of 17 or lower, you always double, and with a soft hand of 19 or higher, you always stand. You'll stand with a soft 18 unless you're up against a four, five or six, and against these three cards you will double since they are the weakest three cards that the dealer can have. This makes it easy to remember how to play these spots which is nice because it covers a wide range of potential situations.

This leaves us with hard hands which are a little trickier. With a total of 11 or less, you're almost always going to double. You'll surrender with a six or seven against a dealer with an eight or higher, and you'll surrender with an eight against a ten or ace. Also, you'll stand with a six against a two which is extremely interesting. When you're dealing with a total of 12 or better, you will never double unless you're facing a seven or eight and you have exactly 12.

So that leaves all of the other hands 12 and higher. From 12 to 16, you'll stand if you're facing a seven or lower, and you'll surrender if you're facing an eight or higher. With a 17, you'll always stand unless you're facing an ace against which you'll surrender. With 18 or higher, you always stand. These spots aren't too difficult to learn by themselves, but when you combine them with all of the other stuff you have to learn in Spanish 21, it can become a bit overwhelming. Our advice is to learn this game one layer at a time instead of trying to tackle it all at once.