Can someone explain something about playing basic strategy? I realize that this was supposedly worked out on a computer a long time ago to figure out the best plays to give players the best chance of losing the least amount of money, but I'm wondering if some of the more experienced players on here can share their observations and experience on how well the basic strategy works. I think many players just blindly accept it as "the way" and bet accordingly whether they are winning or losing. The reason I'm asking is that I've noticed that the basic strategy chart says that you always double your elevens. My experience is that this rarely results in a win for the player. The problem I see is that when you double, you are only allowed to draw one card, and my experience has shown that the one card you draw is typically a 2, 3 or 4. The only advantage I can see is to take your one card face down and hope for a dealer bust, which brings up another question. I've seen several other players agonize over whether to take the card face up or face down. I just don't see any advantage to taking the card face up. Am I missing something? Anyway, any advice or words of wisdom regarding basic strategy would be welcome.