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Know When to Split in Blackjack |
The rules of blackjack say that when your first two cards are the same, you may split them to form two independent hands. Each one will receive an additional card to make a two-card blackjack hand, and each hand will have a bet equal to your original blackjack bet, effectively doubling your bet. The important thing in blackjack strategy is determining when to take advantage of the splitting rule.
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Splitting a pair of aces should seem like an obvious move. Without splitting, all you have is a soft 12. There's nothing great about that. If you do split, remember that there are more 10-value cards than any other card in the deck, so you have a good chance to get two hands of 21. That's the very best hand in the whole game of blackjack, and you have a chance for two of them. Why, then, would anybody not split a pair of Aces?
Well, there are some online blackjack players who feel that the rules of blackjack discourage them from splitting their aces. In most blackjack games, a split ace and a 10 counts as an ordinary 21, paying 1:1, and not as a blackjack, which would pay 3:2. Some blackjack players feel cheated by that, and decide that they are not going to bother splitting their aces. Then there is the rule, found in many blackjack variations, that says a split ace may receive only one more card. There are blackjack players who fear that this rule limits their freedom of action and so they refrain from splitting.
The fact remains, however, that putting all emotions aside and focusing solely on the blackjack odds and probabilities, you are always better off with a hand of 11 than a hand of 12. Splitting aces gives you two hands of 11, and the best blackjack strategy is to take them.
Don't forget that splitting means doubling your blackjack bet on the table. So winning two blackjack hands with ordinary 21s will still win you more money than winning a single blackjack. And being allowed only one more card to your split ace is really the same rule that applies to doubling down on an ordinary 11. Sure, there will be times when you draw a deuce and wish that you could take another card on your soft 13, but there will also be times when you draw an 8, a 9, or a 10 for a good winning blackjack hand of 19, 20, or 21.
All things considered, a pair of aces is one of the best things that can happen to you when you play blackjack online. Split those aces, and you will often be on your way to winning two blackjack hands at once.
The blackjack basic strategy table tells us to always split a pair of 8s. It makes sense. If you don't split, you have a hand of 16 — a "stiff hand" that never has much of a chance to win. If you do split, you have a good chance of getting two hands of 18 — a good, potentially winning blackjack hand. Many blackjack players — even experienced professional blackjack players — are reluctant to split 8s against a dealer's 9 or 10. They figure that even if they get two hands of 18, they are still likely to lose, so splitting just sets them up to lose twice as much. |
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The reasoning makes sense, but, in the final analysis, it doesn't hold up mathematically. The mathematical analysis indicates that splitting 8s, even though it puts twice as much money on the table, will lose less over the long run than any other move you could make.
The key phrase here is "lose less." Any way you look at it, a pair of 8s against a dealer's 10 is a bad situation to be in. You will lose more than you will win. But sometimes the goal in blackjack gambling is to keep your losses to a minimum by choosing the option that will lose less than the other options. That is called defensive blackjack strategy, and it is an important part of your blackjack strategy arsenal.
By the way, Roger Baldwin, William Cantey, Herbert Maisel, and James McDermott — also known as the Four Horsemen, the first great analysts in the history of blackjack — first proposed splitting 8s against a dealer's 9 or 10 way back in 1957. At the time, no one took their advice seriously — it just seemed wrong. When Edward O. Thorp came to the same conclusion in "Beat the Dealer" in 1962, blackjack gamblers started to give the idea some credence.
By now, all of the top researchers into blackjack theory, using powerful computers that were unavailable earlier in blackjack history, have confirmed that the Four Horsemen and Professor Thorp were correct. Splitting 8s really is the optimal blackjack strategy.
Winning at blackjack means following sound blackjack strategies based on analysis of the blackjack odds and probabilities, and not on hunches and emotions. Make splitting aces and eights a part of your winning blackjack strategy.
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