17. Juni 2009

Always Split Aces and Eights

I understand the splitting of Aces, you are taking a bad had (12) and giving yourself two good hands (11) to hit with one card, especially if the dealer has a breaking hand (2-6 showing). And you are no worse off than having a double down hand against a dealers pat hand (7-10, A), which for the most part is a good play.

However, splitting eights takes on a different set of circumstances. Obviously if the dealer is showing 2-8 this play is a no brainer, since two eights represent the worse hand you can have (16) and by splitting them, you give yourself two very playable hands.

It's when the dealer has 9, 10, A that it gets a little scary. Even if you draw 10's to both of the eights, giving you 18, you could lose twice.

So, let's take a closer look. If you have two eights and the dealer has a nine showing, 3 of the 52 cards are exposed leaving 49 possibilities. We can rule out the other two eights (since you could re-split if one of them comes up), leaving 47.

2's and 3's (8 cards) give you a double down hand, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A give you a pat hand (23 cards, remember dealer has one of the 9's showing), so the other 16 cards 4-7, give you a bad hand, but not a bust and certainly no worse off than you started (16), so you can and should hit again.

Just looking at the percentages…31of the 47 cards (66%) improve your hand drastically, while the other 16 cards (34%) make your hand no worse than before and actually make your bad hand (16) a better bad hand (12-15) with more possibilities of improvement. It makes sense to ALWAYS split the eights.

Know your play. Know your way.

tHE bIG pOSSUM has over 40 years of casino gambling experience, and has mentored hundreds of players on casino money management and how to be a successful gambler. He is a major contributor to http://thegamblingmind.com your source for information on all things related to casino gambling. There you will find everything you need to know from how to play craps, blackjack, roulette, keno and poker to casino money management, gambling strategy and sports betting.