 
Splitting
Aces & 8's
by Henry Tamburin,
published on Monday, October 15
2001
Always split aces and eights. That
is one of the golden rules for blackjack
players but not according to a friend
of mine. He insists that splitting
eights against a dealer upcard of
either 9, 10, or ace is nuts because
you are probably going to lose anyway,
so why double your loss by splitting?
Although my friend's
logic appears to make sense it is
flawed. Here's why.
When you split in
blackjack, you must bet more. That
is a fact. The strategy of pair
splitting, then, only makes sense
if you end up either winning more
or losing less vs. standing or hitting.
Losing less is often
a hard concept for blackjack players
to grasp. For example, you can expect
to be dealt a 12 through 17 hand
about 43 percent of the time you
play blackjack. No matter what strategy
you follow, the dealer will, on
average, win more hands than the
player will (with only one exception-
a 17 vs. a dealer's upcard of 6).
Thus the best a player can do in
a losing situation is to use a strategy
that will allow him to lose less.
This is in fact
the situation with a pair of eights
against a dealer 9,10, or ace. If
you hit the eights, you will lose
on average about $52 for every $100
bet. That is quite a hefty loss,
but it is what you probably expect
when you hit a 16 (pair of eights).
However when you pair split, you
double your bet and play out two
hands. A computer analysis of this
situation shows you will lose about
$43 per $100 bet. Still a bad situation
from the players perspective. But
would you rather lose $43 or $52?
I hope you agree that the better
strategy is to split the eights
against the dealers 9, 10, or ace
because you expected loss is reduced
by $9 vs. hitting (and if you are
thinking about standing on the 16
forget it! Your loss rate is even
higher).
Overall a pair of
8's is a lousy hand. Your objective
in pair splitting is to improve
your chances of winning some of
the hands. When you split a pair
of 8's against a dealer upcard of
3 and 7 you will convert a losing
hand into a winner. When you face
a dealer's upcard of 2, 8, 9 10,
or ace, you will most likely lose
BUT you will lose less then hitting
or standing. The bottom line is
that you are better off starting
a hand with an 8 then with a 16.
Thankfully my friend
always splits aces. You would think
that every blackjack player would
automatically split aces. But recently
I observed a young player pass on
splitting aces because "she
was afraid to bet more on the hand".
I even offered to make the bet for
her at no risk (if the bet lost
she owed me nothing). But it was
like talking to a wall. She insisted
on hitting the pair of aces and
drew two tens and broke. She was
mumbling incoherently when she left
the table knowing full well that
if she had taken my offer she would
have had two hands of 21 (by the
way, I was card counting and the
count was positive indicating she
had a good chance of drawing tens
to her aces.)
It use to be standard
casino policy that when you split
aces you would get one and only
one draw card to each split ace.
Sometimes the player would draw
another ace and was stuck with a
hand of 12. Nowadays many casinos
allow players the opportunity to
resplit aces. In the above example
the player could split his third
ace and play three hands. Resplitting
aces is a favorable player rule
that adds about .06% in the player's
favor. When a casino allows it,
always resplit aces!
Follow the golden
rule and always split eights and
aces no matter what the dealer upcard
happens to be. Splitting aces will
result in significant gains for
the player. Splitting 8's for the
most part is a defensive play that
will cut down on your losses. But
keep in mind you will lose your
fair share of hands when you split
8's, but if you were to hit or stand,
you would on average be losing more
money. It's the smart play to make
when you play blackjack.
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