Splitting aces and eights

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 nine, ten, or ace is crazy 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 in the long run versus 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 up card 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 in the long haul.

This is in fact the situation with a pair of eights against a dealer nine, ten, or ace. If you hit the eights (or 16), you will lose on average about $52 for every $100 bet. That is quite a hefty loss, but not to be expected because you are a big underdog when you hold a 16 against a dealer's strong up card of nine, ten or ace. However when you pair split, you break up you 16, double your bet, and play two hands of eight. A computer analysis of this situation shows you will lose about $43 per $100 bet when you split eights. This is still a losing proposition from the player's perspective. But notice by splitting you've won just enough split hands to reduce your overall loss to $9 per hundred dollars wagered. You've reduced your loss by pair splitting the eights, which is why it's the better strategy than hitting or standing. To put it another way, playing two hands starting with an eight on each is better than playing one hand starting with 16 when the dealer shows a nine, ten or ace.

To be sure, sometimes when you split a pair of eights against, say, a dealer ten you will lose both split hands. You might even hear some comments from the dealer or fellow players about why you should have stood or hit. Forget about them. Just remember that in the long run, which means after you are dealt many pairs of eights, you will wind up losing less than if you stood or hit. Follow the basic strategy and always split eights no matter what the dealer shows.

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 used 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 0.06 percent in the player's favor. It doesn't look like much of an edge, but every bit helps so always resplit aces.

Follow the golden rule and always split eights and aces no matter what the dealer up card happens to be. Splitting aces will result in significant gains for the player. Splitting eights 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 eights, 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.