Can You Split Aces Twice In Blackjack

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You Blackjack Split Aces Twice will need either a PC/Mac or a mobile device with a good solid internet connection. Then you can download the client software and sign up for an account. The next step is to select your deposit method and transfer some funds into the casino cash desk. Many casinos have a 'no download' option too. In blackjack, the standard rule is that if the player is dealt a pair of identically ranked initial cards, known as a pair, the player is allowed to split them into separate hands and ask for a new second card for each while placing a full initial bet identical to the original wager with each. Of course if you play blackjack online things are much easier and all you have to do is press the split button. Common Blackjack Split Rules. Allowed to split twice (up to three hands). You can split non identical 10 value cards. Splits Aces cannot be re-split. Split Aces receive only one card. You can hit and double down split hands. However, when you split these two Aces, you are left with two hands of either 1 or 11, which gives you a 33% shot of landing 21 with your next card. Why are beginners uneager to split in blackjack? To some beginners to playing blackjack online or offline, splitting hands and playing with multiple hands at once can feel like a daunting prospect.


If you’ve spent any time studying blackjack basic strategy, you’ve probably heard that you should always split aces and eights. The goal of this post is to explain why this is the appropriate move in almost any variation of blackjack. It doesn’t matter what the dealer’s face-up card is, by the way. Splitting aces and eights is always the right move.

A Note on “Basic Strategy”

If you’re new to blackjack, you might not have heard what basic strategy is. In brief, it’s a table of the mathematically correct moves to make in any blackjack situation.

You have 2 pieces of information, which are cross-referenced on a blackjack basic strategy chart:

  • What’s in your hand
  • Half of what’s in the dealer’s hand

In your hand, you have a soft total, a hard total, and possibly a pair of cards of the same rank.

In the dealer’s hand, you know one of his or her cards. In almost all blackjack variations, the dealer gets one card face-up.

The correct decision in any of these situations is the one with the highest mathematical expected return.

If you make the correct mathematical decision on every hand, you reduce the house edge that the casino has over you to its lowest possible number—usually between 0.5% and 1%, depending on the rules at the casino.

How Splitting Cards in Blackjack Works

One of the options you have in blackjack is “splitting” a pair of cards of the same rank. When you do this, you start 2 hands. The first card of each of those hands is one of the 2 cards from your original hand.

You also must put up another bet when you split your hand. You then play each hand independently of each other.

You could win both the new hands, lost both the new hands, or lose with one and win with the other.

Basic strategy tells you that you should never splits 4s, 5s, or 10s. It also tells you that you should always split aces or 8s.

Why You Do the Things You Do in Basic Strategy

Basic strategy has been derived by mathematicians and computer programs who run simulations of millions of hands. They look at the results of those hands to determine the playing decision which wins the most or loses the least amount of money in each situation.

But some of the thinking behind basic strategy makes sense, too.

Here’s an example:

You should never split 10s, no matter what the dealer’s upcard is.

Why not?

You have a hard total of 20. The only possible hand that could beat that 20 is a 21. It’s such a good hand that it’s hard to imagine improving your chances by creating 2 new hands—even though any hand which starts with a single 10 is going to turn out pretty good.

Let’s think about how many cards left in the deck will improve on a hard total of 20.

If you get a 10 on your new hand, that’s great. You now have what you would have had originally. You have 14 cards left in the deck which are worth 10 points. (There are 16 of those cards to begin with, but you already have 2 of them.)

If you get an ace, that’s even better. You get 3 to 2 on your payout. That’s not as likely as getting another 10, though. There are only 4 aces in the deck.

Aces

All the other cards, though, give you a worse hand. That’s a total of 32 cards which will give you a hand that’s not as good as your original hand. That’s about a 65% chance of getting a hand with a total not as good as you started with.

And some of those cards are rough, too. You get a 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, and you have a stiff hand. That’s a hand that’s unlikely to beat the dealer unless you hit it. But it’s also a hand that has a good chance of going bust if you hit it.

This kind of thinking—about how good your total is, and about how the remaining cards in the deck might affect that total—is crucial to an understanding of basic strategy.

Let’s look at one more example:

You should also never split 5s. That’s a hard total of 10.

That’s a lousy total as it stands, but it’s a total you can’t bust with an additional card. Any card will improve your total, and a lot of those cards will give you a hand you’ll feel good about standing on. You have 16 cards worth 10 left in the deck, and 4 aces. That’s 20 cards that will give you a total of 20 or 21.

If you get a 7, 8, or 9, you also have a solid total you can feel good about. That’s another 12 cards, for a total of 32 cards which will improve your total.

Even if you get a 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, it’s not the end of the world. You’re liable to get a stiff hand, but it’s not as likely as getting a good hand.

But what would happen if you split those 5s?

You’d wind up with 2 hands with a starting card of 5. It’s impossible to get a card on top of that to make you feel good about your hand. If you get an ace, you have a soft 16, and that’s probably the best you can hope for. If you get a 10, you have a total of 15, which is awful. It won’t beat the dealer, and it’s likely to bust when you take another card.

The other, lower value cards don’t help much either. A 9 gives you a total of 14, which is also awful. An 8 gives you a total of 13. Nothing to write home about there, either.

What Happens When You Split Aces

A hand of 2 aces that you don’t split is just a soft total of 12. That’s not terrible, because it’s hard to bust. But it’s not likely to win.

On the other hand, if you take a mediocre hand and turn it into 2 really good hands, you’ve accomplished something.

And let’s face it—anyone with a brain in his or her head knows that an ace is the best possible starting card in blackjack. If you get a 10 on top of that ace, you have a blackjack, which pays off at 3 to 2.

In fact, in a lot of casinos, you can split those aces and then immediately double down on them.

Remember, you have 16 cards worth 10 points each in the deck—more than any other specific total. Most of the cards aren’t worth 10 points, but enough of them are that you can be optimistic about getting that natural at least some of the time.

But if you miss your 10, you still wind up with a good hand almost every time. If you get a 9, you have a total of 20, which is a great hand. If you get an 8, you have a total of 19, which is good. Even a 7 leaves you with a total of 18.

If you get a 6 or less, you don’t have such a great hand. But because one of the cards is an ace, you’re going to be able to try to improve that hand with little fear that it’s going to bust.

What Happens When You Split Eights

First, if you have a hand made up of 2 eights, you have a hard total of 16. That’s a lousy hand. You’re probably going to stand rather than take an additional card. Either way, you’re unlikely to win. If you stand, the dealer will probably wind up with a better total than you. If you hit, you’re probably going to bust.

On the other hand, if you split this into 2 new hands, each with a starting card of 8, a lot of good things can happen.

16 of the cards in the deck are worth 10 points, so you have a reasonably good chance of getting a total of 18 on your new hand.

If you get a 9, you have a total of 17, which is also a big improvement.

If get another 8, which is unlikely, since you already have 2 of them, you’re no worse off than you were to begin with.

But What If the Dealer Has a 9 or 10 Upcard?

Thoughtful blackjack players might wonder why you would split 10s or 8s in the face of a dealer’s upcard of 9 or 10. After all, the odds are good that the dealer will beat you. Aren’t you just losing twice as much money by splitting in this situation?

How Many Times Can You Split Aces In Blackjack

The crucial factor to keep in mind is whether you’ll win more in the long run or lose more in the long run by making a specific decision. In the case of a dealer 9 or 10, you’re not trying to win more often. You’re just trying to lose less often.

This is built into the logic of the game and into the logic of basic strategy.

Here’s an example:

Any total of 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, or 17 is probably going to lose to the dealer—more than 51% of the time, anyway. And you’ll see one of those totals a little more than twice out of every 5 hands.

The best you can do in that situation is try to lose less often than you would if you made another decision.

Let’s say you face a dealer upcard of 9, 10, or ace with a pair of 8s. If splitting weren’t an option, the correct strategy would be to hit the hard total of 16. You’d lose $52 out of every $100 you bet in this situation. (It seems like you’d lose more often than that, even, but remember—the dealer doesn’t always have an ace in the hole.)

But if you split that into 2 hands that each start with an 8, you’ll lose $43 of every $100 you bet in this situation. Yes, you’ve put twice as much money into the situation. But each of those should be thought of as 2 bets with a better on-average outcome than the one bet with a terrible possible outcome.

These are both losing situations, but one situation saves you $9 on average per $100 bet.

In fact, you’ll sometimes get some grief from the other players or even the dealer when you make this decision. The best thing to do is ignore them. They mean well, but they clearly don’t understand the math behind the game or behind basic strategy.

As an aside, I used to employ a former blackjack dealer to clean my house. Her understanding of the game and the math behind it was abysmal. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because someone deals blackjack for a living means they understand how to minimize the house edge.

Always follow basic strategy, and always ignore other people who advise you to do something different.

Splitting Aces Is a No-Brainer, Though

Split

Even people who are a little confused about basic strategy in blackjack understand the logic behind splitting aces. You’ll occasionally run into someone who’s too timid or too under-bankrolled to make the mathematically best choice. If you’re in a helpful mood, you might offer to cover the extra bet for that person at no risk to them. The dealer might or might not allow this. The player might or might not take you up on it.

But if he or she does, it’s a good deal, because you have an excellent chance of getting that 3 to 2 payout for a blackjack.

If you’re counting cards, you might even be in a situation where the deck is rich in 10s. In this case, such a play makes even more sense. That’s the reason card counting works, after all—it measures the ratio of 10s and aces in the deck to the number of lower cards in the deck.

Splitting and Re-Splitting Aces

It’s possible when you split aces to get another ace on top of one or both of your new hands. In that case, if the casino allows it, you should split again. You could easily wind up with 4 hands in play at a time, all of which stand an excellent chance of turning into a blackjack.

Not all casinos allow this, and it’s easy to see why. At many casinos, after you split aces, the casino only lets you take one additional card. If you were to get another ace and not have the option of re-splitting, the casino has you. A total of 12 versus almost any dealer total is a likely loser.

Luckily, that doesn’t come up often enough to worry about it. Just remember that you always split aces, regardless of the dealer’s upcard, and you’ll be fine.

Conclusion

And that’s my explanation of why you should always split aces and 8s when playing blackjack. The dealer’s upcard doesn’t matter in any situation. You’ll either win more money more often or lose less money in the long run.

Splitting aces is an aggressive move that increases your winnings dramatically. Splitting 8s is a defensive move that helps to minimize your long-term losses.

Both are the mathematically correct play.

The rules of blackjack dictate that when a player is dealt two cards of the same value at the start of a round, they have the option to match their original bet and split the identical cards into two separate hands. Splitting pairs not only increases the entertainment value of the game but also works to the players’ advantage and decreases the house edge, i.e. when executed correctly.

Can You Split Aces Twice In Blackjack Real Money

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The trouble is most novice players experience difficulties with pairs and often do not know how to play such hands optimally. Misplaying paired Aces is one of the most common mistakes among blackjack rookies which ultimately causes them to lose money in the long term instead of profiting. This article teaches you how to approach a pair of Aces optimally and explains when and why you should refrain from splitting them.

Casino Rules on Splitting Aces

Splitting Aces is considered a very powerful move on behalf of players, so it is only natural for the house to try and do anything possible to prevent them from taking full advantage of this pair. In the majority of landbased and online blackjack variations, casinos prohibit players from hitting their Aces after a split. Instead, each Ace receives no more than one additional card, similarly to what happens after doubling down.

There are certain online variations of the game, like Microgaming’s Super Fun 21, where players get to enjoy more liberal rules when splitting this particular pair, like doubling down on each Ace and resplitting.

The ability to hit split Aces leads to a reduction of 0.19% in the casino’s advantage whereas that of resplitting them decreases the house edge by 0.08%. That being said, the software developers have compensated for the advantage these moves give the player by changing some of the other rules with more unfavorable ones. Worse of all, you get even money for your blackjacks which gives the casino a monstrous advantage over you.

Another peculiarity of Ace splitting results from the payouts you receive when you are dealt a ten-value card next to a split Ace. You have a two-card total of 21 but this is not treated as a natural in this case because it is not based on your original two-card holding. Instead, it is treated as a multiple-card 21 which returns even money instead of the higher 3-to-2 payout awarded for blackjacks.

An Ace is a good card to start a hand with, which is why most casinos do not allow their players to resplit pairs of Aces. This naturally makes doubling on split Aces impossible which also takes away some of your edge. Now that you have read about all these restrictions, you are probably wondering if splitting pairs of Aces is a good idea at all. It is. In fact, splitting Aces is always a good idea from the perspective of a basic strategy player.

Basic Strategy Players Should Always Split Aces

The optimal move for paired Aces is among the simplest ones to learn because it never changes in accordance with the playing conditions, the deck number, and the upcard of the dealer. You inevitably split the pair of Aces regardless of whether you are playing a single-deck H17 game or an eight-deck S17 game. No upcard of the dealer is powerful enough to intimidate you when you start a hand with an Ace.

A pair of Aces is actually a soft hand where the Aces have flexible values of 1 or 11. Thus, the total of the pair can be either 2 or 12 depending on which of the two values you choose. The thing about a 12, soft or hard, is it is not a good enough starting total. On the contrary, players end up busting in many cases with this hand.

Splitting Aces gives you the opportunity to create two brand new hands with a more advantageous starting point of 11. Players are always better off when the first card in their hand has a value of 11. This results in significant gains for them over the long haul which explains why most casinos would impose restrictions on how to play out this soft hand. Regardless of the casino rules for hitting, resplitting and doubling on split Aces, the mathematically correct decision for this hand is to always split.

The ten-value cards outnumber any other card denomination in the deck or shoe. There are four ten-value cards from each of the four suits in a single deck that can help you improve your total to the unbeatable 21 when you start with an Ace.

This corresponds to nearly one-third of the cards which means players stand a good chance of catching a 10 to each split Ace. Suppose you pull two Aces out of a 52-card deck along with a third card to represent that of the dealer, a 7, for example.

What are the odds of you catching a 10 as the next card on each Ace? There are now 49 cards left in the deck and 16 of them have a value of 10, which means the likelihood of you improving to 21 with your first Ace is 16 / 49 * 100 = 32.65%.

Basic Strategy Players Should Always Split Aces Additional TipsSuppose you indeed catch a Jack on the first Ace. This slightly reduces the likelihood of you pulling another ten-value card on the second Ace but you still stand a good enough chance. With 15 ten-value cards out of 48 cards left in the deck, the probability of you succeeding with a second score of 21 now stands at 15 / 48 * 100 = 31.25%.

A total of 21 is an excellent hand to obtain even if one does not receive a bonus payout of 3 to 2 after splitting like they normally would when they get a blackjack. In the worst-case scenario, you will end up pushing with your dealer and receiving your two bets back.

Even if you fail at catching ten-value cards, there are plenty of other cards that can help you improve to a total beyond the average winning hand of 18.5. There are four 9s you can draw for a total of 20 and four 8s for a total of 19.

Let’s assume you pick the discards from the previous round, put them back into the deck, and reshuffle. You again pull two Aces and split them against a 9. So what is the likelihood of improving each hand beyond the average winning total of 18.5?

There are 49 cards left and 23 of them can take you into the safe zone beyond 18.5 (four Queens, four Kings, four Jacks, four Tens, four 8s, and three 9s). The likelihood of you pulling one of them next to your first Ace stands at 23 / 49 * 100 = 46.93%! Assuming you get a 9 for a total of 20 on your first Ace, the probability of you drawing one of the “good” cards on your second Ace is now 22 / 48 * 100 = 45.83%.

The peculiarity of splitting, though, is that players are required to post another bet to cover the second hand that results after the pair split. Underbanked and casual gamblers are often reluctant to reach deeper into their pockets to cover their second hand and expose more money to risk, which naturally causes them to draw (or worse, stand) on their paired Aces.

The trouble is not splitting Aces improves only your chances of becoming a long-term loser in a game where the house has an edge against you even if you are a perfect basic strategy player. Just take a minute to ponder the following question – “If splitting Aces was a bad move for blackjack players, would the casino rules for split Aces be so rigid?”.

We think you are able to arrive at a conclusion on your own. The bottom line is despite the casino restrictions, splitting remains the best long-term decision when you hold a pair of Aces.

A Couple of Exceptions to the Above Rule

Some gambling authors argue Aces should not always be split and indeed, they are correct. There is one exception to the always-split-Aces rule and it is made for games like European Blackjack where there is no hole card. Here the dealer draws their second card after all patrons have played out their hands.

Certain basic strategy moves have undergone adjustments to accommodate the absence of hole cards. One of the adjustments concerns the pair of Aces against a dealer who starts their hand with an Ace, which, as you saw, is a very powerful card to start a hand with.

Instead of splitting, the strategy recommends hitting your soft 12 against an Ace and splitting against dealer upcards deuce through 10. The logic behind this adjustment is the following: the dealer cannot peek under their Ace for a blackjack after offering insurance – they get their second card only after you have completed your hand.

Additional Exceptions to the Above RuleSplitting becomes more volatile in this case because the dealer also stands a chance of drawing to a blackjack, in which case you lose two bets after splitting instead of one. Even if you have pulled a 10 next to each of your Aces, your “regular” total of 21 loses to the dealer’s blackjack. It is not worth the risk of pouring more money during this round.

There is a separate category of players who can justify deviating from the basic strategy play for paired Aces. These are the card counters most blackjack huffs have heard about. Some of you have probably even watched slightly exaggerated stories about them in Hollywood movies (who can forget the brilliant Dustin Hoffman as Tom Cruise’ autistic card-counting brother in Rain Man?).

The thing is counting enables these players to keep an accurate track of the cards. If there is a surplus of small cards, with fewer face cards left, a card counter would deviate from the basic strategy and refrain from splitting their Aces.

Can You Split Aces Twice In Blackjack Game

They would know there is a higher chance of them drawing a small card and getting stuck with bad totals on two hands instead of one. Until you get there, we suggest you take our advice and stick to basic strategy when you get a pair of Aces. Playing hunches inevitably results in depleting your bankroll in the long haul.