Should I Split Hands When Playing Blackjack?
The short answer is, it depends.
In Blackjack, when you are dealt two cards of the same denomination you are allowed to Split your hand to form two individual hands, and play the two hands at the same time against the banker.
Ten, Jack, Queen and King are all counted as 10, so if you have two of them in your hand you can either sit on the value of 20 or you can split them and make two packs and trust that the following hits will offer you a better score than 20. It is not advisable to split these up and considered truly risky as this hand has a high percentage of winning.
Aces, the most versatile card in the pack, must always be split. This card can either be a 1 or a 10 depending on what other hits you get. This is truly advantages, as if you get a face card, you immediately have 20, but should you get a lower value card, and then opt for a second hit, if this takes you over the 21 limit, taking the Ace as a 10, then you can instantly reduce its value to 1 and avoid going bust.
The lower cards such as 2,3, 4 – up to 8, always split them. These cards generally will not follow a bust on the next round, and the player has time to decide if you would require a third hit or not.
Many online casinos will offer you the choice of more than one split hand in blackjack, but a general rule of thumb is that you are only allowed one split. When this happens, a second wager has to be put on the table that matches the first wager. Placing this on the table makes the second hand legal and this hand will now be subjected to the same rules and regulations as if you were holding one hand.
Splitting your hand in Blackjack gives you double the amount of chance to win this round against the dealer or the banker. Blackjack is all about getting 21 and not going bust, so not instead of only one chance at this coveted number you have two.
In addition to other articles we have here at 21 Tricks, you may also want to take a look at our easy to print Strategy Card to see when to split and when not to split hands while playing 21.
