Splitting Eights

Standard 56-card deck (Photo credit: Wikipedia)








 

Splitting 8's when the dealer has a 10 or face card as their up card?

Should a player split 8's against the dealers up card of a 10 when late surrender is offered? 

Basic strategy says that you should always split aces and eights but it also tells you that you should surrender your hand when you have hand that is a total of 16 against a dealers 10/face card, so what about two eights? 

I often get this exact question, "Should I split my 8's or surrender when the dealer is showing an up card of 10/Face card".  

Yes, you still want to split your eights against even if late surrender is offered.

Even when you base the math on a two-deck game, that does not allow double after splitting, these being less favorable house rules than most, the expected value of splitting 8's,  against a 10 is -0.480673, but it is still a shade better than the -0.5 by surrendering..

It's pretty close, mathematically but you should split your eight's, even when the casino offers late surrender or does not allow double after split.

Late Surrender-  Late Surrender is when the house offers you as a player the choice to fold your hand, at the cost of half of the original bet. You must make that after the dealer has checked for blackjack and the decision to surrender is made prior to taking any other action on the hand. For example, once you draw a third card, or split, or double down, surrender is no longer an option.

Related articles

• Surrendering your bet

Blackjack Busting Chart: Percentages for both player's and dealer'shand busting

Blackjack Bust Chart

Do you feel as if you always bust when you hit 16? 

Does it seem that the dealer rarely busts whenever they have a 2 as their up card? 

The chart below shows the busting percentages for the player's hand and for the dealer's hand after each has been dealt 2 cards.

Players starting hand busting percentage:

The left side of the chart contatins the busting percentages for the player's starting hand.  The players staring hand is the first two cards dealt to the player.

Dealers starting hand busting percentge showing one card:

The right side of the chart contains the dealers busting percentage with a certain up card, before the hole card is revealed or the dealer hits.

Cardroom Insider Blackjack Busting Chart

Basic strategy for Spanish 21

Strategy Chart is for Spanish 21

Dealer hits soft 17

Redoubling 3 times (4 hands total), drawing on split aces and

Surrender Allowed

The Martingale System and a Variation

The Martingale System 

The Martingale system is a very old and extremely simple system. It is based on the probability of losing infinite times in a row and is usually applied to 'even money' bets.

You start with one bet. If you win, you start again with one bet. If you lose, you double your bet. Each time you lose, you double your last lost bet. Eventually you are bound to win. When you win you would recover all your lost bets plus one unit (or chip) profit against your initial wager.

Although infallible in theory, the Martingale system requires a large bankroll, has a very low return and is a very risky one because of the maximum bet limits imposed by the casinos. If you run out of money or reach the house limit, you can lose a lot with no chance to recover your losses.

Negative progression, a variation of the Martingale System.

Assumes you will win before you reach the house limit and can bankroll the losing run. Bet an initial amount (N). For each win, on the next bet N again. For each lose bet N*x+N where x is the number of losing bets. Thus if you finally win, you will recover all bet money, plus N for every loss. The progression would look like this on a $5 table. 5, 15, 35, 75, 155, 315, etc. As with all negative progressions, and this one even more so, it requires more capital and is employed to force a winning outcome following a losing streak.

Using the term "Monkey" for a face card in Blackjack and in Baccarat

When you play blackjack or baccarat you often hear the familiar cry for a  "monkey",  when players are calling for face card.  

Many people ask me, "why do the players call for a monkey"?

The best explanation I have heard is that the term "monkey" came from people of Chinese culture playing the European invented game of baccarat. 

In Europe the King, Queen are part of the Royal Court or Royal Monarchy.  

When Chinese people use the English word "Monarchy" with their Cantonese or Mandarin accents, spoken quickly, the word "Monarchy" sounds like "monkey". 

Rules that Blackjack Dealers Use

Here is an article written by Udemy on the rules that a dealer must play by when you are playing blackjack.

This is a good read for those just learning to play blackjack and some refreshers for those who haven't played in a while.

http://www.udemy.com/blog/blackjack-dealer-rules/

Related articles

• Discover The Blackjack Strategy Chart

Insider Info: Players Hand Probabilities

Player Hand Probabilites

Listed below are the probabilities of the player's starting hand

1) Blackjack – 4.8% (winning hand)

2) Point totals of  17 – 20 – 30.0% (automatic stand)

3) Point totals of 12 – 16 – 38.7%  (decision hands)

4) Point totals of 4 – 11 – 26.5% (must hit)

Notes from a dealer:

One of the more common questions or complaints that I hear every day,from players, is "How come you are always giving me 13 or 14?"

When playing blackjack the probability of the players starting hands  (First 2 Cards) being a point total of 13  or 14, is almost 40%.  There is a mathematical reason the player often feels they are always being dealt 13, because nearly half of the time, they are!

Conversely, I also hear many times a day, "how come you never give me a blackjack"---or---"I have only had 2 blackjacks all day today".  

The odds of the player being dealt a blackjack is 4.8%. 

At less than 5% of your hands, it is easy to see why players feel like Blackjacks don't come around very often and probably the reason why, right after a player is dealt one,  The first word The dealer hears is "Finally".

www.CardroomInsider.com