Pair Splitting

Splitting Pairs in Six Deck S17 Blackjack: Every Pair's Line, the 8,8 Against 10 Arithmetic and What Losing DAS Changes

With six decks, the dealer standing on soft 17 and doubling allowed after a split, the correct pair splitting play fits in eight lines. Always split aces and eights. Never split fives or tens. Split nines against 2 to 9 except 7. Split twos, threes and sevens against 2 to 7, sixes against 2 to 6, and fours only against 5 and 6. The rest of this article derives each line and prices the close calls. Rule assumptions Six decks. The dealer checks for blackjack when showing an ace or a ten value card, so every figure below assumes the dealer does not have blackjack. Dealer stands on soft 17. Doubling is allowed on any first two cards, including after a split (DAS). Split aces receive one card each. No surrender. Resplitting is left out of the figures, which treat every split as a single split. Blackjack pays 3 to 2. Change any of these and parts of the chart change. The section on DAS shows the bigg…