Dear
Mark, Every basic strategy card,
blackjack book, and yes, you, recommend splitting eights against a dealer 10.
Well, fear gets the better of me, and I depart from correct play and just hit
instead of splitting the pair. So what should I do about a hand that always seems
to haunt me? Hit, split or play the hunch? Scott N.
You're right,
Scott, eights against a 10 is a phantasmal hand that stalks most players like
Marley's ghost. As my readers know, blackjack
is a game where the proper hit, stand, splitting
and doubling
decisions are necessary in order to cut the house edge down to a minimum. These
proper decisions are called basic
strategy and have been arrived at by computer simulations of millions of hands.
But fallacious logic tells you that splitting this
hand creates two losers. Seems every time you split those eights you get, at best,
two 10s. Then the dealer always has a nine or 10 in the hole, and bang, the jingling
you hear is not Marley's forged chains but all your money falling into the dealer's
tray. So what happens to the average player? He starts deviating from basic
strategy because FEAR sets in. The FEAR is actually False Evidence Appearing
Real. FEAR camouflages the logic of computer studies. But according to basic strategy,
the proper move is to split 8s if the game you're playing doesn't allow surrender.
Why? Because you will lose more money in the long run if you hit instead of splitting.
Mathematically, when you just hit the hand, you will lose $51 for every $100 wagered.
However, if you split,
you will lose $44 for every $100 bet. A seven dollar difference for every hundred
dollars wagered. Granted, Scott, it's a character builder to come out of pocket
with additional money, but the key behind basic strategy is: Win more money not
necessarily more hands.
