Free Forum - Split or not?

Tao Jiang

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Aug 29, 2003, 7:32:32 PM

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Split or not?

Consider the following situation:

At high count (true count +3 or more), the dealer
has an upcard 10 and you are dealt a pair of 8's.
Surrender is not allowed (surrender is obviously
the headache killer). Do you split or stand?

My textbook only tells me that surrender is the
best. I want to know the 2nd best.

Thanks,

TJ

Bearer

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Aug 29, 2003, 8:15:56 PM

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Definitely

You'd definitely split. It's only at negative counts (-2?) that you'd do anything different, namely hitting.

What may be confusing... when you split those eights against a ten at a high true, you're thinking, "two 18s, or even an 18 and a 19 are still going to be crushed by the dealer's 20."

And indeed the odds are against you when you split. But the odds are even further against you if you do anything else in that situation. In other words, you don't split to win more; you split to lose less.

MathProf

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Aug 29, 2003, 10:24:29 PM

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Reverse Index

There is a reverse index, where you do not split 8s v 10 if the count is sufficiently high. For High Low 4 decks, Wong's Prof BJ lists +8 with DAS, and +6 without it. Above the index you obviously stand, because you play it like any other 16.

I thought the index was a bit lower. But Won'g indices are conventional, and I probably saw the RA.

I wouldn't spend a lot of time worrying about this play. It just doesn't occur that often.

TJ

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Aug 30, 2003, 10:38:55 PM

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I thought so, too

That's what I expected.

At sufficiently high count, split 8's against 10
is wrong: stand is the correct play.

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Split or not?