This may sound really stupid, but I am new to blackjack. There was this guy at the table trying to give me advice. I had a pair of 7's and the dealer had an 8. He told me I was supposed to split these, but that just sounds really stupid. Aren't you already in a poor position with a pair of 7's against an 8. Wouldn't splitting the 7's make things even worse if you're assuming the dealer has a 10 in the hole??? Maybe I'm the one that's stupid, but it makes no sense to split in this situation. Thanks in advance for your replies!
Do you ever split a pair of 7's against a dealer 8??
- Thread starter Ace007
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I'm not aware of any situation that would warrant splitting 7s against a dealer's 8 (advanced plays notwithstanding)—that should always be a hit. Assuming the dealer has a T is a common but incorrect "rule of thumb," though. If you want to decrease your disadvantage to the lowest possible amount, I recommend checking this site's basic strategy engine (see the links to the left), and generate the proper strategy for the game you're playing. This will usually decrease the casino's advantage to around 0.25-0.75%.
The basic Strategy for splitting 7's v 8 varies depending on the rules of the game and count. For example, in a DD game splitting would be the proper basic Strategy play, but in a 6D game the correct play would be to hit. So, What are the rules of the game that you were playing? You can use the Basic Strategy Engine on the home page of this site to give the correct answer to your question.
Thanks for the replies! The game I was playing was 8 deck, hit on soft 17, doubles after splits allowed. I didn't realize that the basic strategy for splitting 7's would change based on the type of game played. Intuitively it just doesn't sound like a good idea in any situation to split 7's against an 8 or higher.
mmeyers is right. For some reason, I assumed it was a shoe game from the OP, not sure why. One thing to remember about basic strategy is that it's not always intuitive, and what seems like a "good" or "bad" idea has absolutely no bearing on how basic strategy is determined. You would do well to memorize the strategy for the particular game that you prefer to play.
