Splitting 9's

T

Tronicum

New Member
The most guides to basic strategy say you must stand when the dealer has 7, 10 or A. Otherwise you are supposed to split you 9's.

I can figure out that you don't split when dealer has 10 or A (high probability of losing twice). But why stand on 7??

Thanks in advance!
 
9-9

Would you rather win 70 bets out of 100 or 59 bets out of 100 ?

You "could" split 9-9 vs the 7 and still win, more than you lose.

However, you will win MORE by not splitting.
 
You are figuring that your 18 beats the dealer if he has a seventeen, but it's not a good enough hand to split on. Remember that an 18 is not that good a hand. The average winning hand is 18.6 I believe...but against a 17 (the only hand the dealer can have that an 18 WILL beat), it's worthy of a try.
 
so a 7 for the dealer is better for the dealer than an 8 and a 9? Because you will split if the dealers has an 8 or a 9, but not on 7. That's why I'm confused!
 
I think the idea is this: If you have 9s, in other words 18, and the dealer shows a 7, his most likely hand is 17 so you don't want to mess with a winning hand. If the dealer has an 8 or 9 chances are he has 18 or 19 respectively. Your hand, 18, is only good enough for a push in one scenario and you lose the other, therefore you split. Now you have a 9 and since the two most likely cards are 10s that would give you two 19s. So compared to your 18 which pushes the 8 and loses to the 9 you now beat the 8 and push the 9. This of course is the theory behind why to split or not split 9s and actual results might vary ;)

You might now ask, why not split 9s against a 7 so you can have two winning hands of 19 as opposed to just one winning hand of 18. Likely the reason is, though you might get 2 19s there is also a chance you might end up with two 16s or some other crap like that which would require you to hit and likely bust. In that case you went from 1 winning hand to two losing hands. Remember though when the dealer shows an 8 or 9 you're already losing or just pushing so you're not technically risking a winning hand as in the case with a dealers 7. Not splitting against a 7 is somewhat similar to not splitting 10s. Though you might end up with two winning hands of 20 what if you get two stiff hands and lose to a dealer's 18.

I can understand why someone would question when to split 9s. I did at one point to until I sat down and thought it through.

Hope that clears everything up.
 
Don't forget that as with other splits, you also have the opportunity to draw another nine or a deuce for a double down.
 
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