What is a Split in Blackjack?

Video Transcript

Hi. My name is Melissa Powell and I'm with Expert Village. Now we're going to talk about splitting in Blackjack and what exactly that means. When you should split, when you shouldn't split, and how you can really increase your chances of winning. So let's go back down to the table. Now once again, I'm going to deal technically improperly just so that we can show what each card, each hand, each person has. So let's go through. Okay, now these are all pretty typical hands that you see. A five and a one or eleven, a nineteen here, fourteen here, twenty here and look at this, two eights. In this case, a player might want to split. And the reason is because eight and eight is sixteen. It's kind of close to twenty-one, but not close enough. If they take a hit, they run a risk of busting over twenty-one. So it's maybe smarter for them to split their cards. Now in Blackjack as a Player, you're never allowed to touch the cards. And if you're a Poker Player, that's going to be a little bit difficult for you to break that habit. But make sure that you tell the Dealer, "split" and she will split the cards for you. In terms of betting, that also means that you have two bets. So it is essentially as if you're playing two hands as two different people. So you place down the equivalent bet for each card and now I, as the Dealer, deal you another card. Look at that. Eighteen. Much better than sixteen. Much closer to twenty-one and a better hand altogether. This person will want to stay. Now on his second card, I give him a six. Fourteen. Not so great, but easier to take a risk and take the hit. Bust. This Player has now gone over. So I collect his cards in addition to his bet, but he won over here. So essentially, one Player won one hand, lost one hand, but is already even money. That's how you split cards in Blackjack.

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