Splitting pairs carries a massive potential when it comes to maximizing your profits at the blackjack table. This move can be just as lucrative as doubling down but unfortunately, the vast majority of recreational players find themselves in a quandary when they are dealt a pair.
The blackjack pays out 3:2. For example, a player that bet 2 chips wins 3 chips for a blackjack. Split: When a player’s first 2 cards are the same rank he/she can split them. An additional bet has to be made equal to the player’s first bet and a hand signal of 2 pointing fingers is made. Assign a blue of +1 or -1 to each card dealt. Prior to the deal, the running count is always 0. Every time a card is laid down on the table, you're going to add or subtract 1 from the running count—the overall score after adding the values of each card dealt. The best time to split pairs in blackjack is when you're dealt 2 aces or 2 eights, which will increase your chances of getting 21. You should also split a pair of twos, threes, or sevens if the dealer shows a seven or lower. If the dealer shows a two through six, split.
Some split all pairs regardless of the two cards’ rank while others prefer not to split altogether. And there is the third group of unskilled players who follow their gut and split pairs at random. What they tend to forget is that blackjack is a purely mathematical game and as such, it does not allow you to make intuitive decisions as is the case in other card games like poker.
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Free game downloads for free. The irony lies in that splitting pairs was introduced not only to make the game more exciting but also for the purpose of reducing the house edge. In fact, the house advantage increases by nearly 0.60% if players are altogether prohibited from splitting pairs.
Instead of taking advantage of the splitting option to increase their profits, many blackjack players make awful splitting decisions which only end up making money for the house. The following article aims at clarifying when and why pair splitting is the optimal playing decision and when players should refrain from it.
Pair Splitting – How Does It Work?
The concept of pair splitting is a simple one to grasp – when players are dealt a pair of cards of equal value, like J-10, 4-4, or A-A, they have the option to split and play them as two separate hands.
For instance, suppose your original hand consists of a pair of 7s and you have initially wagered $10 on it. You have the option to play your hand as a 14 and hit or stand depending on the dealer’s upcard but you can also decide to split the 7s into two separate hands. If you choose the latter, you need to post a second bet to the same amount as your original one so that your action increases to $20.
Keep in mind that you cannot announce your decision to split verbally only but must indicate it with a hand signal, which in this case is to form a V shape with your index and middle fingers and tap the felt next to your betting circle.
The chips for the extra bet should never be placed on top of those for the original one. Instead, you position them next to your initial stack of chips. The dealer would then separate the 7s into two hands and draw one extra card on each 7. The two hands are then played one after the other, with players having a choice from the standard playing decisions. Should they receive another pair, they typically have the option to resplit.
Rule Variations Pertaining to Pair Splitting
The tricky thing about pair splitting is that the rules pertaining to this move may vary depending on which casino you are playing at. In most establishments and online blackjack variations, players are allowed to resplit until they form up to four separate hands.
The resplitting of Aces is prohibited at many tables which gives the house edge a boost roughly of 0.08%. Note that split Aces receive only one additional card and players are not allowed to take a hit afterward. This peculiarity of the rules increases the house edge by around 0.19%. There are also casinos that allow you to split ten-value cards but only if they are of the same denomination like a pair of 10s or a pair of Jacks.
In most cases, doubling down after splitting (DAS) is allowed which enables you to increase your action to up to 8 bets (i.e. if you have resplit to four hands and doubled on each one). Another important thing to keep in mind is that when you split a pair of Aces and draw a ten-value card next to your Ace, the hand is not considered a blackjack. It is counted as a regular total of 21 so you receive even money if you win. DAS is a very profitable rule for the blackjack player and its absence (NDAS) is quite detrimental, taking away around 0.14% from your advantage.
How Pair Splitting Helps Blackjack Players
As we mentioned briefly in the beginning, pair splitting is very useful because it decreases the house edge by nearly 0.60%. But how does it help the player exactly? If you take a look at the basic strategy chart, you will notice that similarly to doubling down, splitting is mostly recommended when the dealer’s upcard is weak enough to justify an increase in your bets.
This is the right course of action particularly against dealer upcards like 4, 5, 6, and 7 but whether or not this is the optimal move also depends on what pair of cards you are holding. Splitting helps players in several ways.
First, it guarantees they generate more profits on average over the long run because they pour more money on the felt against a weak dealer who is more likely to lose.
Second, splitting enables you to minimize your average losses over the long term which is just as important.
Free ironman 3 games. And last but not least, this playing decision gives you the opportunity to turn a bad starting hand into a good one, potentially increasing your chances of winning the round.
Here are several examples of how pair splitting helps you win more, lose less, and transform a bad hand into a good one.
Pair Splitting Allows You to Maximize Your Profits
Our first example involves a hypothetical situation where you get dealt paired 9s against a dealer with a 6 at a multiple-deck table where the dealer is required to stand on soft 17 and you can split to up to four hands. If you choose to stand on your total of 18, you will win 64 out of every 100 hands on average and lose the other 36 times.
The odds are clearly in your favor in this case. When you flat bet with a base unit of $10, you can expect to generate profits of $2.80 per hand on average (640 – 360 = 280 / 100= 2.80) provided that you always choose to stand on your paired 9s against a dealer whose upcard is a 6.
The interesting thing here is that splitting this pair decreases your chances of winning by 4% to 60% but increases the profits you generate. You win only 60 out of every hundred hands on average and lose the other 40 times. Thus, your average profit when you split this pair against the 6 will be equal to (600 – 400) * 2 = 200 * 2 = 400 / 100= $4. This corresponds to a $120 increase in your profits per every hundred split hands with a base unit of $10.
Pair Splitting Helps You Minimize Your Losses
Splitting clearly gives your winnings a good boost but it also helps you reduce your losses from negative expectation bets. For example, when the dealer starts their hand with a deuce and you bet $10 only to get dealt a pair of 7s for a lousy total of hard 14. This hand has over 50% probability of busting.
Let’s see what happens if you decide to consistently stand on your paired 7s with a flat bet of $10. The odds swing in favor of the house this time as your expected win rate drops to 36 out of every hundred hands. Therefore, you lose 64 out of every hundred hands, which corresponds to average expected losses per hand of $2.80. But what if you split your pair of 7s?
Splitting improves your likelihood of success because it allows you to start each of the two hands with a 7 instead of 14. Consistently making this decision will cause you to lose only 55 out of every hundred hands and win the other 45 times. It follows there is a drop in your average net losses per hand of $0.80 because (550 – 450) * 2 = 200 / 100 = 2 and $2.80 – $2 = $0.80.
Splitting Helps You Improve Your Hand Sometimes
One of the most rewarding occasions at the blackjack table is when a player starts a round with a poor two-card total but improves it after a split. Let’s examine a third example where you bet $10 and again receive paired 7s but this time your dealer exposes a 6 instead of a deuce. Many rookie players choose to stand. Yet, this is anything but a good decision and here is why.
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When you choose to stand with 7s against a weak dealer with a 6, you will win an average of 42 out of every hundred hands and lose the other 58 hands. You are again facing a negative expectation and your long-term losses per hand amount to $1.60.
The option of splitting gives you the chance to start each of the two hands with a 7. This is a significant improvement in the odds since now you are facing a positive expectation in the long run. When you split your 7s against a 6 consistently, you end up winning 52 out of every hundred hands and lose only 48 hands on average. This accounts for net profits of ($520 – $480) * 2 = $40 * 2 = $80 / 100 = $0.80 per hand on average.
The Pairs You Should Never Split
Some players are governed by their intuition when splitting pairs which ultimately results in losing money over the long run. In blackjack, some pairs should never be split, or at least not if basic strategy is your only weapon in the battle against the casino. Such is the case with pairs of 5s and pairs of ten-value cards.
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When you start a round with a pair of 10s, you face two possible playing decisions – you either stand on your pat 20 or split the pair. Some inexperienced players tend to choose split, especially against a dealer with a weak upcard like 5 or 6.
They justify this move because they supposedly have the opportunity to win two hands instead of one because the dealer is in a breaking position with these small cards. But they are wrong because this only ends up costing them more money in the long term. Standing on pat 20 wins 78 out of every hundred hands you play on average against a dealer with a6 who hits soft 17.
In 11 of the remaining instances, you tie with the dealer and win in the other 11 cases, which means standing earns you roughly $6.78 per hand (provided that you use a bet unit of $10). If you choose to split your 10s, your average expected win rate per round decreases to around $5.60 for both hands combined. You end up winning less money despite increasing your action when in a favorable position, which is why you should never split 10s unless you are counting cards.
The same applies to pairs of 5s – you should always refrain from splitting those if you use only basic strategy at the table. A starting hand with a total of 10 puts you in a very good position. You risk ruining your hand and losing twice as much in the process.
The Pairs You Should Always Split
Basic strategy dictates one should always split pairs of Aces and 8s but many novices choose not to listen. Paired 8s make for the worst possible total in the game and even more so if the dealer exposes a strong ten-value card.
A total of 16 should always be surrendered against a dealer 10 but not so if it consists of two 8s. Inexperienced players often forfeit this pair in exchange for half of their bet out of fear they might end up with two bad hands instead of one and lose twice as much in a single round.
And indeed, there is no room for doubt a pair of 8s against a dealer with a strong ten-value card puts you in a very bad spot regardless of whether you choose to hit, stand, split or surrender. You will inevitably end up losing money. However, playing two hands with a starting point of 8 causes you to incur smaller long-term losses than playing one hand with a total of 16 against a powerful dealer with a 10.
Both hitting or standing in this situation lead to winning only 23 out of every hundred hands while the other 77 hands result in losses, excluding the pushes. If you bet $10 per hand, you will end up losing an average of $540 by hitting or standing.
Splitting actually increases your chances of success with this card holding. If you make this move, you win 38 out of every hundred hands on average and lose the remaining 62 times. Therefore, you incur net losses of ($240 * 2) / 100 = $480 / 100 = $4.80 per hand. There is a slight improvement since you lose $0.60 less per hand when splitting.
Pairs You Should Always Split Additional TipsPlayers who chicken out and surrender their paired 8s against a 10 lose only half of their initial wager. This means they will lose $500 / 100 = $5 on average over the course of every hundred paired 8s they surrender against the dealer’s ten-value card.
Surrendering is obviously costlier than splitting since it causes you to lose $0.20 more per hand. Every now and then, you will end up losing both bets after you split but at least you can have the peace of mind you made the mathematically correct move which ultimately saves you money in the long term.
The same goes for pairs of Aces which basic strategy players are always recommended to split no matter what the dealer’s upcard is. The two Aces result in a soft 12 which is a hand you are going to break frequently. Suppose you are playing a six-deck game and start a fresh round of play with A-A after the dealer has reshuffled.
There are 96 ten-value cards in the shoe out of 312 possible cards, which means your chances of catching a 10 next to your Ace are around 1/3 or 30.8%. If you indeed end up pulling 10s next to each Ace, you are practically unbeatable with your total of 21. The worst that can happen is pushing with the dealer.
Why would then someone hesitate to split Aces is beyond us. The Aces are powerful cards in blackjack, which is why casinos typically enforce various restrictions on splitting them in order to decrease the advantage this move gives the players. They prohibit hitting after splitting Aces and the resplitting of Aces.
Remember the house is well-familiar with the mathematics of the game so do yourself a favor and always stick to basic strategy when playing pairs, or at least until you master card counting and playing deviations.
The service needs extra funds to support operational demands now and it only wants the aircraft to have more even more capabilities in the future.
The U.S. Marine Corps has been using Boeing Insitu's RQ-21 Blackjack unmanned aircraft so much in Iraq and Syria that it had to shift funds around earlier this year to help pay for unexpected operational costs. It’s yet another example of the insatiable appetite for aerial intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support across the U.S. military, as well as a desire within the Marines to better integrate the drones into the service’s operations as intelligence gathering and electronic warfare platforms, and more.
In February 2018, the Pentagon approved a U.S. Navy request to reallocate nearly $18 million from other portions of the 2016 and 2017 fiscal year defense budgets to support Marine Corps RQ-21 operations. This included pulling funding from the U.S. Army’s Tactical Signals Intelligence Payload program, which has reportedly run into trouble due to poor test performance, and line items that support Marine RQ-7Bv2 Shadow unmanned aircraft operations. In addition, more than half of the total money was already left over after lower-than-expected costs associated with the Blackjack operations in previous years.
“The U.S. Marine Corps has identified a spares and sustainment shortfall in FY 2018, due to RQ 21 flight hours for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) exceeding budgeted flight hours by more than 300 percent,” the reprogramming document explained, using the official nickname for operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The Pentagon, as with any federal agency, must seek congressional approval to use funds lawmakers approved for one particular purpose to pay for something else.
Blackjack Splitting Strategy
The request offers no additional detail about what the RQ-21s have been doing in the Middle East in the fight against ISIS. However, for years now, the Marine Corps has been actively supporting both Iraqi and Kurdish forces in Iraq and local, predominantly Kurdish partners in Syria, as well as U.S. and other coalition special operations forces advising those groups in both countries.
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Most notably, the Marines provided precision artillery support, primarily with M777 155mm howitzers firing GPS-guided shells, during the lead up to the liberation of the city of Mosul in Iraq and throughout the campaign to eject ISIS from Raqqa in Syria. These locations represented the terrorist group’s main centers of gravity in the two countries.
With an endurance of up to 16 hours and a range of approximately 50 miles, the Blackjacks could have spotted targets for artillery units and assessed the results of those strikes. With its sensor turret containing both electro-optical and infrared cameras, as well as a laser marker, it could help identify targets for other friendly forces, including fixed and rotary wing aircraft. On top of all that, the drones would have been able to perform overwatch missions for friendly forces, keeping an eye out for the sudden appearance of enemy forces or potential ambushes.
Highlighting how ubiquitous and important American unmanned aircraft have become for operations in Syria especially, there have been growing reports that the unspecified 'adversaries,' likely Russian or Russian-support forces, are increasingly trying to jam them in certain parts of the country. Available information has suggested that smaller, tactical unmanned aerial vehicles, such as the RQ-21, are particularly vulnerable due to the relatively limited power of their data and control links.
In addition, using other drones as communication relays, the aircraft can effectively double its maximum range, further extending the area that might be able to cover. For operations in the region against ISIS, especially in Syria, this could be especially beneficial since the operating locations are often in remote, austere areas that might be physically separated by substantial distances from other supporting elements or even the deck of an amphibious assault ship.
The RQ-21 is also well suited to those types of sites since it uses a catapult to launch the unmanned aircraft and a tethered hook to snatch it out of the sky at the end of its mission. Unlike similarly sized drones, such as the RQ-7, the Blackjack has no need for an actual runway of any kind. The complete system, which consists of five RQ-21s, a launcher, a Skyhook Recovery System, two trailer-mounted generators, and four Humvees with various other necessary components and pieces of equipment, is relatively mobile, as well.
And while the Marines need the extra funds at the moment specifically due to operations in Iraq and Syria, the Blackjack’s heavy use in that theater strongly suggests that this will increasingly be the trend for the service’s operations in general. This unmanned aircraft is already the primary type support Marines at the Regimental and Marine Expeditionary Unit levels, occupying a space between lighter, hand-launched types and larger drones, such as the MQ-1 Predator or MQ-9 Reaper.
The RQ-21’s small operational and logistical footprint makes it especially good for the Marine Corps’ expeditionary operating concepts broadly, even though it has a slightly shorter maximum range than the RQ-7Bv2. The service plans to completely replace its Shadows with the Blackjacks by the end of 2019, at which time it will have four operational units with the latter type, according to the 2018 Marine Aviation Plan. Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron Three will complete its transition in 2018, leaving just Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron Four flying the Shadow.
In 2018, the Marines also plan to expand the Blackjack’s payload options with the AN/PDY-2 Split Aces radar and the AN/DSY-4 Spectral Bat signals intelligence suite. There are also plans to integrate a version of the Intrepid Tiger electronic warfare system into the RQ-21.
The Split Aces systems is an active electronically-scanned array radar with synthetic aperture and ground moving target indicator functionality, which will allow it to track and monitor moving vehicles, as well as capture radar imagery in any weather condition. Spectral Bat is a signal detection and geo-locating system that also has a secondary electronic support function, allowing operators to spot and classify certain emitters. Intrepid Tiger is a communications jammer that can also monitor enemy transmissions.
It’s not clear whether a single RQ-21 might be able to carry one or more of these systems at once, along with its existing sensor turret. However, a single complete “system” with five drones fitted with a mix of this equipment could dramatically expand the capabilities of Marine expeditionary forces, giving them options to locate enemy forces, jam their transmissions, and alert other elements to the presence of hostile sensor or communications nodes.
In addition, the drones could provide at least semi-persistent surveillance over a particular area or of a specific moving target for offensive and defensive purposes. All of these capabilities could be very important for relatively small units to maintain an advantage while operating in a distributed manner without necessarily having the benefit of immediate direct or indirect fire support. It could also be a boon for maneuvering in dense urban areas, which is another increasingly likely conflict environment.
The RQ-21 has already demonstrated its ability to carry the Redkite lightweight wide-area persistent-surveillance system, as well. The manufacturer, Logos Technologies, says a drone flying at 12,000 feet can use the sensor to grab imagery of a five-by-five mile square area. Data links can then transmit that feed to ground stations for further exploitation in near real time. In March 2018, Logos brought one of the drones with the sensor package to the Advanced Naval Technology Exercises (ANTX) at the Marine Corps' Camp Pendleton in California.
This would allow Marine units, include reconnaissance and special operations elements, to develop so-called “patterns of life” about a specific target or small group of individuals. Understanding their routines and typical movements could help in the planning for a raid or strike that eliminates as much collateral damage and as many civilian casualties as possible – a process known to the U.S. military as finding, fixing, and finishing the enemy, which also happens to be the motto of the Navy’s RQ-21 program office.
The Blackjacks may eventually be able to carry miniaturized munitions themselves in order to directly strike targets they come across in the future. There are a steadily increasing number of suitably diminutive precision-guidedbombs and missiles.
In 2007, an older MQ-5B Hunter reportedly conducted a strike in Iraq using a GBU-44/B Viper Strike munition, a clear demonstration of the utility of drones of this size in an armed role. Textron has already demonstrated versions of its RQ-7 with small weapons, too.
The video below reportedly shows an MQ-5B using a GBU-44/B to strike militants in Iraq.
Another possibility is that the RQ-21s could serve as spotters for new loitering munitions that the Marine Corps is also interested in acquiring to give additional firepower to smaller units. AeroVironment has already pitched the concept of employing its Switchblade man-portable suicide drone together with its hand-launched, but longer-range RQ-20 Puma unmanned aircraft.
And given the aforementioned growing concern about jamming, the Marines may look to install anti-jam data and control links and encryption capabilities to prevent an opponent from intercepting and decoding the data streams from the aircraft. If developments in Syria and Western Europe over the past 18 months are any indications, these threats exist now and will only become more pronounced as time goes on.
The Blackjacks are definitely a key component of the Marine Corps larger desire to add drones to their concept of operations where ever possible from small, hand-held quad-copter types for infantry squads and platoons to large unmanned aircraft to conduct much more far-reaching operations with traditional aircraft and helicopters as part of a manned-unmanned team.
The RQ-21, though, is significantly cheaper to operate than larger Predator- and Reaper-sized drones and already offer a wide array of capabilities, albeit on a more limited, localized scale. This could make them an attractive and cost-effective option in many cases, even as new, more capable systems, such as the Marine Corps' proposed Marine Air Ground Task Force Unmanned Aircraft System-Expeditionary, or MUX, become available.
With the Marine Corps set to push toward adding the new RQ-21 units in 2018 and 2019, and test the various new payloads at the same time, the service looks set to continue expanding its use of the drones where ever it might find its units deployed. And it will have to budget funds to match that increased operational tempo in the coming years to avoid any more shortfalls.
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