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Splitting Pairs — The Complete Guide
Always split aces and eights. Never split tens or fives. Everything else depends on the dealer's upcard.
Splitting turns one bet into two — and one mediocre hand into two potentially strong ones. But it also doubles your exposure, so you only split when the EV justifies it.
Always split
Aces and eights, every time. A pair of aces is a soft 12 — terrible. Split them and each ace becomes the start of a strong hand. A pair of eights is hard 16, the worst total in the game; two new hands starting at 8 are clearly better.
Never split
Tens (you already have 20) and fives (you have a 10 — start of a great double).
It depends
2s, 3s, 6s, 7s, 9s — split against weak dealer upcards. The exact cutoffs are on the chart and depend on whether DAS is allowed.