Table Games Blackjack Basic Strategy

Ok, I know that if you follow basic strategy you lower the house advantage, but my question is by how much would the house's edge increase if you deviated by splitting a 20 against a 5 and 6 only. I was at my local casino and there was this dude doing just that....the table was 3/2 BJ, double after split allowed, no surrender, dealer hits on soft 17. Thoughts

 

your basicaly giving up a winning hand. people do it when they count

 

You'll certainly get attention if you do it.

 

I've seen people do this online (Vegas World) and I've seen it a time or two on the virtual machines, but I don't think I'd do that at a table. Yeah, the dealer could string together small cards for a win against twenty, but twenty is basically a winning hand. You could just as easily forego that twenty and be staring at thirteen and sixteen. At which point you'd probably think, "Man...I shouldda..".

Once at NYNY, this guy was doubling down on every hand he hit. I don't mean on elevens and such...this was the dealer showing seven and he has fifteen...double down! I reckon, if your chip stack is big enough you can do anything you want, but is there not 'table etiquette' or something that dictates expected behavior (not that I believe one bad player impacts your hands)?

 

No "table etiquette" issues. Sometimes it's amusing to play next to an idiot. It's not going to affect your results.

 

I you are card counting, it can work -- if you don't mind the attention from the bosses, and the growling from the others at the table.

 

It's not an awesome play if you're a counter though, the true count needs to be +4 for a 6 and +5 for a 5. So whenever you do it, you might as well wear a sign that says "counter" around your neck.

When not counting, splitting tens costs you the following in an 8 deck H17 game on average.
vs. 5...0.303 units
vs. 6...0.226 units

The probability of the hand happening for each up card is 0.007278.

Always splitting tens vs. 5 and 6 adds 0.385% to the house edge overall.

 

wow real math

 

I probably should also give credit to where I got some of these numbers. One of the Wizard of Odds Blackjack appendices.

http://wizardofodds.com/games/blackjack/appendix/9/8dh17r4/

 

Would never split a 20!

 

As one of the dealers in Charles Town once told a guy on the same table as me, "Never split 10s! If you had a 20-inch d**k, would you cut it in half?!"

Probably not the best analogy, but I laughed & he won by not splitting.

 

Even with a really heavy deck, I never do it. For the reasons Tring mentioned. And most places it gets a verbal call out from the dealer to the pit boss. And very often the dealer will do it in a Wallace Shawn-style loud, snide tone of voice.

 

Wisdom being spoken right there! Its just dumb to split a winning hand. But what I hate most is if that idiot keeps winning and Im losing.