Split or Double?

I explained earlier that when the dealer is in trouble, with an up card of 3 through 7, she is most vulnerable and that is the time to get more money in action. It is those times when we are facing a power card that I refrain from risking extra chips, just because that theory has been handed down through the ages.
I will give you a saying that I hope you memorize, but most of all, see the meaning behind this very important move:

'We double and split to more money against the dealer when she is in trouble."

It is the second part of that sentence where your focus should be. For that is where the impact of doubling and splitting should be applied. When the dealer shows a power card as the up card, you ain't got no edge at all. Doubling and splitting does not, as in does not, guarantee that you will get a good card to add to your hand. It only means you have the opportunity to get more money vs. the dealer.

But since the casinos relaxed restrictions vs. the player as to when to double and split, the moves have been overextended to the point that people do it too often, and end up getting whacked. Knowing when to double and split is the key, not the unabashed free wheeling style that has taken hold. Many years ago, when the casinos first offered blackjack to a clueless public, the only two hands you were able to double were when you had a two card total of 10 or 11. That was it. You couldn't double with the 8 or 9 or even the soft hands, where you had the flexible Ace in your control.

Splitting was also restricted to just Aces and in that case, a lot of the casinos allowed you to take multiple hits after you split the Aces, and that was a fabulous edge for the player. They could manipulate that all powerful Ace and take as many or as few hits as they wanted. The casinos soon did away with that and restricted the splitting of Aces to just a one card hit for each Ace, taking away a gigantic edge for the player so what's new?

As more and more people became  enchanted with casino games in general and blackjack in particular, the casinos witnessed the players making plays that could only be classified with the following terms:

Dumb
Stupid
Idiotic
Moronic

They concluded that they could give the key to the vault to a lot of these players and they'd have trouble finding the lock to open. And they were right. So the casinos opened the game to all sorts of allowable moves and splitting was allowed with any two cards that the player wanted to see.

With all of these new moves to operate with, the players showed a complete lack of grasp for the proper move. They attacked blackjack with short bankrolls, a fouled up understanding of knowledge, absolutely no clue as to a money management betting approach, and discipline wasn't (and still isn't) even a consideration.

The casinos flourished with this game, the players who continued to play got progressively worse, and Whammo! we had the gambling explosion we are now witnessing. The only places that haven't been used to open a casino is your own backyard. Having the chance to double and split is a gift, but it has to be approached with a sort of intelligence, not found with today's players.

Keeping in mind the sentence I gave you before, about only doubling and splitting when the dealer is in trouble, let me go into one tiny thing in this chapter that may surprise you. We all know that the average winning hand in blackjack is 18.5.

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