When playing blackjack in a casino, do you normally play one hand or 2 hands against the dealer?

In some casinos, to play 2 hands, you have to bet twice the minimum.

Do do you prefer?

If you play 2 hands, do you think you have better odds of winning?

When I play 2 hands, I sometimes lose one and win the other, therefore breaking even for the round. That’s what I like about playing 2 hands. If I win them both, I’m on a winning streak; if I lose them both, I’m on a losing streak.

7 Responses to “When playing blackjack in a casino, do you normally play one hand or 2 hands against the dealer?”

  1. Trevor says:
    February 13, 2010 at 3:38 am

    The odds are exactly the same. The people who swear by playing more than one hand are mostly just superstitious. It’s always about the cards… if the cards are falling in a favorable fashion and you make good decisions, you’re going to win.. if the cards are not falling in a favorable fashion, you’re going to lose. If there’s an open spot and you’re consistently getting 12’s 13’s and 14’s, it couldn’t hurt to play 2 hands for a round to try to change the cards you’re getting, but it’s still luck as to what cards you get.

    If you really want to maximize your odds of winning, make good decisions.

    Or learn to count cards without getting caught.

  2. da_hal says:
    February 13, 2010 at 3:40 am

    personally, i play strictly by the book if there’s other players on the table, since what i do can directly affect them. however, if i’m alone, sometimes i’ll play multiple hands, split 10’s, etc. just for fun.

  3. Jhonny says:
    February 13, 2010 at 4:11 am

    it basically the same.. it all depends on the cards your getting and some good decision making..

    Play Safely, Play Smart And Enjoy The Game

  4. TheDoverPro says:
    February 13, 2010 at 4:44 am

    I will usually play two hands, unless the table is full.

    The odds do not change at all, there is no difference to the player.

    If the cards are running for me, then that’s great, and if not, then I will drop to one hand.

  5. basiridi says:
    February 13, 2010 at 5:26 am

    One of the worst hands you can get in blackjack is a 16 when the dealer shows a 10. The best play is to hit the 16 and pray for a small card unless it happens to be a pair of 8’s, which you should always split.

    Splitting 8’s against a dealer’s 10 is a controversial play in blackjack. If you ask 10 average blackjack players if they would split I bet the majority would answer “no way,” because they are reluctant to put up twice as much money, possibly losing two bets instead of one. Even some blackjack authors advocate to “always split 8’s but not against the 10.” So, should you split 8’s or not? Let’s see.

    The way to compare whether one playing strategy is better or worse than another is to calculate the expectation of the hand, the average amount you can expect to win or lose over time.

    For example, if you are dealt a 10-6 against the dealer’s 10, you have a 23% chance of winning and 77% chance of losing. That means if you bet one dollar per hand, your expectation is to lose $0.54 per dollar ($0.77 – $0.23).

    What if instead you were dealt a pair of 8’s? You still have a 16, and if you hit or stand, your expectation is the same, negative $0.54 (slightly less if you hit). But when you split, you could win, lose or push one or both split hands. You could also double down after pair splitting, a rule allowed in most casinos. If you did the latter from an initial 1 unit bet on a pair of 8’s, you could have as many as 4 units riding on two split 8’s. For example, suppose you split and draw a 3 on both split 8’s for two hands of 11. The correct play is to double down on both 11’s against a dealer 10 resulting in 2 units riding on one hand and 2 units on the other.

    Alan Kringman, respected casino gaming mathematician and writer, has computed the outcomes when you split a pair of 8’s starting with an initial one-unit bet. They are shown in the Graph A. Notice when you split 8’s you stand to lose 53.4% of all splits, which is much less than the 77% for standing or hitting. When you lose, you most likely will lose 2 units (38% of the time). Your win rate is 27.6%, which is more than the 23% for standing or hitting. Your chance of pushing is high, 19%, which is more than the 6% pushes you can expect if you hit (it is 0 when you stand). When you do win a split bet, you most likely will win 2 units 16.5% of the time.

    You can compute the expectation of splitting the 8’s from Kringman’s data by multiplying the amount won in each row by the corresponding probabilities and subtract the product of units lost times their matching probabilities. The expectation calculates to about $0.49 per dollar wagered.

    In Graph B, we show the comparison of the expectation per dollar wagered when you stand, hit or split a pair of 8’s against the dealer 10.

    The bottom line is when you split a pair of 8’s against a 10, you will lose about a nickel less per dollar bet in the long run. Clearly, when you look at just how much you stand to lose over time, pair splitting is the better play.

    However, you are risking more money when you split, therefore, the short-term volatility is greater (by a factor of about 2) compared to hitting or standing. Think of it this way­-you can’t win or lose more than one unit when you stand or hit, but you could win or lose up to 4 units when you pair split. Unfortunately, players sometimes have selective memory and only remember the time they split 8’s and lost both hands.

    Resign yourself to the fact that you will lose money in the long run on both split hands. But you will be a nickel to the good when you start with two hands of 8 rather than one hand of 16 against the dealer’s 10. Splitting 8’s is the right play to make and as David Sklansky eloquently puts it in his book, Sklansky on Blackjack, “if you don’t have the courage to make this play, you shouldn’t be playing at all.”

  6. cricketparty.com says:
    February 13, 2010 at 6:18 am

    You should siwtch from 1 hands to 2 hands once in a while. This will gaurd against any pre-arrangement of cards by the dealer. I have tried it and it is more than superstition.

  7. Andrew says:
    February 13, 2010 at 7:15 am

    You have the same odds, it all depends by luck

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