When You Should Split Your Pair of Five's

While in the process of playing Blackjack, in a casino or on the Internet, you will most likely, encounter being dealt a pair of fives. You may have the craving to split that pair of fives, but that does not make it a wise bet, statistically speaking.

It sure does seem that many blackjack players have their own way of playing, it seems most people view a pair of fives the same way as basic blackjack strategy does, but you will most always run in to that blackjack player that claims to know more than the basic blackjack strategy card.

I am a big fan of basic blackjack strategy play, in the end, it offers accurate mathematically calculated odds to determine the best plan of action to take for most scenarios you will come across in playing the game of blackjack. It may not always work out for each and every hand, but it hopefully will work more times than it does not, over a long period of time. Playing by basic blackjack strategy helps in playing consistent, which is my best advice for playing the game of blackjack.

The basic blackjack strategy system that I follow when playing the game of blackjack recommends never splitting a pair of fives. The odds are simply against you to split a pair of fives. If you do see a blackjack player reaching out to add a second bet to his or her pair of fives, they are most likely placing that secondary bet as a double down, not a split. Doubling down on a ten is advised against the blackjack dealers up card of a two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and even an up card of a nine, but not the blackjack dealer’s ten valued up card or ace showing.

That certainly does not mean that if you stumble across a blackjack player that foolishly splits their pair of fives that a miracle will not take place. I have seen some intoxicated blackjack players, new blackjack players or blackjack players that were just trying to upset a fellow blackjack player at the blackjack table split their pair of fives. They split their pair of fives, caught a third five, split them again, caught a six on one of them, doubled down and caught a ten, caught aces and fours on the other two, doubled down and surprisingly the blackjack dealer still broke, meaning whatever blackjack hand you had on the blackjack table, got paid. Of course a lot of the blackjack players around this blackjack player thought that he had the winning touch, or knew some secret the rest of us did not, some may have even went home and told their families that splitting fives is the new smart thing to do. Best thing to remember well is, every situation is very different, something very different can come of any scenario or strategy, the exception should not be mistaken as the rule.

You may see a card counter split their pair of fives, if the count is at an extreme, to imply that there are so many more smaller valued cards coming, than ten valued cards, that the odds of catching a ten on your pair of fives is far less likely than catching some little cards on your split pair of fives to double down on. Even in this case, I would still strongly suggest doubling down or hitting on your pair of fives, after all, splitting them and succeeding might give off the impression to casino supervisors that YOU are a card counter.