When to Split Your Pair of Six's

As you play the game of blackjack, in a casino or on the Internet, you will at some point, most likely get dealt a pair of six’s. Most every blackjack player you find, will have some sort of method of how they handle a pair six’s. These blackjack players could be basing their choices on math, gut instinct or some other method of guessing. A lot of these blackjack players think their way is the very best, or their way works way more often than it does not. I feel the very best way to know if your way works more often than it does not, is to base your choices on basic blackjack strategy, which can be found in a casino gift shop, or even on the Internet on a credit card sized chart that fits neatly in to your back pocket, for a very small price. Basic blackjack strategy is based on odds calculated by a computer.

Basic strategy for blackjack will advise you to either hit, stand or split on a pair of six’s. The basic blackjack strategy card that I follow is designed for blackjack games where the house stays on all seventeens, meaning they do not hit on soft seventeen. It is very strongly advised that you always know ahead of time, what the house rules are on the blackjack table you are playing at, before you sit down and play blackjack and then to have a basic blackjack strategy card on hand, that applies to those specific conditions.

According to the basic blackjack strategy chart that I go by, if you are dealt a pair of six’s and the blackjack dealer is showing a two, you should split the pair, as long as you are able to double down after splitting at that blackjack table, if you are not able to double down after splitting at that blackjack table, then you should not split the six’s against the blackjack dealer’s up card of a two, you should only hit your twelve hand.

When the blackjack dealer is showing a three, four, five or a six and you are dealt a pair of six’s, you should split the pair of six’s. To split a pair of six’s, you would need to place a second wager, equal to the amount of your original bet and inform the blackjack dealer that you would like to split your pair of six’s. The six’s will then be split and you will receive a new card on top of the first six, hopefully it is a six and the casino you are playing at allows you to split more than once, a great way to get some extra money on the blackjack table. Ideally, you would get a five dealt to your six, or even a four or an ace, good to double down on blackjack hands after you split a pair, gets the blood pumping. Even if you double and score a bad card total, you are still looking for the blackjack dealer to break, after all the strategy only suggests to split the pair of six’s in situations where the blackjack dealer is most likely to break.

It is not at all recommended, by basic blackjack strategy to split your pair of six’s against a blackjack dealer, if the blackjack dealer is showing a seven, eight, nine, ten valued card or ace as an up card. In those cases, you would simply hit your twelve, instead of split your pair of six’s.

As we all already know, people may have an opinion about when to split a pair of six’s, there will always be someone who does not agree with basic blackjack strategy, they may give you the look when you do split your pair of six’s, but no matter how you play the hand, someone would have always played it differently, you can only go with the system you follow, good or bad. Play it the same, every time, you will kick yourself a lot less often.