When to Split Your Pair of Three's

In the game of Blackjack, playing on line, or in a casino, you will most likely, at some point, be dealt a pair of three’s. Sometimes it is great to split your three’s and sometimes it is not so great, mathematically that is.

It seems every Blackjack player has their own opinion of when to split your pair of threes. Some players will base their choice on math, some on “gut feelings” and some flip a coin or choose some other form of random factors to decide their hand.

According to basic blackjack strategy, which is calculated by a computer, using the odds to generate the system, there are great times and not so great times to split. In the example scenarios I provide in this article, the casino stays on all seventeens.

If you are dealt a pair of threes and the blackjack dealer is showing an up card of a two, three, four, five, six or even a seven, you should split your pair of threes. Just because basic blackjack strategy says it is a great move, though based on odds, it is not always going to work out the way you would hope. Even if it works out more times than it doesn’t, you could still lose on your bigger bet hands and win more often on your smaller bet hands.

When you split your pair of threes, you are going to place a second wager that is equal to the original bet, the blackjack dealer will split the pair of threes and give you a card on your first three. Hopefully it would be a seven or eight, which would make for an awesome double down, if the house you are playing in allows for doubling down after splitting. An ideal outcome would be if you got yet an other three, spit again, and keep getting threes to split, until you hit the maximum amount of times you can split, get double downs on all of them, and watch the dealer break.

Basic blackjack strategy also dictates that you should not split your pair of threes against a blackjack dealer up card of an eight, nine, ten valued card or ace, against those up cards, you would want to hit the hand, not split the hand. Also, if you are at a blackjack table where doubling down after splitting is not allowed, you should not split your threes against a blackjack dealer’s up card of a two or three, again, you should just hit the hand in those instances.

Basic blackjack strategy is just that, basic. Just because you follow basic blackjack strategy to the letter and do what it tells you, every time, does not mean you will win every time, just means that hopefully it will work out for you, more often than it does not. When you start to fluctuate your bet, “more often than not” turns less relevant and “when it works out” becomes more of the issue. I always recommend that you should play the same strategy every time, regardless of how much you placed for a wager. One of the worst feelings in the world is putting a big bet out there, getting a great pair of threes against the blackjack dealer’s break card, not having the money or the guts to split the pair, watching all of the beautiful looking sevens, eights, ten valued cards and aces come out and then watching the blackjack dealer make a multi-card twenty one, whipping out the whole blackjack table and your fellow blackjack players are blaming you for not doing your part and following basic blackjack strategy. Consistency is the best way to avoid the ever so painful “Doh!” moments.

It is also great to keep in mind, no matter how you choose to play your pair of threes, there will always be someone there to tell you how you should have played the hand differently. I can almost guarantee that if you had played it their way every time you get a pair of threes, you would run in to someone else that advises you play it a completely different way.