Splitting Aces is basically a strategy in online blackjack where the player ‘split’ when he/she is dealt aces in a pair. This strategy is complicated as this involves the player to divide their hand of cards into two hands whenever two similar cards are dealt.
This is mainly a basic strategy decision which a player decides to take, to get a hand better than the dealer based on his visible card. It goes without saying the decision to split Aces reduces the house edge to under 1% and naturally improves the chances of wins.
Hitting Split Aces in Online Blackjack
All online blackjack games, standard games for that matter, don’t allow you to hit split aces. Reason being that you could get another ace and that will mean that the ace will be split again and that the house edge will dip further.
As mentioned earlier, house edges tend to go low in casinos that offer a re-split of aces. Some go as low as by .19% This remains true as long as other factors remain constant. The variance also increases by allowing split aces.
Take for example a scenario where you get 4 aces back to back. You split the same into 4 hands with the possibility of doubling down or hitting. This is could be the best hand you could wish for.
Super Fun 21 and Liberal 21 are examples of online blackjack variants that allow you to hit split aces. They also pay even money on a number of blackjacks and come with higher house edges compared to other online Blackjack games.
Re-Split Aces
There are casinos that allow you to re-split your aces. This could result in you splitting an ace if you were dealt with an ace the first time. Such casinos, however, only allow you a total of 4 hands should the aces show up at the top.
Casinos that offer to split of aces in blackjack have lower house edges than those that don’t allow the same.
Doubling Down on Split Aces
If there’s a casino that allows doubling after ace splitting, then they might be forced to get more aces for the purposes of consistency. Splitting the aces strips the house edge of a further .08%. Certain online blackjack games like Liberal 21 allow doubling down after splitting as well as re-splitting aces.
In other games such as Triple Attack Blackjack won’t allow you to hit on split aces, but will allow you to split your aces.
Landing 21 on Split Aces
If you split your aces and get a 10-card, then that will be similar to a blackjack that gets dealt straight from the deck. However, that isn’t considered a natural blackjack and that means that it doesn’t qualify for an automatic win. This could result in a tie should the dealer also form 21.