The more experienced players of casino blackjack know Doubling Down and Splitting Pairs quite well. They have played casino blackjack long enough to know that sometimes the odds lean towards their favor so they rely on either of these two tactics to make their position more favorable and maybe even snare a win for that hand in the end. But what are Doubling Down and Splitting Pairs anyway?

Doubling Down:

You pursue Doubling Down when you have only two cards in your hand or on the table – and then you see that you may be able to get a winning hand if you ask for another card. Doubling Down means that prior to asking for that third card, you opt to double the size of your bet. You can only place your new bet beside your first bet (not on top of the previous stack of chips.) The size of your additional bet may reach up to the value of your original bet (or less, as you like.)

If you are playing in a face-down game, you can communicate your intent to do Doubling Down to the dealer by simply tossing your existing two cards on the felt table face up. At this point, the dealer will slip a third card (face down) beneath the chips you bet.

Though Doubling Down can result in higher winnings for you, the limitation is that after Doubling Down you are not permitted to have more than three cards total in your hand.

Splitting Pairs

The other option of Splitting Pairs is usually resorted to when you may draw a pair which gives you bad odds for blackjack. One common pair is a pair of eights, so that gives you a value of 16 – this number is dreaded by blackjack players because the odds are greater that you will bust (or go over 21) if you draw a third card. To get around this problem , you may opt for splitting the pair of eights so that you can use either eight as an independent hand (so you wind up with one hand with an eight and another hand with the other eight.)

To show the dealer you intend to opt for Splitting Pairs (in a hand held game), you toss your two cards on the felt table then place an additional bet beside your original bet. Here is where the crucial difference between a Doubling Down bet and a Splitting Pairs bet comes in: in Splitting Pairs you have to make an additional bet that is exactly the same value as your original bet. This means that if you originally bet $500, your new bet also has to be $500. (In Doubling Down, if you originally bet $500, your additional bet can be less than or equal to $500.)

Splitting Pairs obviously places you in a very good position to get better odds at blackjack. This is especially true if you get a pair of Aces (because one Ace plus a 10 automatically give you a 21 hand.) To give the casino better chances of winning in this situation, the casino may maintain a house rule that you are only permitted to get one more card to add to each of your Aces. The casino may also state that if you do manage to be dealt a 10 to your Ace, you are not considered blackjack but have just completed a regular 21. Still, despite such restrictions, it would still make sense to split a pair of Aces.

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