Splitting 5's in Blackjack - Splitting Fives

When You Should Split Your Five's

Playing Blackjack, in a casino or on the Internet, you will most likely, encounter being dealt a pair of fives. You may have the urge to split those fives, but that does not make it a good bet, statistically speaking.

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

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

The basic strategy system that I follow when playing 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 player reaching out to add a second bet to his or her pair of fives, they are most likely placing that bet as a double down, not a split. Doubling down on a ten is advised against the dealers up card of a two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and even an up card of a nine, but not the dealer's ten valued up card or ace showing.

That does not mean that if you stumble across a blackjack player that foolishly splits their pair of fives that a miracle won't take place. I have seen intoxicated players, new players or players that were just trying to upset a fellow player at the 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 amazingly the dealer broke, meaning whatever hand you had on the table, got paid. Of course a lot of the players around this player thought that he had the winning touch, or knew something the rest of us did not, some may have even went home and told their families that splitting fives is the new thing to do. Best thing to remember is, every situation is different, something different can come of any situation or strategy, the exception is not to be mistaken as the rule.

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