Splitting 6's in Blackjack - Splitting Sixes

When to Split Your Six's

As you play 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 system of how they handle a pair six's. These players could be basing their theories on math, gut instinct or some other form of guessing. A lot of these players think their way is the best, or their way works more often than not. I feel the best way to know if your way works more often than not, is to base your decisions on basic 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 pocket, for a very small price. Basic 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 strategy 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 strongly advised that you always know ahead of time, what the house rules are on the table you are playing at, before you sit down and play and then to have a basic strategy card on hand, that applies to those specific conditions.

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

When the dealer is showing a three, four, five or a six and you are dealt a pair of six's, you should split the hand. 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 dealer that you would like to split your 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 multiple times, a great way to get some extra money on the table. Ideally, you would get a five dealt to your six, or even a four or an ace, good to double down on hands after you split, gets the blood pumping. Even if you double and score a bad card total, you are still looking for the dealer to break, after all the strategy only suggests to split the six's in situations where the dealer is most likely to break.

It is not recommended, by basic strategy to split your six's against a dealer, if the 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 six's.

As we all know, people may have an opinion about when to split six's, there will always be someone who does not agree with basic strategy, they may give you the look when you do split your 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.