You're dealt a pair of 2s. The dealer shows a 9. Split or play it as one hand? Basic strategy answers:
| Hit ← | -0.2407 |
| Split | -0.3651 |
| Stand | -0.5432 |
| Double | -1.0863 |
| You bust on the next card | 0.0% |
| Dealer 9 busts | 22.8% |
Hit is worth 0.1245 more per unit than Split. On a $10 bet that is $1.24 handed over every time you get it wrong. Across the 340 situations in this chart it ranks 276th by expected value — better than 64 of them, worse than 275. Expected value is per unit staked, computed for multi-deck, dealer stands on soft 17, double after split allowed. The model and the code are published as data.
A dealer 9 is too strong to justify splitting 2s — you'd just be doubling your exposure with two weak hands. Play the pair as a normal total of 4 instead: hit.