You're dealt a pair of 3s. The dealer shows a 9. Split or play it as one hand? Basic strategy answers:
| Hit ← | -0.2926 |
| Split | -0.4152 |
| Stand | -0.5432 |
| Double | -1.0678 |
| You bust on the next card | 0.0% |
| Dealer 9 busts | 22.8% |
Hit is worth 0.1225 more per unit than Split. On a $10 bet that is $1.23 handed over every time you get it wrong. Across the 340 situations in this chart it ranks 293rd by expected value — better than 47 of them, worse than 292. 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 3s — you'd just be doubling your exposure with two weak hands. Play the pair as a normal total of 6 instead: hit.