You're dealt a pair of 4s. The dealer shows a 3. Split or play it as one hand? Basic strategy answers:
| Hit ← | +0.0080 |
| Split | -0.0913 |
| Double | -0.1362 |
| Stand | -0.2522 |
| You bust on the next card | 0.0% |
| Dealer 3 busts | 37.4% |
Hit is worth 0.0993 more per unit than Split. On a $10 bet that is $0.99 handed over every time you get it wrong. Across the 340 situations in this chart it ranks 175th by expected value — better than 165 of them, worse than 174. 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 3 is too strong to justify splitting 4s — you'd just be doubling your exposure with two weak hands. Play the pair as a normal total of 8 instead: hit.