You're dealt a pair of 7s. The dealer shows a Ace. Split or play it as one hand? Basic strategy answers:
| Hit ← | -0.4400 |
| Split | -0.6201 |
| Stand | -0.6670 |
| Double | -0.9318 |
| You bust on the next card | 46.2% |
| Dealer Ace busts | 16.7% |
Hit is not close: it beats Split by 0.1801 per unit. Getting this one wrong costs $1.80 on a $10 bet, every single time. It is also the 12th worst spot of the 340 hands in this chart. 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 Ace is too strong to justify splitting 7s — you'd just be doubling your exposure with two weak hands. Play the pair as a normal total of 14 instead: hit.