You're dealt a pair of 9s. The dealer shows a 10. Split or play it as one hand? Basic strategy answers:
| Stand ← | -0.1783 |
| Split | -0.2966 |
| Hit | -0.6477 |
| Double | -1.2953 |
| You bust on the next card | 76.9% |
| Dealer 10 busts | 23.0% |
Stand is worth 0.1183 more per unit than Split. On a $10 bet that is $1.18 handed over every time you get it wrong. Across the 340 situations in this chart it ranks 254th by expected value — better than 86 of them, worse than 253. 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 10 is too strong to justify splitting 9s — you'd just be doubling your exposure with two weak hands. Play the pair as a normal total of 18 instead: stand.