You're dealt a pair of 9s. The dealer shows a Ace. Split or play it as one hand? Basic strategy answers:
| Stand ← | -0.1002 |
| Split | -0.1314 |
| Hit | -0.6265 |
| Double | -1.2530 |
| You bust on the next card | 76.9% |
| Dealer Ace busts | 16.7% |
Stand is worth 0.0312 more per unit than Split. On a $10 bet that is $0.31 handed over every time you get it wrong. Across the 340 situations in this chart it ranks 218th by expected value — better than 122 of them, worse than 217. 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 9s — you'd just be doubling your exposure with two weak hands. Play the pair as a normal total of 18 instead: stand.