BJ - Splitting 8\'s.
 

You're at a blackjack table, and some kid next to you bets his last $100 in a hail mary attempt to make back some of what he's lost.

He's dealt 88. The dealer is showing a 7.

How much is it worth to be allowed to put up the money so that kid can split his hand?

Obviously the kid wants to split, since his 16 really sucks and by splitting he's gonna gain EV from his current position. The question I guess is how much is this opportunity worth to you?

Let's assume this is a continuous shuffle game with many decks. Doubling is allowed after splitting, and let's say that you are going to take sole control of one of the hands. If his hand loses and yours wins, then you win your money, and the loser loses. We aren't going to take a sum of the results and then splitting 50/50.

-RMJ

Re: BJ - Splitting 8\'s.
 

It's definitely worth it. Especially if he gets a 2 or 3 on his 8 and he lets you double it.

Re: BJ - Splitting 8\'s.
 

[ QUOTE ]
It's definitely worth it. Especially if he gets a 2 or 3 on his 8 and he lets you double it.

[/ QUOTE ]

It wouldn't be in his best interest for him to allow me to double down for him if I split with him and he had an 11. Since, he'd gain nothing from the double-down, and be forced to take 1 card only.

You say it's worth it for me to split his 8's for him. How much is it worth? Any reasonable estimate on what the expected return is on my money?

-RMJ

Re: BJ - Splitting 8\'s.
 

Pzhon could tell you the actual figures.

Re: BJ - Splitting 8\'s.
 

Given that he has 88, his best decision is to hit and he expects to lose -$41.

What you propose is to buy an 8 from him. Now I did the EV for all the possible cards you could be dealt with the 8 and you have an EV of about +$15 for each 8. Splitting was given an EV of +$25, so I didn't do something exactly right - I would expect the EV of each 8 to be $12.50...whatever. These numbers include the possibility of doubling/resplitting/etc.

So my question is why would you offer him a chance to go from -$41 to +$15 himself? I suggest instead to buy his bet for $50, then you front your own $100 to split. You expect to get back $15 on the $100 you invest and $65 on his $100 (which cost you $50).

These numbers are only as good as my own knowledge and this website I found:
Hand Equity

Re: BJ - Splitting 8\'s.
 

The wizard of odds give the EV of splitting 88 against a 7 as 0.321, which seems to agree more with your "$15 per 8"

Re: BJ - Splitting 8\'s.
 

A $100 bet on an 8 vs 7 is worth about $8.30 in +EV

Re: BJ - Splitting 8\'s.
 

[ QUOTE ]
I suggest instead to buy his bet for $50, then you front your own $100 to split. You expect to get back $15 on the $100 you invest and $65 on his $100 (which cost you $50).

[/ QUOTE ]

This is clever, because it's like giving him a surrender option he wouldn't otherwise have. Kind of a "cutthroat" way of helping him out, but if he realizes it's +EV for him, he'll take it.

Re: BJ - Splitting 8\'s.
 

assuming decent table rules on an 8-deck game (S17 DA2 DAS) then 88 vs. 7 produces these returns:

stand -0.478988
hit -0.410029
split +0.216711

surrender is an automatic -0.500000, so he should not surrender even if he doesn't want to hit.

any starting count of 8 vs. 7 has a hitting EV of about +0.083.

buying the split 8, or the entire hand at face value for $100 (which you then add another of your $100 to split) would be profitable in the long run.

Re: BJ - Splitting 8\'s.
 

can you share where you get this type of info from?