Sometimes in online blackjack your decisions are easy but when with many hands they are not. How do you play the soft 18? How do you play a pair of 8’s? Let’s look at those two hands in blackjack.

If you have a soft 18 you should stand if the dealer’s card is an 8 or lower. That is pretty simple since you would be even or ahead of the dealer even if his hole card was a face card. You want to hit that soft eighteen if the dealer is showing a 9, 10, face card or ace. It is not easy to hit that soft 18 but against the dealer’s power cards of 9, 10 or ace you have to do it.

What about a pair of 8’s? If you have a pair of 8’s against the dealer’s 9, 10, face card or ace it is a tough choice. The correct answer is to split the 8’s if you are looking at blackjack strategy over the long haul. The problem with splitting the 8’s is that you could lose twice as much. Many times you are going to lose two hands instead of one but the long-term blackjack strategy says to split them. The decision with a pair of 9’s is a little easier as you have 18 and most of the time you stand. You could split them against a dealer’s up card of 9, 10 or ace but the long-term strategy is only slightly better if you split.

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