Hello
I have often trouble in consolidating Basic Strategy and Index Plays when it comes to Surrender versus Split.
Let us start with Basic Strategy: Norm's book tells that you should first decide Surrender, then Split:
https://www.qfit.com/book/ModernBlackjackPage50.htm
which means that Surrender takes precedence over Split.
But when you have (8,8), this would mean to surrender this 16 and not split the Eights.
However, the Surrender tables list (8,8) separately from a non-pair 16:
https://www.qfit.com/book/ModernBlackjackPage51.htm
and the Surrender table for S17 says to
not surrender a pair of Eights versus dealer Ten, which means that in this case,
you should split the Eights, thus
Split takes precedence over Surrender, in contradiction to above.
However, the Surrender table for H17 says to surrender a pair of Eights versus dealer Ace,
which means you should
not split them, and
Surrender takes precedence.
It gets even more complicated when index numbers come into play.
If you should Surrender 14 vs. Ten for high counts, e.g. in REKO:
https://www.qfit.com/book/ModernBlackjackPage73.htm
should you also surrender (7,7) vs. Ten (presumably not)?
But for Single Deck you should surrender it already in Basic Strategy, says page 51.
This stuff has been confusing me for years :-)
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