What is RSA in Blackjack? How Resplitting Aces Affects Your Play

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]back with another blackjack terms video for you today. And this one's going to be all about RSA, which stands for res-split aces. All right, this is a relatively uh simple concept, but if you are playing and you are dealt a pair of aces, of course, basic strategy, the basic strategy chart here on the screen says we should always split our aces no matter what the dealer's up card is, right? So, if we do that, of course, splitting requires another bet of equal value. But the thing with aces compared to other hands that require splitting is that typically with aces, you only get one more card. They might even like kind of turn the card sideways like this.

[00:00:40]Now, that's relatively normal. No matter what these cards were, right, if they're kind of face down like this, it doesn't matter. You'd only get one more card.

[00:00:49]The exception, however, is sometimes some casinos allow for what's called res-splitting aces, which means if you were to get another ace, you can split that again. All right, the idea is kind of um a couple fold here, twofold, is that one, 12, right, and 11 + 1 is 12.

[00:01:09]That's pretty bad, right? That's one of the worst hands you can get as typically people hit to at least 12. Um but two by splitting this allows for another um card to be dealt just one more card on each and if you get another eight you could even split again. However, let's see what we got here. Yeah, so a couple nines. So those are 20s and this one's 21. So pretty good. Um, but there's other casinos that maybe don't allow that and their reasoning is that the house edge becomes a lot better for them as opposed to the player if they don't allow re-split aces. So respplice is actually a really good rule for the player to have as by splitting this you get a chance to get maybe more tens or in this case we got some nines that came out and so we have totals of 21 20 and 20 and we're very likely to win all these bets. Another reason why you just want to split aces and generals is general is if you win one and lose one that's essentially a push, right? You don't lose any money. Uh but if we can re-split aces, if we get a third ace come out, then uh the likelihood that we make maybe a couple of those hands turns out pretty good. If we were to lose one, we would still be profitable on that particular hand. Now, how does this affect? As I said, the house edge is better for the casino if they do not allow re-slit aces. And it turns out it's by 07%.

[00:02:34]Which in our last video, um talking about doubling after a split, if you remember me saying that, that doesn't sound like a whole lot. Same thing's true here. 07 doesn't sound like much, but if you're a card counter, which is what we teach on this channel. Um, if you're new, welcome. But, um, if you are a card counter, our edge is typically about between 1% maybe up to 1.5 2% depending on what the count is at that particular time. And because of that, that 07 is very significant in the grand scheme or in the long run, you might say. And so that is why a table that allows re-split aces is much better than one that does not. All right. Now, how did I learn all this? Well, I learned how to count cards with Blackjack apprenticeship. In fact, down below in the pinned comment of this video, you'll see a link to Blackjack Apprenticeship that has some demo videos to some of the services they offer, including their pro betting software where you can run your own numbers to see how good your table is that you're playing at. There's also casino 411 which shows all the casinos and you can click to see even individual tables to see what they offer and the different rules at those particular casinos. Or maybe you want to plan a trip and you can hit up a bunch of casinos along the way using casino 411.

[00:03:46]There's also plenty of charts and deviations and even a forum where you can interact with other card counters who also have the BJA membership. All right, guys. Comment down below which blackjack term do you want to see next?

[00:03:57]And while you're down there, please hit the thumbs up button for me if you found this helpful. Until next time, remember this is A1 blackjack.