Splitting tens

Just got back from a profitable trip to Vegas. Profitable on all fronts.
The wife had a positive outcome to her business meetings (the reason for the trip).
I found a third partner for our transportation (whew!).
And most importantly, I won at the tables.

Over the last couple of years I have become quite friendly with the dealers and floor personnel of the Golden Gate casino. These employees are great. They remember my name and greet me with smiles. I have found no other place where a virtual low roller like me is treated so well.

While playing BJ I fell into a conversation about the game with one of the floor supervisors. This particular boss has been in the industry for a very long time and I have a great amount of respect for his knowledge. He related to me some information on the game that I had not thought about before. More on that in a minute.

First off, a little about the BJ dealt at the GG casino. All of the continuous shufflers have been removed, it is all hand dealt. All Black Jacks are 3to2. The main floor is 8 deck shoes. There is one double deck game in the parlor that is $25 min. The DD game allows double down after splitting and max 4 splits.

Now, about those tens.....
The info as I understand it is that splitting 10s against a dealer 5 or 6 has about a 64% chance of winning. Hey now, that's a whopping 28% edge for the player! OK, I know, standing pat on your 20 is around 85% chance of winning. But standing pat has me winning on one unit, splitting I have a chance on 2 units, or maybe more. I'm in the game to gamble, right? And who wouldn't put their money down with those odds? (Among people that are already gambling, that is).
I have looked up the math as best I can and it is accurate. However all the "pros" recommend NOT splitting tens and each give a different reason. So, what do I do?

Well, I start splitting 10s against a dealer 5 or 6, of course.
Another boss on the floor has been dealing and supervising for 10+ years and admits to playing BJ on her days off. She thinks this is the craziest thing she has ever heard of. NO ONE splits 10s, EVER! Now I have to.

The first time the situation arises I get two Kings against a dealer 6. I have a $35 bet (I use a moderate progressive bet increase). I split the Ks and get another 10. Split again and get an Ace. The BJ pays even money after the split so screw that, I double down! Another 10 for 21. The other 10 gets an 8 for 18. The remaining King pairs a Queen so I make my last allowable split. These two draw low cards (5 and 6?) to make me sweat. The dealer rolls over a 10 for 16 then busts!!!! I make $175. I would have made $35 if I had stood on 20.

There was a lot of yelling and cheering during this hand. It was a blast to play. The boss (the one who thinks its crazy) says "You were SOOOO lucky". OK, I'm a sucker and now I'm hooked. I proceed to split 10s against a dealer 5 or 6 for the next 2 days. This particular boss can Monday morning quarterback the game of BJ back 6 hands in her head. ("If you had done this you would of had that" etc.) She kept track of my splits for those two days. Of the 11 times she saw me split 10s I won or pushed the entire hand 8 times. She says that she is now going to split 10s when she plays.

Now I know that my particular play is a very small sampling and can no way be considered a true representation of what will happen but I don't care. It was FUN.
I will be splitting 10s from now on.

My understanding is that there are two times when you should split tens. One is when you are sitting at the table by yourself, the other is when you want to be sitting at the table by yourself.

Don't forget to tip the servers.

A good explanation in this article:

Splitting 10's

In short, you will make $14 more per $100 wagered staying on 20 versus splitting. Splitting may make sense if you are card counting and you know the desk is rich in 10's or you are in a blackjack tournament and behind and need to get more money on the table.

It sounds like you had a great time and found a deck rich in 10's --- your results may vary. This advice given from a guy who, with two friends, all doubled down on dealt blackjacks on the same hand at the SouthPoint. The table got real quiet when we all lost the hand!

I remember being at a table one time when some pompous kid sits down and starts playing, He was loud and obnoxious AND he kept splitting tens, annoying the entire table, he kept saying he "had a system". Most of the table left shortly after his arrival, I hung around a bit, I was getting a good laugh out of him. Of course it didn't take very long for him to lose his arse.
I don't have the cajones to split my tens, I'm comfy standing pat.

Oh I forgot, congrats on the win. I suppose I could see the fun in taking the risk after all gambling is to have fun. I might try it one time if I'm on a roll.

You split tens and double down on a soft 21? Now we know why they treat you so good.

This reminds me of the first time I discovered Double Double Bonus Poker and started playing without any tutoring or research. The game is all about four of a kinds so when was dealt, say two queens and two sevens, I discarded the sevens. Using this strategy twice I hit a four of a kind and thought I was smarter than the average bear.

It wasn't until I returned home and researched the game I had discovered happenstance that this is terrible strategy and I was lucky with a short sample size. The more I kept playing with this strategy the more likely casinos would send limousines after me. Lol

The only time I split 10's was at TI there was six players and after the cards were dealt all six had 20 and the dealer had a ten up. So there was 13 out of 14 cards that were tens. And possible that the it could have been 14 of 14 if the dealers down card was a ten. Everyone was amazed, I gave my buddy crap that he should split his tens because there has to be some more tens after 13 of 14 cards were tens. He thought about it then waved off the dealer, then since it was my turn he started giving me crap about me splitting my tens. I caved under the pressure and split the tens. And dam what do I get but two more tens and I stayed. The dealer flips over an eight and we all win. So 15 out of 16 cards were tens unbelievable.

This buddy was the same one who after giving me a half hour of crap talked me into a double down on 14 when the dealer had a 6. The dealer had to call over the pit boss and tell him I was doubling down on 14. The pit boss looks at me and asked me if that was what I wanted to do. I said yes double down. The pit boss said OK give him a card. The dealer flips over a 7. I look at the pit boss and say " Sevens come up the most often or is that craps?"

One more same buddy story, we are playing craps and he is shooting and has made a couple numbers. On the come out he rolls a 4 and he says " No problem I guarantee I'll hit that four" So I yell "hold it he is guaranteeing the four" so I bet max odds and get out an extra two hundred dollars and buy the 4. I then look at him and say " You are guaranteeing right? " He looks back at me and says " I guess I have to watch what I say but yes I will guarantee the four". I look at the dealers and say "You guys want in on this right?" The dealer looks a little puzzled but say "Sure" I throw an extra 20 buy bet on the 4 for the boys. Two throws later he throws a 4. We always joke with each other that the best bet in the casino is a guaranteed four.

Great stories - thanks for sharing!

I don't split tens or double on blackjacks. But...

A dealer once suggested that doubling on a blackjack is a good play where BJs pay 6-5 and dealer has a bust card. Might be, but I haven't ever.

Any stupid bone-headed idiotic blackjack play can turn out lucky for the player, we've all seen it happen many times. Some of them cost us money, some work out OK.