Splitting 10's in Blackjack - Splitting Tens

When to Split Your Ten's

During the time that you find yourself playing blackjack, either in a casino or on the Internet, you may find yourself being dealt a pair of tens. In blackjack, a pair of tens does not have to be like other pairs, in order to split them. A pair of tens in blackjack does not have to be a pair of jacks, or a pair of queens, kings or tens, you can have a ten and a jack, a jack and a queen, a queen and a king and so on, and it will still be considered a pair of tens in which you could split.

A lot of blackjack players have a lot of different ideas how to play blackjack, but for the most part, it seems most all blackjack players have the same idea as to how to play a hand when you have a pair of tens. Most all players will agree, twenty is a good hand, good enough not to mess with. In fact, a lot of people would say that to split your tens is a lot like trading a Cadillac for two Yugo's, trading a winning hand, for two losing hands. Let us always keep in mind, the only winning hands, are the ones that get paid. You could just as easily lose on a twenty as you could win on two sixteens.

Some players, usually players that are new to the game of blackjack, and sometimes players that are intoxicated or card counters, or even players that are just trying to upset other players at the table may not chose to stay on a pair of ten valued cards. Some players may chose to place a second bet out there, of course equal to the amount of their original wager and inform the dealer that they would like to split their ten valued cards. When they split their ten valued cards, if they receive an ace on one of those ten valued cards, it is not considered to be a blackjack or a natural twenty one, a blackjack or natural twenty one has to be a combination of any ace and any ten valued card as your first two cards. Your first two cards, in this scenario, are the first two ten valued cards you were dealt. Instead, an ace added to your split ten valued card is considered to be a soft twenty one, which could also be counted as an eleven and could be doubled down on.

Since I am a big fan of playing blackjack based on basic strategy and since basic strategy recommends never splitting a pair of tens, I tend not to do anything with a pair of tens other than just stand on the twenty, hope for a win, expect a push or a tie. After all, basic strategy for blackjack is based on calculated odds, not guessing, meaning hopefully if you follow the basic strategy card to the letter, you will come out ahead more often than not. Keep in mind, you should not expect to get rich, just because you stand on a pair of tens as the basic strategy suggests, it only means you are playing on the right side of the math.