Tens running is just a lone Ten??????

[Guest CarlosM]

Mad Dog, you were telling me a couple of days ago that Ed Goldstein taught you that when you see a single lone TEN (10, J, Q, K) that means TENS are running! But, high cards running you need to see Tens and/or 8, 9 Ace more than a lone? Ellis, what do you think? Calling a single lone TEN, tens are running?

[ECD]

Sometimes you do and sometimes you don't. Lone tens is a major consideration in BJ. This is why we cover it so carefully in the NBJ manual. We monitor the table during play for the prevalence of lone tens. When lone tens are non existent, or mostly non existent, sure, we treat a first ten as a high clump signal. But when lone tens are prevalent, we confirm a first ten with the next card. This little trick is often a BIG money maker in an otherwise mediocre shoe. Try it, you'll like it. The difference between the winners and losers in a shoe is usually tiny tidbits of information. When a little trick like this saves you just one or 2 hands, it often makes the difference. What if that one hand is your 6 bet? Good players react to what the shoe tells them. Every rule in BJ is superceded by what your shoe is telling you. What is, is. Rule of thumb decisions are to be avoided whenever fact tells you otherwise. Fact is always stronger than rule of thumb. Basic Strategy is rule of thumb. Card counting is rule of thumb. Look where that got them!

In perfectly random cards, tens are meaningless. Stick to 146. Fact over fiction.

[Mad Dog]

Yes indeed.

I was at Ed's house in Tucson. We were practicing with real cards and on one hand there was some question about whether tens were running. He said, very clearly, "Tens running is one card." I said that this was not what Ellis taught, and he said that Vegas is different than AC. Actually Ed was probably using more information than that one card. He had seen the previous rounds of play and knew that tens were about to start shooting out of the shoe.

Anyway, my card play skills are derived from home practice. I don't apply anything Ed said blindly. Only with home practice can you know how to apply any of these rules of thumb. The main thing Ed taught me was to practice, and when I lose a hand, study the table to see if there is something that would have made me play the hand differently.

Home practice is what taught me how to play.