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Ten Twenty

Introduction

Ten Twenty

Ten Twenty is a side bet in blackjack that pays out if the sum of the player’s first two cards equals 10 or 20. I first encountered it at the Macau Entertainment Complex located in Cork, Ireland.

Rules

In the case of the Ten Twenty side bet, card values are treated like traditional blackjack, with aces always counted as 11. Wins are determined by the values of the player’s first two cards, as follows:

  • Pair of fives: pays 22 to 1.
  • All other two-card totals of 10: 10 to 1.
  • Any two-card combination totaling 20 (including ace-9) pays out at 3 to 1.

Analysis

The following table presents my findings related to six-deck games, with the lower right cell indicating a house edge of 5.39%.

Ten Twenty — Six Decks

Event Pays Combinations Probability Return
5-5 22 276 0.005689 0.125155
Other total of 10 10 1,728 0.035617 0.356171
Total of 20 3 5,136 0.105862 0.317586
All other-1 41,376 0.852832 -0.852832
Total 48,516 1.000000 -0.053920


Here is the house edge associated with different numbers of decks in play.

Ten Twenty — House Edge Summary

Decks House Edge
1 8.75%
2 6.72%
4 5.72%
6 5.39%
8 5.23%