Ten (10)

Ten. It’s a pretty important number isn’t it? We all count in base 10 these days, we all have 10 fingers (if you count the thumb as a finger) and 10 toes. That’s where base 10 comes from originally, as a counting system. Add another one, and you are into the 2 digit numbers proper starting at number 11.

But how about in roulette. Is 10 anything special on the wheel?

Betting on the Number 10

Black 10 sits between red 5 and red 23 on a European Wheel. On an American Roulette wheel, you’ll find it nestled in between red 27 and red 25 near the double zero pocket (00).

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To bet on red, you can make a straight up bet on the individual number of course. But that’s not going to get you much table coverage. If you are betting on just one number, make sure you keep your bets low and increase your odds by repeating the bet many times (essentially the Makarov roulette system).

You can also cover 10 with the other inside bet options (street bet, square bet, split bet, 6-line bet etc).
On the outside bets, you can cover it with a bet on the black, the even or the low numbers. Or the first column and the first dozen bets which pay out at 2:1 (plus you get your bet back if you win). So bet £10 and you get £30 back, a profit of £20, or 2:1.

Other ways of covering 10:
007 Bet
Black Splits
Chip Bomb bet (on 14 for example)
Finale 0 en Plein
Tiers du Cylindre (opposite the Neighbours)
The Snake Bet.

All About Ten

Well, it’s a pretty important number, not least because the UK Prime Minister lives at Number 10. It’s the first double digit number (unless you are a Roman, in which case you’d just write X). To many it symbolises the completion of a cycle. If you are looking for lists of the best stuff on the Internet, the chances are that you’ll be looking at Top !0 lists.

There are Ten Commandments as well, of course- in fact this number features heavily in many of the world’s religions- it’s seen as a complete and perfect number. It is said that 10 generations of man lived on the earth before the Great Flood (Adam to Noah). There were ten plagues of Egypt, and further east the god Vishnu will be reincarnated ten times according to the texts of Hinduism.

Perhaps more relevant to superstitious roulette players, ten is the card of the Wheel of Fortune in a pack of tarot cards and Capricorn is the 10th sign of the zodiac.

Neon, an inert gas, has the atomic number 10. Guess how many years the War of Troy lasted? Ten! Then, following the fall of Troy, Odysseus began his journey back to Ithaca and his wife, Penelope.

The return journey took him 10 years. When Odysseus eventually arrived home, he was the only survivor.

In China

In the Middle Kingdom, The number 10 is a revered number: a symbol of completeness, because it is the sum of the first 4 numbers (1 +2+3+4) and the number of digits on both hands. In China, 10 also means duality as it is the five doubles and 5 represents totality to the Chinese. In fact, this theme of completeness or totality crops up again and again across many cultures. Not surprising, I suppose, as we all have the same amount of fingers and toes.

Number 10 is often avoided in Chinese culture- it’s not that it’s seen as unlucky or anything (not like the number 4), it’s just that it’s seen as a “full” or “maxed out” number. Moderation is well regarded in China: too much of something can be bad, and in the cycle of life, whatever goes up will have to come down eventually, so as the number 10 is a peak number, the only way is down from here!

In Europe

The Greek Pythagoras thought of ten as a symbol of universal creation. Again, this goes back to the fact that it’s the basis of most counting systems (because we humans have ten fingers). When you count to ten on your fingers, you must start again.

Other Stuff About 10

Although we are talking about a completely different base system, the number 10 symbolises the binary system, 1 representing the “on” state, and 0 representing the “off” state. It is also said to represent yin and yang, male and female etc, the 1 being male, the 0 being female (we are back on the completeness or totality theme again).

So is the Number 10 a Lucky Roulette Number?

It’s as lucky as any other number on the roulette wheel, that’s as far as we are going. You have a 2.7% chance of hitting the number 10, the same as hitting a number 8 or a number 7. But that doesn’t stop people using it as their favourite lotto number, if they were born on the 10th of October in ’82. We’re a superstitious bunch, aren’t we?