Vegas Gambling (Part Two)

I covered most of the games outside of blackjack and poker already. Blackjack is far and away my favorite table game. First off I can count a single deck pretty well and have made a few hundred dollars on multiple occasions. On my single trip to the South Point I've even counted a double deck and made up for my vicious poker loses on that trip. I've got to the point on a single deck that I can memorize virtually the entire deck and recite it back if needed. I can do that with two or three total players, more than that it goes too fast for me to really pay attention.

However I was on vacation and I can't count when I'm drinking. I can count with a few drinks the problem is I don't know when the cut off is, what number drink is the problem. So I think I've got the count correct but who knows. When you're varying your bet based on a count you probably should know it and not let alcohol affect it. Vacation meant no counting and thus almost no single deck. The rules are far less in your favor on single deck so we played mostly out of a shoe. That way we'd get to double down when we wanted, split when we wanted, and get paid 3:2 on blackjack instead of the standard 6:5 on a single deck.

For the first five days we were able to stay pretty close to even on blackjack, probably even up a little. I had one bad take where I was down about $125 and another where I was up $110 so it made it even. With two days to go in the trip is when it got interesting. Oddly enough I hadn't split any cards up until Sunday. This is with probably ten to twelve hours of playing. Then I had the mother of all splits come up twice.

Ten dollars a hand at the LV Hilton. I dealt 8-8 vs. a 5 so I split. First hand gets another 8, split again. Get a 3 for 11 total, double down. I've now got $40 down on a $10 hand and only one of the three 8s dealt with. Back to 8 #2, another 8 for yet another spilt bring my total up to $50 on this one hand and four total 8s. One of the 8s gets a 10 and another gets a 5 both staying. The last 8 gets a 2 so its time for another double down for six bets on this single hand of blackjack. It turns out I just should have surrendered. The dealer flips over a 2 for a 7 total. Then the dealer hits for a 3 making her total 10. None of my double down hands had a 10 or an A so I took a total of 10 cards with only one 10 out of the shoe. Well her Ace finished off the entire table and make the session go from $10 down to $70 down pretty quick. It turned out okay because Pretty Bird was up about $80 or so (far and away her best blackjack session ever) and I stayed in. My luck turned around pretty quick and I ended up about $50. Pretty Bird ended up over $125 up which made her really happy.

Another 8-8 session was at the NYNY but this turned out much better. This time was vs. a 3. I was drinking a bit so I can't remember the details exactly other than I wasn't allowed to split anymore. You can only split four times and I split them all and still got dealt another 8. There was also a double down in there as well. I don't remember the exact breakdown other than I ended up one bet up vs. the dealer because she didn't bust and didn't have any great hands.

I only got A-A once and so did Pretty Bird. She hit a 10 on both of hers and I broke even.

So going into Monday we were probably $250 or so up in blackjack with only 36 hours or so left in Vegas. We quickly decided to give $150 or so of it back but were still up about $100. Then Monday night I decided I only wanted to win. My luck was so insane that Pretty Bird a few times had to stop me from going crazy with the betting. I was up well over $500 in a few sessions with $10 to $15 bets, it was just silly. I even sat down at the high rollers table just to say I played a few hands. Once at the Monte Carlo at about 3 in the morning we were looking for cheap craps or Pai Gow just to say we played there some because its my mom's favorite casino. We didn't find a game and Pretty Bird had to use the ladies' room. I sat down at the $10 blackjack table with $50 because she wasn't going to be that long. When she game back I hadn't lost a hand and was up over $130.

One Tuesday we decided to give back about $200 of it because I thought my luck would continue, it turns out I was wrong.

I did get two sessions in single deck and both ended with me being a little down. The first one was with a buddy and there was five players on the table. I can't count with five players and even if I did it wouldn't matter because you only get two or three hands. The other time was with just two players and I ended up down about $75 and had to leave. I lost hand one and hand two, one $10 bet and one $15 bet. At this point there was only 2 tens dealt, zero Aces, and 20 to 22 cards already out of the deck. With 30 cards left in the deck and at least 17 of them a 10 or an Ace I felt really daring. I bet $50 and got dealt an 18, player #2 gets 20 (which at that point you'd almost split), and player #3 fucks everything up with his 14. The dealer has a 7. At this point I feel sorry for the 14 player but happy that my 18 beats the dealers' 17.

Well the 14 player decides to stay. He even verbalizes his logic that "the dealer hasn't had a little card under for a long time, he's got one this time". No dummy there's a pretty good chance that is not the case. Well the dummy player is sorta correct, the dealer had a 9 under giving him 16 and a must hit. He hits and gets the 14 player's 5, yes boys and girls 16 +5 equals one fucked table. To be nice or to torment us the dealer rabbit chases the next card before he shuffles showing a Queen.

I decided to just leave the table and not be too upset at the moron. I know it doesn't really matter what other players do, the cards are random. But it sure is frustrating. Still up about $400 total for two people only playing $5 to $10 a hand in blackjack is a pretty good week.