Blackjack is undoubtedly the most popular of table games, hands down. (No pun intended.) With choices like Super 7's, Double-down Stud,Let-It-Ride©, or Caribbean Stud©, straight BJ tables will be the one's with "no vacancy". Why? Because with perfect play the house has far less of an advantage than with these other "sucker" games.
Let-It-Ride© and Caribbean Stud©, for example, have a built-in edge for the casino in that it's hard to actually win consistently at these games. Deal yourself five straight hands of five cards and see how many hands have the minimum pair-of-tens needed to win at Let-It-Ride©. If you actually do win more than once in your first five hands, lady luck has kissed you square on the mouth and you should walk away a winner!
Same thing holds true for Caribbean Stud©. Every time you have a decent hand (a pair or two), the dealer "won't qualify". Don't go home mad because it's not just an unlucky coincidence--it's mathematically in the casino's favor!
The biggest mistake any table player can make is not studying a game and preparing to battle with the casino's edge. Oh, this is not to say that gambling can't be fun, that everyone should sit down and fight....on the contrary! Everyone should... 1) arm themselves with the knowledge of every casino game they wish to play so the battlefield is at least as level as possible, and 2)... know when to walk away.
It never ceases to amaze me when someone sits down at a table with that bewildered look in their eyes, the table is full of serious gamblers, and the bozo says, "Someone tell me how to play this game."
The face of the dealer lights up as his latest prey will make an easy donation to the casino's coffers, and his boss will likely stand there and watch this bozo lose hand after hand.
On a recent outing, that is exactly what happened. I was playing at a blackjack table with three other fairly serious gamblers and we had the dealer on the run. Everyone was in a winning streak when this man sits down between a lady and myself and says, "Okay, I don't understand this game...what is it?"
I believe that I heard more than one jaw drop, and dumbfounded, I found myself joining in a chorus of "blackjack!" as several others chimed in with equal amazement.
"Okay, but but how do you play it?"
If that wasn't enough to throw the planet off it's axis (having found the only non-Neanderthal who hadn't an inkling of how blackjack was played), what happened next surely was.
This Don Dumbstead bought in for $20 ($5 table) and was dealt a ten and a three. The dealer had a three showing. The lady next to this guy obliged him with some simple strategy and suggested he wave off taking a card.
"What does that mean?" He asked.
"That means that you don't want a card."
"But I have to get twenty-one, right?"
"The dealer could 'bust,'" she said, "and you'd win."
Reluctantly, he waved his hand. The dealer busted, and the gambler was paid. But he still had that third-grader-stumped-on-a-math-problem look on his face.
"I see that the dealer got '23' on his third card, but I don't have '21' yet so why did I win?"
After a lengthy explanation from the gracious woman with help from the dealer, the man proceeded to play. Surprisingly, he lasted for about ten hands, having bought only another twenty dollars in chips. But his "lady luck" was undoubtedly sitting next to him and after about thirty minutes he left, no better off than when he started, except...just maybe he armed himself with a little knowledge about blackjack for his next foray into the casino.
Make sure that YOU arm yourself with the knowledge of any game in the casino before you sit down to play.
If you have met or witnessed similar unusual characters, preferably in a Las Vegas casino, and you'd like to share your experience with the readers of Woody’s Vegas Page, drop me a line at gswoody@centurytel.net
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Original material by G.S. Woodlow ©2002.
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without the express consent of the author.
