Bad Play I saw and made me laugh

[Dyepaintball12]

My 3 favorite plays in Blackjack so Far:

1 and 2 happened on my most recent casino visit, the last was awhile back.


1) Kid plays and has no idea what he is doing. Making ridiculous moves. He is dealt a 20 against the Dealers 10, and splits. Makes 2 hands of 20, and the dealer gets a 20 as well.

Made me laugh alot.

2) Guy is playing OK, but decides he wants to play his own way. Anyway, gets dealt 55 against a Dealers 6. He then says "Im gunna play this my way" and splits the 5's. He ends up getting 2 stiffs, and I believe he actually ended up doubling on one of them.

He lost both hands when the dealer made a solid hand.

3) Girl is playing and has no idea how to play and does not accept any player telling her what to do. Gets dealt a Soft 20 against a dealers bust card, and doubles. DOUBLES. AND GETS A 21!!!!

I cried.

I love Blackjack

 

[humonstick]

This happens the first time and only time i was at vegas.

It happens at a six decks game. The guy was deal an soft 15. He use his hand and calls for a hit, so the dealer hits him a card, which is a 6. Without showing any emotion or thinking, he immediately moves his hand asking for a hit. The dealer bents down a little looking at the cards and say "sir, you have a 21". The player moves his hand again asking for a hit. The dealer replys "that's a 21". The player's face turns red (i think he is mad or something). He said "I know" in an annoyed voice without looking at the dealer, then he quickly use his hand make the hitting signal quickly and repeatly a few times. The dealer stands there stopped whatever he was doing and stare at the player. The player's face was still red for like 5 seconds or so when the dealer was staring at him. After that 5 seconds, he makes a stand signal with his hand. He embarrassedly similed (face was still red)while turning his mouth to his left hand side shoulder trying to hide it. Me and my friend was laughing so hard that we can't even force ourself to stop laughing for another 15 hands of blackjack.

In about half an hour later, a old lady sits down with us. After a short play, she got a hard 17, she use her hand signal to hit. The dealer ask her if she is sure about it, then the old lady signals stand. In another 15 minutes or so, the old lady got an hard 19 (a nine and a face card), she signals to hit. The dealer ask if she is certain about hitting her 19. The old lady's facial shows a "what's going on" expression. The middle age guy that wants to hit the sofe 21 talked to the old lady in a language that i don't understand. After their short conversation, the old lady signals stand.

The guy who wants to hit his 21 will not let another player hit their 19. The situation is kinda funny.

 

[mrbill]

This past weekend I was playing and a guy sat down at the table. Bought $40 in chips. First hand he lost $10. Second hand he had a 16 against a dealer 5. He put $10 out for a DD so the dealer announced "Doubling on hard 16" and dropped a 7 on his 16. Dealer ended up making her hand and wiping out the table.

Later the guy had 20 with an 8 up for the dealer. Again he puts $10 out and the dealer started to split the 10's. The guy says, no I want to double down. The dealer says "Are you sure you want to DD on your 20 and take a card?." He responded with "No, I don't want a card, I just want to double my bet ".

 

[ihate17]

$6,000 swing for me on someone's bad play

With a $500 bet on the table I land up splitting 9's to 4 hands, get two double downs and have 6 bets on the table with a high hand of 15.
Older Asian man at third base has a 4,2 (the original Zenmaster, as I may have told this story before), takes his chips and divides them into two piles and since the piles were even (his play decision method) he stays on 6 against a dealer stiff.
Next card busts the dealer and the first card out of the shoe on the following hand showed that the dealer would have made a hand if this gent had taken a hit.
So instead of losing 3 grand, I win that amount. As I am being paid the old gent gives me a bow which I return.

Who said, bad players hurt other players? What bad players actually do is just hurt themselves.

ihate17

 

[dacium]

The amount of clueless people is absolutely unbelievable.

If you just follow 2 extremely basic rules, the house edge is only about 2%. They are to hit to 17 if the dealer is 7 or above, and hit to 12 if the dealer is 6 or below.

Needless to say almost no one does this. It is no wonder the casinos make so much money.

 

[MEDITANK]

This story is a bit different and happened three nights ago, but wanted to share this with you all anyway. Maybe this guy knows a different system than we do.
This guy was drunk, 1st of all. Loud but polite and yelled out every time he won. HOW he was winning is another story. This happened over and over and over again for 2 hours of play at least as he was at my table to a while, then again at two others playing 6D and 1D.

Dealer shows a hard 16, this guy has a hard 13. He doubles down. Dealer yells out DD on a hard 13. The guy gets an 8.

next hand, dealer shows a 9. The guy gets a hard 17. He doubles down. Gets a 3, dealers hole is a 10. The guy yells out in celebration.

Another hand, dealer shows a 10, this guy has a hard 18, he doubles down and gets a 3 for a 3 card 21. Dealers hole turned out to be a 10.

on and on and on. This guy won around 3K by his green chip stack. I have never ever seen a person play like this before and win constantly. The PB stopped coming over on every hard DD announcement because it got old after a while I guess.

 

[ihate17]

The beauty of knowing the next card out of the shoe

This story is a bit different and happened three nights ago, but wanted to share this with you all anyway. Maybe this guy knows a different system than we do.
This guy was drunk, 1st of all. Loud but polite and yelled out every time he won. HOW he was winning is another story. This happened over and over and over again for 2 hours of play at least as he was at my table to a while, then again at two others playing 6D and 1D.

Dealer shows a hard 16, this guy has a hard 13. He doubles down. Dealer yells out DD on a hard 13. The guy gets an 8.

next hand, dealer shows a 9. The guy gets a hard 17. He doubles down. Gets a 3, dealers hole is a 10. The guy yells out in celebration.

Another hand, dealer shows a 10, this guy has a hard 18, he doubles down and gets a 3 for a 3 card 21. Dealers hole turned out to be a 10.

on and on and on. This guy won around 3K by his green chip stack. I have never ever seen a person play like this before and win constantly. The PB stopped coming over on every hard DD announcement because it got old after a while I guess.

It is the beauty of knowing the next card out of the shoe or just luck which can only last for a limited period.
If he was not doing this everytime and especially if it was a pitch game, he may have had a dealer partner or marked cards. Most likely just a drunk, lucky guy.

ihate17

 

[MEDITANK]

I know, that is what I was thinking. Never saw him again and I asked the PB last night if she saw him again. She said no. He played at 4 different tables, so I am thinking the cards were not marked unless he knew the dealer or something, but that wasn't the case either, he played at least 6 different dealers. The guy was starting to gather a crowd around him as the night went on. He was coloring up every 15 minutes or so, I was jealous. I know that for myself, I will make index plays that average 1 out of every 100 hands based upon the TC. I hit a hard 17 vs a 9 last night with the TC at -4. I drew a 2. Pushed on that hand. A month ago, I DD on a hard 12 vs a 6, got a 9 TC was around -3 at that time.

Last night, the RC was +17 and nearly crapped my pants with 3 decks left. never saw a shoe go that high before. swung 15X my unit bet unto the table and left it there for 3 hands. Right after the 3rd hand, the phone rings. The PB that is very friendly to me picked up the phone but did not look my way.

An hour later, I was asking her what her longest losing streak in BJ was. She replied 32 hands and that is why I don't count cards anymore.

I interpreted that as a back off in a very discreet way.

What do you think? I was only up 100 bucks and left with that amount, but I have never lost at this casino and last night was my 4th visit.

 

[humonstick]

Last night, the RC was +17 and nearly crapped my pants with 3 decks left.

Last time and also my first time ever walked into a casino knowing card counting exist, I had a TC of +20 with Hi-Lo on a double deck with two hands left. I was too scared of being backed off, so i only bet three red chips instead of one.

I will sweat when i think of being backed off

 

[ihate17]

Red chip backoffs, my opinion

My opinion may not be worth very much because I have not played red chips in a very long time.
I believe that a casino that will back off red chip players might very well back you off if you spread 3-1 with the count or spread 15-1 with the count. In other words, they are a sweat shop. Nevada has a bunch of casinos like this, in Vegas mainly downtown and anything with Coast in their name.

That said, a +20 count in a double deck game with only two hands left (you failed to mention how many players were at your table) might mean with 60% pen, that you have +20 with perhaps 1.2 decks not yet played (40 cards behind the cut card and about 20 cards to be played). That would also mean that perhaps half, or even more, of the remaining cards are tens or aces! If you ever expect to land up being a winning counter, you just have to throw a max bet out on this hand. I mean a max bet for your bankroll, you still should not overbet, but three chips, as you know, is a serious underbet.

Finally, because of blackjack books and some good advice on cover and some good stories about backoff, new counters tend to get a bit paranoid. Eventually, you should be able to judge the tolerance level of a casino and if you did something to generate heat pretty well, but the new counter does not have the experience for this yet. My advice would be to bang away unless you are in a casino known for sweating red chip players. There are plenty of casinos that do not even rate red chip players and at most of these they really do not even know that you are playing. Sure, if you are unfortunate or if become very good and raise your bet level, eventually you will get backed off someplace, but that could be several years down the road.

ihate17

 

[humonstick]

you will get backed off someplace, but that could be several years down the road.

Thanks for the advice. I feel good hearing this and hope it will be true:laugh:

 

[Kasi]

If you just follow 2 extremely basic rules, the house edge is only about 2%. They are to hit to 17 if the dealer is 7 or above, and hit to 12 if the dealer is 6 or below.

Well, not doubling or splitting will cost almost 2% by itself.

 

[Kasi]

I know that for myself, I will make index plays that average 1 out of every 100 hands based upon the TC. I hit a hard 17 vs a 9 last night with the TC at -4. I drew a 2. Pushed on that hand. A month ago, I DD on a hard 12 vs a 6, got a 9 TC was around -3 at that time.

TC -4 is no where enough to hit a hard 17 vs 9. Maybe like -20 in a single-deck game. Likewise doubling 12 vs 6 at TC-3 is pretty crazy. Likewise I would think index plays would happen more often than 1% of the time.

So, no I don't think you were backed off.

 

[MEDITANK]

TC -4 is no where enough to hit a hard 17 vs 9. Maybe like -20 in a single-deck game. Likewise doubling 12 vs 6 at TC-3 is pretty crazy. Likewise I would think index plays would happen more often than 1% of the time.

So, no I don't think you were backed off.

I'll admit DD on 12 was risky, but the past two times I was going to do it, I would have won. Its not something I am going to do in the future, but I will keep mental notes on it.

BTW, after hitting the hard 17 and drawing a 2, the next two cards out of the shoe were an A and then another 2.

 

[Kasi]

I'll admit DD on 12 was risky, but the past two times I was going to do it, I would have won. Its not something I am going to do in the future, but I will keep mental notes on it.

BTW, after hitting the hard 17 and drawing a 2, the next two cards out of the shoe were an A and then another 2.

I don't know why u bother to count if u don't make the right plays. And I wouldn't exactly call either one a "camouflage" play lol.

I don't care if the next 24 cards were all aces, it's WRONG. Trying to justify this stuff makes me nuts!

I guess we need a "Voodoo Playing Strategy" forum.

 

[Arctapodema]

A couple weeks ago i saw a pretty rediculous play. This old guy jumps into a packed table, coloring in $40. Were dealt cards, and this guy gets two 10's, with a dealers 9 upcard, which he decides to split. Even with everyone at the table laughing, he splits them, and gets a 3 and 5. AND STAYS. The dealer made 19. The next hand hes dealt two 8's against a dealers 5. He decides to stay, against the advice of the table and dealer, and replies "I never split eights." I responded by saying "I never split tens." Needless to say, he left shortly after.