Haunted Games - boo!
I played 7 hours at 6 different casinos the other day.
During good counts or bad, I have never been served so many 15's and 16's. I doubt it was a 2-sigma event, but it sure seemed like it.
One table filled up with customers just as the count went skyward. On one round, six hands were in play: four blackjacks, and two 16's - guess which two hands were mine? - as well as a dealer 20.
There were many other rounds with 20's all over the place, and 16's for me. To the point that it was spooky.
I think we're wired to notice the unusual, and create a narrative out of it, while not noticing the 100,000,000,000,000 other unusual things which also could have happened, but did not. And then we take that one thing we notice, and blow it out of proportion.
I think I haven't been really hit hard by variance, yet, because it doesn't faze me. I don't like losing max bets in high counts, but, in comparison to ploppy stupidity, getting ass-whipped by variance is nothing personal.