I'll tell you the perfect story of what I am talking about. It happened back in 2011, and I believe I told it on this forum back when it was different ownership. I call it the "perfect shoe". I will try to keep it short but probably will fail.
It was the old Monte Carlo Casino on the strip. (Now ParkMGM). 6 deck game 2 other players. First shoe was uneventful. Second shoe the count took off immediately. In large part because the dealer was pulling 4 and 5 card 20's and 21's for about 4-5 hands. First one of the other players had enough and left and then the other. The second one looked at me and said
"your on your own" or something to that effect. That was fine with me as I was heads up with the dealer in a monster plus count, with probably 180 cards left until the shuffle.
It is from this point on, playing even more than my max bet (I call it supermax bet), I did not lose a round. probably 32-33 rounds. One round was a split that I won one and lost one for a push, and there was another that I had a 10 vs dealer 10 and at that count should have been a double down as it was well above the index. The game was moving so fast as heads-up sometimes does that I screwed up and only hit that hand. I drew a 2. Hit again and drew an 8, to push the dealers 20, when I should have lost a double down. So 2 rounds were pushes and every other, I won. Probably won 30 out of 32 rounds, using Don's estimate of player/dealer cards per round.
At the end of the shoe, I colored up, only because I had way too many chips to carry and headed for the exit with my 20 grand in chips., pit critter and security watching me take off. Avoided the cage and the good opportunity for a clean head shot photo.
I have since had bigger winning days, only because I played higher stakes, but have never had anything like that "perfect shoe" (from the time it mattered).
If this event would have happened in NJ....they would have shuffled up on me after 8 or 10 hands. Not a doubt in my mind.
There is an interesting ending to that story, in that I became friends with that pit guy and am good friends to this day. He has been to my home a number of times. I did agree never to play in a pit that he was working again.
