Sunday, 13 January 2013
Monday, 29 August 2011
Blackjack Play just gets worse
In some of my previous writings about Blackjack I ventured to offer some examples of poor play and, in particular, the mannerisms of bad or inexperienced players; well, I believe that overall in the last few years, Blackjack play has deteriorated to an even lower level, if that's possible.
Most - if not all - Casinos in the UK will now allow the player the maximum of freedom on the tables: that is, just like Las Vegas and other Casinos around the world, the player can now double any two cards, and split any two cards the same.
I don't know how many of you remember the days when - in the UK at least - it was only permissable to double-down on the first two cards if they totalled nine, ten or eleven, and you also in those days couldn't split a pair of fours, fives or tens; well that was how it was generally around ten or so years ago, and a lot less than that in some clubs, and yes - for the cynical amongst people I have spoken to - those limitations were in place to protect the player.
But that has gone out of the window, and with the further advent of alcohol allowed at the Gaming Tables, bars open later, and - in some cases - 'walk-in' Casinos where one doesn't even have to be a member any more to enter and play, we have seen this new freedom of play result in the further decline in the standard of Blackjack play. Some of the things I have witnessed myself make me literally shake my head in disbelief.
The mannerisms give these people away first of all, and the things they say, (I mean, no good knowledgeable player says 'hit me' when they want a card). Sometimes they do this 'twirly hand' motion, where they're - I suppose - attempting to mimick the dealer pulling the card from the shoe (but failing miserably); I mean what's wrong with saying 'card' or 'no': is it complicated?
I once saw a group of three middle-aged men playing together and one of them was doing the 'twirly hand' thing and doubling on EVERYTHING, (and I mean everything), like 13 against the dealer's Ace, 6 against 10, 14 against 8 - ANYTHING. And his bets kept losing, and more than one of us tried to explain to him that maybe he should change his strategy; but he just looked at us with kind of 'blank' eyes and continued to do it anyway, and then ripped into the dealer when he'd lost all his chips for being 'so lucky' and 'ruthless'. Yea right, he really needed so much luck to beat you, playing such an intelligent game.
Wandering off the subject slightly: I love that player that gets Blackjack against the Dealer's Ace and then when asked whether he/she wants to take even money looks completely lost and goes 'hnnn?' or 'sorry?' and when - even when - they have it explained meticulously to them by the dealer, they put another chip down - ON TOP (!!) - of their bet! What are they thinking? Do they think it's a double? How can you think that's a double? They might be sitting in the middle of the table and it's not even their turn, but they still think - apparently - that they are being asked to double!
People that touch their bets during a hand or try to top up their bets are ALWAYS players that haven't a clue; not a clue about the game, about etiquette, nothing. That's another 'bad player' giveaway.
Monday, 22 November 2010
The Incident at The Luxor
By the time I got to the Luxor at the end of the Strip I was truly buzzing and I liked it in there straight away; there was a certain atmosphere around the gaming tables…it really felt like a Casino should do. There was noise and winners and I was itching to get involved.
I got a drink and looked around, feeling the wedge of cash bulging in my pocket and almost shaking with the excitement of finding a game.
I stood and watched a $15 minimum table for a couple of hands and a moustachioed guy who was playing the first two boxes had about a grand and a half in chips in front of him and as I watched I could really tell that he knew what he was doing. There was one other guy at the table that was very quiet and just playing the minimum. I squeezed between two spectators and sat down on the end box, tossing $500 across to the dealer.
‘Hey, how’s it goin’?’ Enquired the man on the first box raising his Beer bottle to me.
‘Good…good. You?’
‘Not bad buddy…takin’ care of business, you know?’
‘Cool’
I got my chips and started off betting carefully just at the minimum but after starting off well it didn’t take me long to raise my bets to around the 50-100 dollar mark. The guy on the first boxes was loud and drunk but I didn’t mind really, especially as I was winning; it created an atmosphere and a buzz at the table. He was playing between 100-250 dollars a box most of the time and he soon had about three grand in front of him as we started to get a roll going on the dealer. The Hispanic girl that was dealing didn’t look like she was enjoying herself a hell of a lot and never smiled the whole time she was there. The moustachioed American on the first box might have had something to do with it as his volume went up in a crescendo as he continued to win against the house, and as I moved to over $300 up I started to feel good and join in with the banter.
One thing soon started to annoy me at the table and that was that the loud guy – when he got a double – he was asking for the third card dealt face down; the idea of this being to heighten his excitement or maybe just to amuse himself; but I didn’t like it. I like to see all the cards that are out and it was irritating me. I didn’t, however, want to point it out for risk of spoiling the mood at the table or to upset my playing partner.
I got up to about $500 profit but then we had the inevitable dip in play and I was soon back to $350 up as I considered the possibility of quitting the table while I was ahead. I put $100 down, figuring that if I lost I would quit $250 up or if I won then I would play on for a little while and take a more substantial win.
That next hand I got nine and the dealer had a three; If ever there was a tempting but risky double then this was it. I heard some noise from my friend at the other end of the table and looked across to notice that he also had two doubles. He went for both, excitedly and the dealer dealt him both cards face down and then it came around past the other quiet guy and onto me. Now…I didn’t know what to do and I felt like I needed to see the face down cards to help with my decision.
‘I want to see those cards,’ I said, pointing in the direction of the doubled-down boxes. The dealer half-smiled and made no effort to turn them over, obviously presuming that I was joking.
‘No…I want to see those cards. Can I see the cards please?’ I gestured again.
‘Oh…I don’t think so,’ said the dealer nonchalantly
I shook my head in disbelief. I knew that I had a right to see those cards, especially as I had a possible $200 hand sitting on the table.
‘I can see those cards if I want to…I’m playing on the table as well and I know the rules,’
‘He’s playing more money than you,’ she said gesturing weakly to the first boxes, ‘so I don’t have to show you.’
I stood up now, shaking with anger and adrenaline.
‘Listen, don’t tell me the rules – I know I can see the cards if I want to! Let me speak to your manager.’
I was absolutely furious. What she’d just said was the biggest load of bullshit I’d ever heard in my life. I hadn’t wanted to cause a scene but this was Vegas and I figured that they’d be professional and know what the fuck they were doing.
‘Look, I don’t mind if you turn my cards over. Turn them over,’ added moustache man, his hands up neck high, palms pointing towards the dealer as she leaned back whispering in her Supervisor’s ear.
‘Do you want to see the cards?’ Moustache man mouthed silently to me pointing to his boxes.
‘Yea,’ I mouthed back nodding my head gently.
He looked up at the Dealer and Supervisor and while they weren’t looking he quickly turned each card up in turn to show me without looking at them himself. The first was a two and the second was a seven. Bad news for him.
‘What were they?’ He asked quietly, but then the Supervisor was stepping my way.
‘OH NO! He didn’t seem too impressed! I’ll bet they’re a load of crap!’ I could hear the drunk guy shouting to his pal as the Supervisor leaned towards me.
‘What’s the problem sir?’
‘Yea…I’ve got a double here – but I want to see those cards and the dealer’s telling me that because he’s playing more money than me that I can’t!’ I said, my voice getting more animated as it went along.
‘Okay…calm down sir. We’ll let you see the cards okay? But please don’t raise your voice to the dealer.’
‘I was only explaining the rules to her. She doesn’t understand the rules! It’s Bullshit!’ God, I was mad.
‘Okay, well she shouldn’t have said that…but please calm down.’
Meanwhile, what seemed like the Casino manager was speaking with the moustache guy.
‘Okay, listen – from now on, you have all your doubles dealt face up,’ he told him.
‘Listen, I don’t mind at all if this gentleman wants to see them face up this time or whenever he needs to, but the Pit Manager said that I could have them dealt face down and now you’re telling me that I can’t!’
‘I understand that sir, but now it is affecting other people at the table…so I can’t let you do it I’m afraid.’
‘Listen, I stay here every year and I’m in the Penthouse Suite. You put me up in the Penthouse Suite and you can’t talk to me like that!’ He was fuming as well now.
‘Calm down Sir.’
‘I’m not happy at all!’ He said angrily, waving his index finger at the Manager and then turning his back on him. The same Manager then came around to me.
‘Sorry sir,’
‘That’s okay,’ I raised a hand up, ‘I didn’t mean to cause so much trouble.’
So the hand was then played out, which everyone had almost forgotten about. I decided to double foolishly, more to try and prove a point than anything else. I pulled a ten to make nineteen but the dealer made twenty and I slammed my stack of chips down on the table. I was now down to $150 profit and as I was thinking what to do the dealer changed and we got this grey-haired guy with glasses, obviously sent on to rescue the Hispanic girl.
I was still furious about what she had said to me and I couldn’t concentrate on the game now at all. Meanwhile another Manager had come over and was speaking in moustache’s ear while he was playing. They argued for a little while and then he seemed to grudgingly except the decision. I wondered if it was all a ploy by him to get comped a free dinner or something.
The table went disastrously after that and I was soon running low on chips.
‘Man, this is shit!’ I said angrily, slamming my shortening stack down on the table after another loss.
I ended up running out of chips and doing an extra two hundred out of my pocket, losing $700 in total. I was sick, utterly sick. I sulked around for a while, feeling like such a sucker for letting my emotions get the better of me on the table.
I grudgingly decided that it was time to stop playing for a while and get drunk instead.
Blackjack Philosophy 2 - Don't Push it too far!
As soon as you push it…as soon as you GO for it, that’s when it all goes wrong. It always happens…when the GREED gets in you…when you think: “well this is working with $200 so why should it not work with $500?” No. As soon as you get that little bit more greedy than usual, that’s when it all goes Pete Tong.
And you could say: ‘well, if you really believe you can win, then why not play on higher-stakes tables and increase your bets on a similar scale (instead of $10-$300, why not $100-$3000)? You would certainly win more.’ Well, it’s the mind-set. I’m not ready for that. I have never been loaded, never been that…FLIPPANT about money to be able to get my head round losing over $100 every few seconds – on a bad run of cards it can really be that quick – and then have the ability to still remain calm and in an unaltered, concentrated state on the table. For me, sticking $300 or $400 down once in a while is adrenalin enough and I can just about get my head around that at the moment.
Stopping at the right time is still the key though, I mean – take that incident at the Luxor for instance: as soon as I lost full control of myself – let other emotions become involved – that’s when it all went down the pan.
I was still sick about it days after, and I remember that at the time I was suicidal. To get involved like that…it went against everything I had tried to steel myself against. But then a part of me thinks: “well maybe that will end up being a good lesson, you know?” Maybe…and the fact that I was so fucked off is a GOOD sign, otherwise it would show that I didn’t care too much, or was becoming too flippant about money.
Nervous BJ Player
LEARN SOME STRATEGY! Why would you sit down and play a game for REAL MONEY when you haven’t got a clue how to play? It blows my mind. Watch, learn, try to pick it up, read a book, ask someone…but some people are too stupid to do any of these and are completely lost at a Blackjack table.
Once I was playing and this young guy sat down and you could see immediately he didn’t have a Scooby. He looked absolutely terrified. He looked too scared to do anything – put his money down, ask for a card, pick up his winnings…anything, and I could see that he was whispering to the guy playing next to him (who was no expert himself) about what he should be doing in certain situations. He was getting some great cards although he was never aware of this, (he didn’t even know that a picture and an ace was Blackjack for Christ’s sake) and winning money, although not as much as he should have been. After watching him get one too many nice doubles that he didn’t even know about, I lent over between hands.
‘Excuse me mate,’ he looked at me, the same blank, scared look on his face that he had worn since he had sat down.
‘You know that you are allowed to double on your first two cards?’ Again he just stared.
‘If you get, say nine, ten or eleven on your first two cards,’ I continued, ‘and the dealer has a bad card like a five or six, you can double your bet.’
‘I can…double?’ he looked to the other guy then back to me, picking some of his chips up and tentatively moving them towards the box, misunderstanding and NOT LISTENING to what I was saying.
‘No…I mean, when the cards are out, you can…’
‘Yea…what he’s saying is that on that last ‘and you would’ve got paid twice if you’d doubled.’ Interjected the other guy, ‘It would’ve been a good bet; still, too late now.’
The new guy looked to the dealer and then back to his box, playing with his money nervously.
‘I just play my own game,’ he said to me.
PLAY YOUR OWN GAME? And what IS ‘your own game’ mate, exactly? Sitting there scared shitless and not even knowing what a Blackjack is if it leapt up and bit you?
‘I’m just trying to help mate, you have had some great double chances,’ I said.
Nothing.
Then that very next hand. Eleven against a five, one of the best doubles you can get.
‘Double or card,’ asked the dealer, and the kid was signalling again, his same stupid signal, twisting his hand vaguely in the air, a shy version of the queen’s wave.
‘You can double that…that’s a great bet.’
‘It is,’ agreed the other guy.
He continued to do his signal and it was obvious that he didn’t know a thing about what we’d just said. NONE OF IT.
He got a ten, twenty-one.
He won of course.
After he had stayed on a fourteen against an ace and then pulled on a soft nineteen against a six (and won both) I got up and left to find another table.
Elvis on the Bus (in Las Vegas)
Everything he did: the way he walked, the way he spoke, everything – I mean, ‘this is how Elvis would get onto a bus’, ‘this is how Elvis would hold open a door for someone’, ‘this is how Elvis would go to the fucking toilet.’
It was amazing – the guy WAS Elvis, and you can bet your life he totally believed it as well!
On my last day I got the bus along the strip – something I’d never done before – and an Elvis impersonator got on at the next stop. He started handing out tickets to some show, and then he was talking to someone on the bus, standing up the front and he TOTALLY BELIEVED he was Elvis! They all do! He was handing out these tickets, ‘please…take one’ saying it and handing them out exactly as Elvis would and I was loving watching him, the bus in better spirits now, and then the bus driver was speaking through a microphone:
‘Who wants to here Elvis sing?’ she asked.
‘Yea!’ shouted the bus.
‘You want him to sing?’
‘Yea!!’
‘Are there any requests of what you would like Elvis to sing?’
‘Heartbreak Hotel!’ shouted a lady in front of me.
The bus driver handed the microphone to Elvis.
He started crooning away…and the whole bus was singing along right away and it was rocking and I totally forgot where I was going to get off. The whole bus was singing and laughing and even the driver was joining in.
Blackjack Philosophy
I have heard Casino players say that it doesn’t matter who you play with on a Blackjack table – how good they are or how they play or whatever – because the cards will even out in the long run, and besides, how can it really effect what you get dealt?
They have a point, but I feel so much happier on a Blackjack table of good players. It’s not just that they play better, but they just conduct themselves better. Bad players – really bad ones – can be totally random in their play and that gets on my nerves very quickly if I’m playing with them. They also seem really unsure of every decision. It’ll come to them and they haven’t got a clue what they’re doing; it’s as if they think they’re not allowed to think about what they are going to do until the dealer points to their box.
Good players usually make instant decisions. They know what they are going to do in any given situation and whether they win or lose their expression changes little. Sometimes they might show some relief if they look as if they are about to lose but don’t, or they can get a bit angry if the cards time and time again come out wrong despite their very best efforts, but, by in large, it’s the amateur players that show all the emotions, especially when they win. It makes me laugh when I see a good player playing, say, $200 a time, winning a few grand and remaining calm and poker-faced, while someone else on the table is screaming and hollering over $5.
A game on a table of good experienced players, will invariably flow, and if the whole table gets on a winning run it is a beautiful place to be; but it only takes one bad player sitting on the table and that is pretty much impossible; what I mean is: if I lose and everyone is playing well then I can take it, but when I lose and it is because time and time again there is somebody at the table taking a card when they shouldn’t or leaving a hand when they should take, then I cannot help but get frustrated about it. What makes it worse is how ignorant these people usually are. Even if you point it out as it happens, (look, if you hadn’t taken that card then the dealer would’ve got too many, etc.) they look at you blankly and don’t understand that the decisions they make influence everybody’s bets and not just their own.
But how much is bullshit? I mean, I like playing with good players, but I remember playing once in Amsterdam and the whole table was losing: we were all good players but we couldn’t do a thing right; but then another player joined the table on the box just before me and was a terrible player, but everything he did – every mistake he made – was good for me. My luck completely turned because of him and I ended up winning.
I still feel much more relaxed and get more into the game on a table of good players. The way I play – concentrating on the game and putting big bets down every now and again when I feel it is right – there is too much to worry about if there is a bad player or two at the table. If they directly cost you money then you do blame them; it’s automatic. If they help you win, you don’t tend to think: ‘well I knew he’d do that’, it’s more like: ‘well, I got bloody lucky there!’
Interfering doesn’t work either. I used to try and tell people how to play, but if you tell somebody to take a card or whatever and everybody ends up losing because of it, then you feel pretty stupid and can cause a bad vibe at the table. At the end of the day, people can play however they like because it is their money.
On one of my earlier Casino visits before I ever came to Vegas, in the Treasury in Brisbane, Australia, I learnt a valuable lesson about keeping quiet on the table: I was playing on the first box and had put a large bet on, I think it was about $400 AU, which at that time, for me, was as big a bet as I’d ever had. There were two other players and I got dealt twenty and the dealer was showing a picture. I obviously stayed and then it got to the guy on the last box who had sixteen. He pulled a card – the correct strategy – and got an ace. I was so pleased to see this because he had stopped the Dealer’s Blackjack, so I said ‘Thank you’, smiling and relieved. The guy on the end box had just been playing his own game with minimal bets, and as he looked over at me then, he noticed the big pile of chips that I had on my box. All of a sudden he looked nervous and I don’t think he even realised the size of the bet I had on until that moment. Anyway, for whatever reason he pulled another card (he had seventeen so should never have done this). It was a seven and he predictably bust. I shook my head in disbelief, knowing that that seven would’ve been a perfect card for the dealer.
Worse was to follow. The dealer then pulled an ace and therefore still got a Blackjack. I lost when I should’ve won and if I hadn’t have said anything to the other player he would not have hit on seventeen, I am certain of it. Obviously I could’ve still thanked him but done it AFTER the hand was finished so as not to influence the game too much. It was an $800 difference and I was absolutely sick – even the dealer looked as if he felt really bad about it.
I think that was the worst I’ve ever felt at a Blackjack table and ever since then I try not to get involved in what other players are doing. Sometimes I forget this rule of mine and can’t control myself, normally with predictable consequences.
A lot of gambling to win is one big battle against human nature. When we win we want to win more and when we lose we don’t want to leave the table or the Casino losing, so we keep playing until we have got our money back.
Timing is everything and knowing when the correct time is to leave a table is one of the hardest things to learn.
You also need to be in control of your emotions. I have learned that it is good to be positive – you should always be positive – but not in that ‘false bravado’ type way, as in: “I’ve got a real feeling I’m going to win tonight”. This can never be the case. To say that you have ‘a feeling you are going to win’ suggests that the Casino owes you money and that you have a bigger influence on things than you actually do. Genuinely believing that ‘this is going to be your night’ can result in being too brave when in front or refusing to cut your losses. I always avoid this over-confident emotion. Another mistake that many people make is setting themselves a ‘target’, like: “I’m going to win a grand tonight.”
Oh yes? And how do you know that exactly? Again, the Casino does not ever owe you money and you have absolutely no idea – no matter how good you are – of knowing what is in store for you. Setting a target, again, suggests that you have more control over the game than you actually do.
When I play Blackjack I never have a target in mind, I just play my best game, go for it when I feel it is good and hope to win; I will play for as long as the luck stays good, and unfortunately it rarely stays good for long. Once I feel the luck turn for a few hands I will stop playing.
Let’s say that I set myself a target of a $500 profit and then have good luck right up to being $450 up only for the luck to turn completely, well then: I won’t leave the table until I have that $500. The chances are that by chasing the last $50 that I want, I will lose my hard-earned profit. Yes, sometimes you might get to $500, but is it really worth the risk? You should never have a target and I do not understand some people’s obsession with a ‘nice round number’. Again – you do NOT have that much of an influence; you CANNOT pick and choose when you are going to win and how much: It doesn’t work like that.
The same applies when you lose and want to get back to evens. I once lost $600 but then started to have some good luck. I got all my money back apart from $30 before my luck went bad again. What did I do? I walked away. Why chase that last $30 when the chances are I would go back to losing a much larger amount if I did? $570 back was enough in this instance: IT HAS TO BE. Think about it: If someone had offered you $570 back at the point when you were losing $600 you would’ve snapped their arm off.
Go with the flow and with the luck, forget nice round figures or chasing every penny back: this can be very damaging and ruin the best of strategies. No one likes to take a loss but sometimes you have to accept that this is not your day. Getting away on a bad day with only minimal losses is every bit as important as maximising your profits on a good day.
And a tip that is particularly relevant in a place like Las Vegas: If you start to get stressed, blurry-eyed, angry, or all three, then remember: YOU ARE ALLOWED TO TAKE A BREAK! Play to enjoy it; if you are not enjoying it, get away from there – go and sit by the hotel pool for an hour, go for a walk, have a coffee. It is so easy to forget that life away from the tables does exist.
Take each game as a SEPARATE SESSION. What I mean by this is: If you lose, say, $500 in one session then have a break for two hours, when you come back for another play never play to win that 500 back. You are at ZERO. Again, you don’t know how it’s going to go and you need to have your head about you, focused on the game in hand. Thinking back to a previous game is not going to help and can have you feeling like you are ‘chasing money’ even when you are winning. Winning and going with the flow is a much better state of mind to be in than chasing losses.
Another mistake that people make, (and this is only natural amongst holidaymakers) is to have too many plans. If I sit down at a table, I make sure I can be on that table for as long as I need to be. Sure, I might have some idea in the back of my head of what I want to do later on, but you should NOT sit down at a table if you have to be away from it by a certain time.
Most holidaymakers won’t care about this, I know – they are just there on holiday, not to win money but to have fun – and that is fair enough; but if you are serious about trying to win, then sitting down to play Blackjack at 6.45pm when you’ve got a table booked for dinner with the wife at 7.00pm, will lower your chances, significantly, of winning. By doing this, the only way you can win is if the cards are good almost straight away; the cards might be terrible for ten minutes and then suddenly go great just before Seven – well, you’re going to have to leave the table just when it’s getting good, when you don’t really want to, and perhaps miss out on a great run of cards.
I once had an argument with a friend that it was better to win £50 in ten minutes than to lose £200 over two hours, and he just scoffed; but quite frankly: where’s the argument? If you are serious about this you don’t set yourself any time limits. You might stay at one table for five minutes and another for two hours, but this should be completely dictated by how well the cards are going and how good a game it appears to be. You can’t influence some things; sometimes it is best to get away from a table as quickly as possible. To have the mental strength to be able to walk away from a table when you’ve only just sat down is a bonus, and another example why you should stay away from that ‘I feel as though I’m going to win today’ feeling.
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