Blackjack is fun

For a 1-week stretch I dropped ~1k (5900+ to 4878) in my poker bankroll by playing too loosely and recklessly against good 6-max NL50 and NL100 opponents. So I decided to take a break in poker, and try my luck (read: skill) in blackjack at local casinos. The game was no-hole-card, except dealer BJ results in the loss of only the original bet even if you had split/doubled earlier in the hand. Late surrender, dealer hits soft 17, double after split allowed, resplit up to 4 hands.

August 1st was the funnest session. I played on the $5-min table, 2 spots for $10 each. At first there was nobody else at the table. I first bought in for $125, lost it all in a hurry to a hot dealer. Saw another $150 buy-in shrink to $25. I told myself, "Self. If I lose another $100 I am out of here." Fortunately it never came to that point.

Soon the table started filling up. My luck also took a turn for the better. I recovered to an approximate $225-250 before the following hand happened. I had 2 hands, one of them at the anchor position, of 18 and 12 respectively, against a dealer 2 (hitting is better than standing by ~2%). Basic strategy calls for a hit on the 12. So I did that, got a 10 and busted out. The dealer then took a 8 and then 10 to form a strong 20. An unspectacular hand. The only thing that drove me nuts were some mid-age Chinese lady mumbled to her friend, "That guy (I) is out to lunch.....why is he hitting the freaking 12 against the 2?". Of course I firmly believed in my knowledge, and had some choice of word for her.

Soon afterward the following hand developed. I had 20 and 16 against a dealer 7. I hit a miracle 5 to my dismal 16, only to next see the dealer pick up a 5 and a 9, which killed everybody including my 20. Had I stayed on my 16 dealer would have hit 17 instead.

Of course that drew some ire from the players again. I decided that I had enough from these yahooes and switched to a new table, where my luck was okay -- won maybe $50 during my stay there. There was one fair-looking, I guess mid-20s, Asian girl sitting to my left. She played a standard (read: bad) style. Didn't double down 11 against 9/10. Unsure whether to split 2/2 against 4, until I "strongly advised" (read: told) her to do so. She wound up standing at 13 and 14, and fortunately dealer busted with 2 straight face cards (otherwise I might experience some heat again).

Next, the player left of her got a blackjack against the dealer Ace. She said, "nice, go take even money." I interrupted, "no that's bad play". She looked at me like I was an alien. I continued, "come on, just do the maths." She nodded, unsurely. Smiling, I added, "nobody ever believes in me, though." Fun time trying to educate the fish.

Her boyfriend next came to her and said, "Geez I lost everything. See that lady dealer over there -- she just cleaned everybody out." Sure enough there was an empty table in the middle of the room. Looking dearly for faster action, I moved. Obviously I don't believe in the theory of a hot table/hot dealer.

It was an inauspicious start. First hand there I had 20/20, dealer showed T and hit a blackjack. Second hand, 20/19 against the dealer's 6. Payday? No, dealer hit 9-6 to form 21.

No worries. She soon returned to earth, and I heated up dramatically with good starting hands. I started to play 3 hands instead of my usual 2. There was also a cheerful caucasian, I say early 30s woman, who just joined. Every time the dealer busted she would high-5 every winner at the table.

One hand my first cards were 6, T and 7. I was sad to see the dealer pick up a Q. But my second cards were 4, Q and 2 giving me 3 nice hands (10/20/9). From there I ran my hands to 18/20/19. Dealer picked up a 7. $$$$$$.

The next key hand, I had $10-$15-$15 on 20/19/12 against a dealer 3. I stuck to basic strategy and hit the 12, in the process raising some eyebrows (casual players, as usual, think the correct play is to stand, which is not true). I got a really nice 8. Next guy stood his 20. More importantly dealer proceeded to draw K-3-9 to bust out. Had I stood on my 12 dealer would have gotten the dreaded 21. Woman invited a high-five. I smacked her really hard. She said "Wowowo don't hit me that hard I am not a man". "Come on, big play, big celebration." Everybody had a good time. The table atmosphere was great.

Afterwards I increased my bets on a few occasions based on card-counting, and each time I smoothly won out.

At the end I had a neat $700 in front of me. Coming back from behind really gave me a great feeling.

Here are the overall results:
July 25 +200
July 26 +200
July 27 +100
July 28 -100
July 31 +575
Aug 1 +325
Aug 2 -325
Aug 3 +75
Aug 4 +(somewhere between 300 and 700 can't remember)
Aug 5 +1000
Aug 6 +400

Damn, so much monies, don't know what to do.

Oh, BTW, I rebuilt my poker bankroll to $5600 with some solid play at NL100 full ring. Back in my NL25 full ring days I ran at 29/12. Nowadays I lowered that 29 to 22. That, followed by some better post-flop decisions, led to a winning record for the past 3 days. I'll post some hands later.