To Kill a Black Jack Dealer

A strange feeling came over me yesterday. I left work a bit early to go play some poker at Oceans-11. Lately, the 40/80 game has been going on Wednesdays, and since I haven't played that game in a while I figured I would knock off work a bit early and go play. I couldn't have been more wrong.

As it seems to have become more routine, Oceans-11 was dead. No 20/40 game, no 40/80 game, only 1 8/16 game when I arrived at around 5:30pm. I got into the 8/16 game and played for a little while, before they finally got a 20/40 game going around 6pm. I played for a while, and just seemed to be getting coolered left and right. I got into this game for 5 racks total. Around 10pm, my buddy shows up. Magically his car brought him to Oceans from Santee. We play a bit, and around midnight for whatever reason we decide to head on over to Pala casino to play some blackjack. At this point, I have recovered some from my low point and have about 2 and half racks in front of me. We play until our blinds hit and I see my buddy pick up two kings under the gun and lose.

We get to Pala and play some blackjack and we both book a small win in a double deck game. On the way out, I decide to play one shuffle of a double deck game before we leave. I quickly lose and decide to play one more shuffle. 2nd or 3rd hand of the shuffle this monstrosity played out. I played two hands, $400 each. First hand I get dealt two sixes with the dealer showing a five. I split, and get another 6, I split again and get another 6, split for a third time, and get dealt a 9. So now I have 5 active hands with $400 on each.

I stay on the 9,6 and get a 6,5 and double. At Pala in the double deck game, double downs are dealt face down and I don't usually peek. The next 6 I get a 4, and double again. The last 6, I get another 5 and double again!

My other hand, was guess what 6,5 as well, and I doubled on that one too! All together I had 5 active hands, with 4 of them having $800 bets riding on them and one having a $400 bet on it for a total of $3600 in action (THE MOST I HAVE EVER HAD IN A SINGLE BLACKJACK ROUND IN MY LIFE!). Also, I only had enough to cover the initial splits in chips, all the doubles I pulled hundreds out of my pocket and told the dealer that cash plays.

Now I am sweating the dealer's hand to collect a sweet penny. Dealer opens and he has 15, sweet! With almost all the sixes gone at this point, there is almost no way he can pull a 21. Fortunately the dealer pulls an 8, busts and I don't have to sweat any of my doubles, which as it turns out were all good cards anyways. I think I made 19, 20, 21, 21, but wasn't really paying attention after I saw the dealer bust and was doing my little happy dance!