Blackjack protocol

[Patrick425]

Someone mentioned in another thread about blackjack and being misdealt and how it messed up the hand and the shoe.

I don't get to play blackjack as much as I would like, but it always kills me when I'm in a casino and 3rd base at the BJ table takes a hit when he shouldn't or vice-versa and people get upset. A few things about this..

-My guess is that a "novice" 3b BJ player who makes plays "against the book" helps the table as much as he/she hurts it. There is always this assumption that the next card is a bust card. Well, if that's true then shouldn't the card after the card that the 3B erroneously hit on also be a bust card? Why do you assume that the sequence of the next two cards is "bust" then "nonbust" instead of vice-versa?

-In the example given in the other thread, the dealer misdealt and then realized it and burned the card which was a 7. The next player in line had a 14 and the 7 would have given him/her a 21. Well, what if the burned card was a Queen and the new card was a 7. The odds of that happening are pretty much the same.

- Why is 3b held under such scrutiny? If anyone at the table plays against "the book" (not just 3B), doesn't that allegdly mess up the shoe?

I guess I just don't buy into the assumption that a "misplay" always messes up the shoe and causes everyone to start losing. Misplays help as often as they hurt.

I have seen people get totally disgusted at the 3B at a BJ table because he/she takes a bust card. Then the next time 3B takes a ill advised hit, he/she gets a low card and the card after that ends up busting the dealer. I have to do everything in my power not to say to the previously disgusted player "Well, aren't you going to thank him now for making the dealer bust?" It works both ways. The cards are in random order. A "novice" player has no effect on everyone elses winning or losing in the long run.

[bigredrobbo]

I once played at a table with one other (very drunk) female player. She took cards when she shouldn't have, such as hitting on 19, and on one occasion standing on soft 14. I don't think I ever won as much in a 1 hour period playing BJ as I did that night!

 

It is hard (especially when you are losing or getting crap luck) not to be annoyed with this kind of play normally though. We sometimes forget we have the power to cash in and move to another table if it REALLY begins to get frustrating.

 

That's why I like Hold 'Em, Craps and Roulette more I guess. Less chances for others to screw you up!

[RyDogg66]

If she hits with 19 and the dealer has 16 and she gets a 2 and then the dealer busts everyone cheers. If she gets a Queen and the dealer gets a 4 they want to string her up.

 

I agree with the OP, the unwritten rules of blackjack dont make sense.

[dadofandrew]

If it helped the casino to have bad players, they'd hire players to play bad.

 

The whole MIT blackjack team could have been defeated by a gal playing oddly...heh.

[PKBadger]

Yeah, what bothers me the most about this is the idea that I somehow "owe it" to the rest of the table to play a certain way. I have free will, sir/ma'am, and I'm damn sure going to exercise it toward MY best interests before I think about you.

 

(That said, I understand the "book" well enough to avoid scorn 98% of the time.)

 

Also, often times I'm in a somewhat "altered" state when sitting at a blackjack table due to the consumption of alcohol. You've seen me drink 4 or 5 Jack & Coke's, so expect a couple mistakes along the way. It also doesn't help when the dealers are impatient and get ornery if you want to take a second to assess the situation - I've felt rushed a couple of times in Vegas and made a wrong play as a result.

[pitchleague]

I'm with Kegstand, here. When I play blackjack, I'm playing for one reason: for fun. If I really want to make money, I'd be sitting at the higher limit tables. And I usually WILL say that to an ornery person if they're complaining. The $1, $2, and $5 tables are for folks looking to just have FUN.

 

At the same time, I go with the "book" about 90-95% of the time, but sometimes you can calculate what is coming toward the end of the shoe. I'm not talking cards, but you just "know" what the shoe has given you thus far so you can start to "anticipate" a card coming your way. If it doesn't work out, I live with it and move on. If it blows other people's cards, oh well. I am playing for ME, not for other folks. If BJ tables started giving bonus money for entire tables winning when the house busts, okay, I'll go completely 100% conservative.

 

But nothing beats going against "the book" and pulling a card out of the shoe to give you 21 against the dealer's alleged 20.

 

edit: man, now you guys have given me a huge hankering for heading to Laughlin tonight to go play cards.

[rluzinski]

I'll play low stakes blackjack on occasion and I couldn't care less how everyone else plays. For one, it's irrelevant. Second, what level of play should I expect if I'm playing low stakes blackjack!?

[Diskono]

I played blackjack at a casino once. Apparently I didn't play the game the way it is meant to be played, because some crabby people at the table kept yelling at me and saying things like "WHEN YOU HAVE _______, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO ________!!!!!!1".

 

You would think that, if these rules actually worked, the people gambling would win more than they lose. But they don't! Weird! Anyhow, I told them that I'll lose my money whichever way I feel like losing it, and then left to go waste it on slot machines.

[NeedMoreFans]

What if the first player (I don't know tons of BJ terms) doesn't follow the book, but the other players all do, and it results in the dealer winning. How is that different from the 3b making that mistake?

[SZBrewerFan]

Ahhh.....here's a simple rule to follow. If you are playing low stakes BJ in a casino with a 6 deck shoe your chances of winning are very low as is, unless you are counting, and if you are counting chances are you are not playing $1-$5 Blackjack.

[pitchleague]

oh, I don't know about that (chances of winning are very low). Give me $100 and I can sit at a single table of 6-deck blackjack all afternoon. And I usually double or triple it. Not always, but more often than not, I make money. And I'm not counting cards.

[GAME05]

well, even the $5 tables tend to have $25 maximums, so you'd be very surprised how much money you can make at a low-limit table.

 

i've come across this a few times myself. Me, I play 95% book, but I do like to split 10s when the dealer shows a 5 or a 6. Unless I'm mistaken, book says that's a bad play, but I like to play it anyway. And most every time, somebody either says "the book says you should stay on that" or the rude (more common) version, of yelling at me for "taking their card." the whole comment is ridiculous. It's entirely random, so unless you know the exact next card that's coming, I'm not affecting my neighbor's play whatsoever.

 

What also helps me is entirely not caring whether the person next to me is losing money or not.

 

if it's an unwritten rule not to play against the book, then it should also be an unwritten rule not to tell other people at the table how to play.

 

KegStand, i know how you feel about the dealers pushing you to play fast. it's a feeling like if they could, they'd just outright scream at you for taking even two seconds to decide. but granted, their jobs relate to how many hands they can deal in an hour. That's why all the top dealers are out on weekend nights. That's why whenever I'd go up to Ho-Chunk to play blackjack, i always only went on a weekday early-afternoon. I'd play on the three-deck table and always get the old lady who was slower than anything and would practically misdeal every other go-around. The combination of a three-deck shoe and an uber-slow dealer made it pretty easy to count, or at least have a good idea.

[dadofandrew]

You know, this is why people play on the internet. As stated, people who think a bad player affects the random outcome of a single hand of a child's game called 21...

[Weirdos19]

If you are at a low limit table, you don't expect everybody to know the rules. If you are at a high limit table, people tend to be more serious.

 

Myself, if I was worried about what other people are doing, I'd sit at a $25 table. Which I usually do.

[blatzlight]

$25 or $50 min single deck blackjack is so much fun.