Players relive the agony of defeat

Where there are gamblers, there are tales of big wins, and there are woulda, coulda, shoulda stories of near misses. The conversation among a group of players sitting around a casino buffet table brought more than a few retellings of the thrills of victory and the agonies of defeat:

Joan: "It was in Las Vegas, at one of those Fifty Play video poker machines. I've played a lot of the Triple Play and Five Play Poker, but I'd never played the Fifty Play, so I thought I'd give it a try. They had it for pennies, so it took $2.50 per hand.

"After about 10 or 11 hands, I was dealt Ace-King-Queen-Jack of clubs, along with a 7 of something. I figured that was great. Fifty chances at a royal flush. OK, a royal only brings you $40 on a penny machine, but even one would buy a few hands, and there's always the chance to draw two or three royals, or even more.

"I didn't even get one. A bunch of high pairs, a few flushes and a couple of straights. I didn't even get my money back. I did OK on the machine and got to play a while, but never did get my royal."

Tom: "Funny you should bring up Fifty Play. I actually was DEALT a royal on Fifty Play. Got it 50 times, and it was on a nickel machine, so it was worth $10,000. What suit? Hearts. Got my picture taken with it and everything. I don't think I've ever been dealt a royal in the first five cards before, so I was really lucky it came when I'd get it 50 times."

Wanda: "You guys and your poker. You know I only play the slots. I think my worst moment came on a nickel Jackpot Party machine. I put in $20, and my very first play the five green 7s lined up straight across the bottom. That's a pretty big pay, and I was really excited, but the machine didn't do anything. I looked at the credit meter, and it was down five cents. It said I'd only bet one coin, and that only gives you the center payline.

"The best I can figure is that I hit the repeat bet button, and the player before me had only been playing one coin on one line. That's a mistake I'll never make again. I felt just awful. Now whenever I play, I make sure I hit the button so that I'm playing all the paylines."

John: "We all make mistakes, but the one that stands out for me came at a blackjack table when I misread the dealer's hand. I had a 9 and a 7 for a hard 16, and the dealer had a 6 face up. I'd misread it as a 9, so I signaled for a hit. The dealer paused and looked at me, because I'd been playing straight basic strategy to that point. I signaled for a hit again and drew a 4. I had a 20, and another player grumbled something about luck over skill.

"When it came the dealer, she turned up another 6, and it finally hit me that her first card was a 6, and I'd made a bad play. So now she had 12. The next card was a 9. Of course. She had 21, and she beat me, along with everyone else. If I hadn't take the hit, she'd have gotten the 4 for a 16, then the 9 would have busted her and the whole table would have won.

"One guy was so mad he immediately left the table. Very embarrassing."

Frank: "Do you remember the old Multiple Action Blackjack game? You'd make three bets. You'd only play one hand, but the dealer would play out three hands, each one starting with the same face up card. I don't think I've seen it in years, but I played it quite a lot at the Four Queens in Vegas for a while.

"One time, I was dealt a blackjack. That feels great, because you figure you have three winners, right? You're already counting your money before the dealer plays. Well, the dealer had an Ace face up. He asked if I wanted insurance, and I refused. So he plays out the hand once, turns up a King for a blackjack. He moves the Ace for the next hand, King, blackjack. Moves the Ace for the third hand, 10, blackjack. Bye-bye winnings. Instead of three wins, I just had three pushes.

"Would you believe, two hands later, I was dealt another blackjack and the dealer had another Ace? Dealer's first hand, Jack, blackjack. Second hand, King, blackjack. I said to her, 'Please. Don't do this to me again.' Third hand, she drew a 6. Finally, I won one. They way things were going, I was happy to take it."

Jack: "I played that game once. Had a great session. My blackjacks all won, three times over. Next time I went to Las Vegas, I looked for it, but it was gone. Easy come, easy go."

Blackjack: Team sport or not?

I'd met Al before. He'd come to at least one of my seminars, and we once found ourselves at the final table in a blackjack tournament. Neither of us won.

So when he called out my name from a blackjack table, I waved and walked over to say hello. He colored up his chips and said he had something he wanted to talk about way from the table.

"These MIT guys. They played as a team right?" he asked.

Yes, I told him the story of the MIT card counting team is well chronicled in Ben Mizrich's best seller, Bringing Down the House, and you can learn more about them and their methods at www.blackjackinstitute.com.

"OK, I thought so. Do they or teams like them send out scouts to look for players? While I'm playing, is someone from a team likely to be checking me out?"

Unsolicited? Without you knowing them or having approached the team first?

"Yeah. Just them looking for new players."

No, I told him. It's extremely unlikely that a team would be recruiting people they don't know on such a hit-and-miss basis. A blackjack team is a business that requires a lot of trust. Members won't be in a hurry to recruit someone unknown to them.

"That makes sense. I'm just trying to figure out something someone said at the table the other day."

What's that?

"I'd just doubled down, and a guy at the other end of the table said, 'You're not a team player.' And the woman next to him said, 'If you're going to make plays like that, we don't want to play with you.' And they picked up their chips and left."

Were you sitting at third base, the last position to take a card before the dealer?

"Yeah, that's right. I like to see all the other cards before I play."

Do you remember the details of the hand? What were you doubling on, and what did the dealer have face up?

"I had an Ace and a 7. The dealer showed a 6. By the book, that's a double down hand, right?"

Yes, it is. Doubling was the right play.

"So why were they so upset? And what's this about a team"

Easy, I told him. Al had encountered a couple with a peculiar mindset that is not uncommon at the blackjack table. They believe that third base is a team position at a blackjack table, and that by sitting at third base, the player agrees to avoid taking the dealer's bust card. They thought he should have been satisfied to stand on his soft 18 against a 6 instead of doubling down and taking another card --- the card they thought could be the one to bust the dealer's hand.

"Oh, I should have known," he said, the look of comprehension spreading across his face. "They wanted me to make bad plays because they thought it would help the rest of the table. Well, that's dumb."

Sure it's dumb. For one thing, when the dealer has a 6 up, there's no guarantee he or she has a high enough card face down that it can be busted with a one-card draw. And even if the dealer does have a high card face down, there's no guarantee that the next card will be the bust card. A player who takes a hit at third base --- or, in Al's case, doubles down --- could just as easily be taking a low card that would make the dealer's hand.

The problem is that players remember the times a third baseman's hit takes a high card that would have busted the dealer, but don't remember the times that the hit takes a low card. They certainly don't remember the times that going a card deeper into the deck because of the hit actually causes the dealer to bust. It is just as likely that the third baseman helps the table rather than hurting it by taking a hit.

But enough players have a bad case of selective memory that they blame the third baseman when things don't go their way.

"So what they're saying is nonsense. Third base is not a team position."

Of course not, unless the others are willing to subsidize your losses when you make a play you don't want to. I've never yet had other players offer to make up the difference if I stand on soft 18 instead of doubling down, or stand on 12 instead of hitting against 2 or 3, or any of the other odd things they think the third baseman should be willing to do.

"Somehow I didn't think the MIT guys were looking for people to make bad plays. I take it that's not the kind of team play they're looking for."

Not at all. Team play for them involves a card counter letting a big player know when the situation is right to come in and make large bets. It does not involve the silliness of avoiding taking a dealer's bust card.

"I should have known," Al said before returning to the table. "Anyone smart enough to figure all that out wouldn't expect such dumb plays."