Table Games 8 card 18 and other oddities this weekend

I was in town for a weekend trip, and I saw 3 bizarre gambling situations that were new ones for me. All of these happened at the Plaza.

1. Thursday night I got into town and saw down at a blackjack table. While playing, I had the dealer draw an 8 card 18. Yes, you read that right. Here is the sequence: 6, A, 5, A, A, A, A, 2. If I hadn't seen it with my own 2 eyes, I might not have believed it. I wish I had thought to ask the dealer and the pit if I could take a picture to post, but I didn't think of it in time.

2. Saturday morning while playing BJ, the player next to me stood on an 11. Yes, 4, 2, 3, 2 were his cards. Of course the face card that came out of the deck that he should have hit busted me. I know that another's poor play has just as good a chance of helping me, and that happened several times over the weekend. Talking to a different pit boss later, she was surprised that the dealer didn't say another to the player, who obviously was worried about the next card being a 12. I know there are a lot of bad blackjack players out there, but standing on 11 takes the cake.

3. Saturday night I had the misfortune of losing 16 out of 17 hands of blackjack. Lost the first 6, then had a shuffle and hit a blackjack on the first hand of the new shoe. Woo hoo I thought, the fortunes are turning. Then I proceeded to lose 10 in a row. After the 10th I left the table and told the apologetic dealer that she was just a much better player right then than I was. Let this be a lesson to all the Martingale system proponents out there. Even if you don't run into table limits, you can run into a negative streak like this. Luckily, I am a low roller who didn't lose next month's mortgage or my children's education funds on this run of bad luck.

 

wow that 8-card 18 is insane!

Did you ask the guy standing on 11 his reasoning? What was the dealer showing?

 

I often see people mage bad decisions. I'm not a quiet player and will typically tell them something along the lines of they should hit according to statitics, odds, the book, etc.

 

Dealer had an 8 showing. I am not much of a conversationalist, so I didn't ask him.

 

I usually can deal with people that make bad decisions in Blackjack but when they are just horrible decisions like standing on a 11. I just gotta get up and change tables.

 

This is like someone standing on soft 17. I say there isn't a card that can bust you here. If there were a player who wanted to stand on 11, I would probably make the same argument. You can't win with an 11 unless the dealer busts, and you can't push under any circumstance. Take a card. Draw 6 or better, and you at least have a chance to tie the dealer. I would go nuts!

 

Two of the worst that have ever happened to me was an 11 card 21 (12 cards would be the max) at Paris and the dealer pulling 8 blackjacks on a double deck at Encore.

 

Exactly, I'm not expecting that those kind of players learn from it and change their play, so getting up and go to another table would be the best thing to do in my opinion

 

I'm really, really surprised that the dealer did not automatically hit his 11. Unless it's a "first two-cards 11", it seems like dealers always just bring the next card automatically when you have hard 11 or lower.

 

I probably would have left the table, but I was playing alone until he came along. He bought in to a five dollar table with $20, so I knew he wouldn't last long. I ended up over doubling my buyin, so it was worth staying.

Topcard, I was surprised she didn't at least say something to him, if not hit it.

 

I love playing with people that make oddball decisions - deflects heat away from my play.....

 

I was at EI at watched 9 (dealer K) take six more cards for an 18 and stay. Next player took a card at got a 3. After all of that I doubled down my 55 for and got the K and won when dealer busted her 16.

 

OUCH!

Also I'm really shocked the dealer didn't make them take another card standing on 11... In my experience dealers are usually pretty good at helping the players win as much as they legally can. Winning players = more tips!

Not anything close to the stories above but I once on a whim sat down at a $5 table with $40 expecting to play at least a shoe and lost it all in the first 6 hands (two bad double downs)....

 

I lost 15 hands in a row at the Las Vegas Club. Lucky for me I was betting the table minimum of $5 and had been up some $100 before the losing streak.

 

I've seen people stand on 11 when the dealer has a low card (they're just not concentrating at all, and imagine that they have 12, I think).

 

A long time ago when I was playing Pai Gow Poker, I lost 11 hands in a row without any pushes. I was playing minimum ($25) so the loss wasn't too big. Then I won a couple of hands, and started betting up ($100). I proceeded to win and push the next 20 hands or so. I can't play Pai Gow Poker anymore. It's just too slow for me. I have no clue how to play Pai Gow tiles even after I read the instructions. I think you just have to memorize the good and bad pairings of tiles.

 

Completely different...Soft 17...yea there are no cards that can bust you, but there are few cards that can help you...anything greater than a 4 and you are regressing...

 

Only thing that would have made this better was if you were playing single deck

I have also found myself at a table playing next to somebody who stayed on an 11 with dealer showing a 5. MGM when I was 22, was playing $50 on the hand and at 22 $50/hand is a lot. Full table and everybody was giving the lady grief. I had a 20, looked at her stupid, but I had a 20. Of course dealer pulls a 21. The entire table left after that. That's all you can do anyways if somebody's going to be that stupid.

 

If no one said anything to the player standing on 11 perhaps they couldn't add well and thought it was something else......and if the dealer said nothing nor had any facial awareness of the player standing on 11 perhaps they had shared a math class in high school.

 

A few trips ago I bought in for $300 at Mirage on a $25 table and lost it all one green at a time without winning a hand. 1 push and 12 losses. Decided to move on after that.