Vegas in August part 5 - Blackjack

So I went down to the BJ pit and found Sveta at a $25 DD table, not really enjoying herself. Last night's dinner was having a delayed negative reaction on her - my reaction had been rather more immediate last night.

So nursing a medicinal glass of Henessey, she asked me to play with her chips till she began to feel better.

I played two spots and got up a bit as the guy on first base got knocked out of the game. Another player watched me for a while and decided he wanted the first hand out of each shoe so he jumped in - but at least not mid shoe.

I experimented with one or two hands till the cards settled down and got up around $690. Then an aging combover with his wife (who looked like someone from That 70's Show with glasses the size of brandy snifters) sat down at first base and majestically placed his $100 bill on the table.

Feeling friendly, as a courtesy I offered the information that I varied from two hands to one. He thanked me and said he was fine with that as he liked to do the same thing. Yikes - never good news when a combover from Missouri wants to control my table with his 4-unit buy-in.

Sure enough, it only took him a few hands to spread to two, and whatever magic I had been enjoying started to ebb from the table.

So we took our $575 profit and looked for a greener pasture. Found an empty $50 table where Sveta charmed the supervisor into lowering the limit for her, and still playing with her chips, I continued heads up against this dealer.

First shoe was a rush as I got up around $300. Next shoe was up $100 when major pressing signals flashed their pretty faces at me. I spread to two hands of $80 and lost both one double down to boot. But the count was still dynamite so I increased to two hands of $120 and promptly lost those too.

In a flash the profit was wiped out from this table, and I started to grind. The casino threw new cards at me (never a great thing) and the hotel convention supplied lots of willing and unlucky playing partners for me - all of whom crashed and burned over the next hour.

It was a tough set. I could not get it going in either direction. So complaining of a headache (which is true) and boredom, L left the table in Svetlana's capable hands, with a profit of a measly $25 for that table session. Still - a win is a win -just take what the cards give you.

So hopefully she can grind it out. I will take it easy now and prepare for our big night out dancing (the things you do to keep a good relationship!) and a nice dinner.