“Why?
Didn't you see the dealer's face card? “ Baffled by his decision,
a well-dressed pretty woman with blonde hair and blue eyes sitting
beside him questioned with a little bit arrogance.

“That's
how I play.” He looked at her with a smile.

“That's
how you play?” She shook her head and appeared to be with huge
disbelief.

There
were 6 players at the table and three of them already busted with 24,
22 and 25 points respectively. The second player stood on 18 and the
blonde got 20.

With
a King of Spades facing up, the dealer quickly showed his hole card.
It's a 4 of Hearts!

“Shit!”
Showing a little bit remorse, the “first base man”, a guy
sitting at the first spot and having a lot of hair and beard making
him look like Jesus, shook his head.

The
dealer continued to draw and busted with a 9 of Clubs.

He
won with only 12 points.

“Wow,
you got lucky!” The blonde continued to show her disbelief with a
little bit contempt.

“Stop
hitting at 12 despite the dealer's 10, Oh my God, you are
probably the only one in Bellagio or may be in the world to play like
that!” She kept on expressing how she felt a little bit louder in
order to be heard by everybody.

The
dealer continued to deal the next hand. This time around the “first
base man” got 19, the second player 18, the third player 16, the
fourth 20 , the blonde 14 and he, as the “third base man” got 14
as well.

The
dealer had a 9 of Diamonds up.

“Jesus”
and the second player stood on 19 and 18.

Having
got 16, the third player, scared by the dealer's 9, decided to
continue to hit and busted with a 10, losing his bet immediately.

With
an Ace and a 9 on the table, the fourth player seemed confident and
comfortable, sipping his Pina colada and waiting for getting paid.

Now
it's time for the blonde to make a decision.

Without
hesitation, she signaled to the dealer to continue to take card and
busted with a face card.

“Shoot!”
She cussed lightly in order not to be heard by anybody else.

With
14 points, he “passed” once again.

The
dealer quickly showed his face-down card. It was a 3!

The
dealer kept on drawing, getting another 3. Because the dealer
cannot stand on 15, so he continued to draw and got a 6 of Spades,
making all the players lose their bet.

“Shit!”
“Jesus”,who got 19 but still lost, appeared very upset.

“You
took his bust card! Had you stopped hitting, the dealer would have
got that face card. Everybody would have won.” Staring at the
blonde, he politely expressed his opinion, showing that he was not a
beginner.

“ How
do I know what he got? I think that's what Blackjack is about! No
guts, no glory! ” She responded immediately.

The
dealer continued to deal.

This
hand, “Jesus” got 20, the second player 16, the third 17, the
fourth 18, the blonde 15, and he got 14 points one more time.

The
dealer showed a Jack of Spades on the table.

After
losing to the dealer's 21 with his 19 last hand, “Jesus” seemed
more confident this time around with his 20.

The
second player decided to take a hit and busted with a 7.

The
third and the fourth stood on 17 and 18.

Now
the dealer looked at the blonde, waiting for her signal.

“What
do you think? Should I continue to hit? ” After seeing the
second player's fate, the pretty woman appeared a little hesitant,
because the bet she placed was $100, a lot more than her last hand's.

“It's
up to you, because it's your money. I really can't make a decision
for you.” He answered her questions without even looking at her.

“OK,
let me try something new this hand.” She signaled to the dealer to
refuse to hit and stood with 15 !

He,
the “third base man”, continued to stay with what he got as
usual.

The
dealer promptly turned over a 6 of Spades in the hole!

“Yeah!”
The blonde shouted and pumped her fist as if she already won.

The
dealer kept on drawing and busted with another face card.

Everybody
except the second player won.

“ Wow,
you beat the dealer twice with bad hands.” Looking friendly at him
with a smile, the blonde started showing a little bit respect for
him.

“Actually
I would have won three in a row, had you ...” He responded
immediately but didn't finish his sentence.

It's
time for the dealer to shuffle, so she continued to talk to him.

“I
really don't understand the way you play” the pretty and wealthy-
looking blonde continued to be very confused.

“you
got 12 and the dealer might have 20. Why you stopped hitting? You
know you were in a much better position to take a hit than those who
got 15 or 16. ” Obviously she was not dumb.

“Well,
first of all, how do you know the dealer got 20? Did you see his
hole card? No, so that's just what you guessed, may be a reasonable
guess, right? Second of all, if he got 20, do you think you could
beat him with your bad hand? OK, let's assume the dealer got 20,
then with 12 points, I need to get either 8 to tie his hand or 9 to
beat him. Only 8 or 9 is the card that I need. Anything else
would be useless. What about the probability of getting these cards?
You know how many 8s and 9s are there in a shoe? And how many 10s
are there in 8 decks of cards? Did you ever think about that? The
bottom line is if continuing to take a hit, I would more likely end
up busting with a 10 or getting a helpless card rather than getting a
useful card that I need. You have to keep in mind that in
Blackjack, if you bust, you lose. Even if the dealer busts later on,
you can't get your money back. That's the rule and that's a huge
disadvantage for the players and a huge advantage for the dealers.
He looked very serious.

“ But
if the dealer's hole card were a 7 or better, the way you play would
have you lose without a fight. Don't you think it's stupid? “ She
quickly raised another question to challenge him.

“ You
said it's stupid if we lose without a fight. But I think it's more
foolish if we get eliminated in the first round, losing the
opportunity to beat the dealer in the final round. Because no one
knows what the dealer's hole card is, therefore, all I want to do,
when playing this game, is that I don't want to lose my bet before
seeing the dealer's face-down card. OK, let's say if the dealer got
17 , 18, 19, or even 20 and so what? What's the big deal if we
just let him win? Would he get good hands all the shoe? Would we
get bad hands all the time? To be honest with you, I wouldn't be
unhappy to let the dealer take my bet away if his hand is better than
mine. Sometimes you have to let your opponent win to keep the
competition going. I think it's absolutely wrong, wrong, wrong,
wrong, wrong, and wrong for the players to expect to beat the dealer
in every hand they play. It's way too greedy and unrealistic.
They can't do that and no one can. According to my observations,
sometimes the way they play might help them to get what they want and
win but most of the time they don't, because of the low probability.
Playing aggressively, such as continuing to take a hit with 15 or
16 points, is absolutely insane. It's not what a savvy player
should do. We can't let our fear and greed dictate how we play.
As we've seen earlier, the way they play might even hurt other
players who play patiently and cautiously. “ Having talked a lot,
he guzzled his Budweiser to quench his thirst.

“Let
me tell you something. In a football game, you need to play as
aggressively as possible in both defense and offense. And yes, you
need to fight till the end in order to get a win. But that's not
necessarily the case when you play Blackjack. When playing
Blackjack, you don't need to fight to win. You don't need to play
like a running back. You don't need to overpower your opponent. You
don't need to make your hand strong enough to compete with the
dealer's. A lot of men play this game aggressively partly because
they want to show their manhood. No, players playing aggressively
without justified reason do not show their masculinity. They simply
expose their insanity and stupidity. Remember? In the last couple
of hands, some players lost with 19 or even 20 points. Some players
won with just 12,14,or 15. It showed clearly that you may not win
with good hand and you may not lose with bad hand. It all depends
on how you play. I believe you might have heard a lot about this
and that of how to play this game. Some people would probably tell
you that Blackjack is about beating the dealer. But I don't think
so. I firmly believe Blackjack is about not losing the opportunity
to beat the dealer. In other words, you always have to make
yourself advance to the final round. You always have to make
yourself a threat to the dealer. You always have to keep yourself to
stay alive before the showdown. It doesn't matter what you got. I
think losing the bet without even seeing the dealer's hole card is
sheer stupidity. It's totally unacceptable to me. That's what the
players should avoid doing. If you disagree, then you can go your
own way, playing as aggressively as you could and see what happens.
I bet you would lose your shirt very, very quickly, because you
don't have unlimited “bullets” to fight against the dealer.
”   Facing no further questions or challenges from the
blonde, he appeared to have taken over the conversation completely.

“You
know what? The most tricky part of this game is that the dealer may
be able to defeat all the players without even having to show his
hole card. I've seen that many times. I think that's a no-no for
the players to play like that. I have seen plenty of times that a
lot of players when playing aggressively on consistent basis lost all
their money in a very short period of time. It's horrible. The
game shouldn't be played that way. I
think the players need to understand that in this game or in any
other sports, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. No one can
keep winning all the time. It doesn't matter how skilled and how
talented you are. Particularly when playing a game which obviously
requires more luck than skill for the players to win, the players,
therefore, should avoid letting their “skill” dominate the way
they play. Playing as aggressively as they could absolutely is not a
skill. It's a recipe for disaster. In my opinion, as
long as the players are familiar with all the rules, fully
realize what their advantages and disadvantages are, and know exactly
when to do what to minimize their risk to lose and maximize their
odds to gain, then they are skilled enough to play this game.   But again, they
must be lucky enough to win regardless of how skilled they are
whatsoever. I have seen a lot of players blaming bad luck for their
loss and bragging about their skill for their win. I think that's
ridiculous. “ He talked a little faster, because the dealer was
about to finish shuffling.

“ How
about counting? Does counting the cards enhance our odds to win? “
Having been quiet for a while, she raised another question.

“
Number one, counting
may be helpful if you play single-deck. But if you play 8-deck
Blackjack, then how do you calculate risk in the first four or five
hands when a lot of cards are still left in the shoe? Number two,
even if a lot of cards have already been played, it does not
necessarily mean that you wouldn't get them. It's just an issue of
probability. What the probability can tell you when you count the
cards precisely is that you're less likely to get the cards which
have been played out a lot and that you're more likely to get the
cards which have not appeared many times. But that does not
necessarily mean that you would/wouldn't get them. Therefore,
counting the cards is still not risk-free. Number three, counting
may be against the rules set by the casino. If that's the case,
then you have to make sure you don't get caught. If you get caught,
then you could be in trouble. That's not what smart people should
do. Number four, counting is very stressful. You must be extremely
engrossed in your work in order not to lose count. But doing so
would probably deprive you of the pleasure of playing this game. I
don't think players should try to do this in order to make money that
way. I wonder what kind of pleasure could they get if players
play like that? Do they really believe they can make fast and easy
money from gambling? Do they really believe they can outsmart the
casinos? If that's the case, then a lot of people may be able to
accumulate their fortune by gambling and most casinos would be out of
business. Obviously that's not the case. Most gamblers when
stepping out of casinos would be losing instead of winning. Most of
them apparently fail to recognize that casino is not a place for them
to make money. It's a place for them to spend money. It's a place
where they can get relaxed to enjoy a lot of amenities provided by
the hotels and to see a lot of glamorous things they can't see in the
cities where they live. I think if they really want to be
speculating, putting their money in high risk/high return
investments, then stock markets, not casinos, would be a better
choice for them to place their bet. All they need to do is pick a
stock that may have potential to rise dramatically and wait. Even
if they made a mistake and got trapped, they are still one of the
small shareholders of a company. They might still have slim chance
to see their stocks to come back. But in casino gambling, if you
lose, you lose. You get nothing in return. The casinos wouldn't
give you any piece of shit to reward you for gambling there. My
advice is that if you really want to enjoy yourself when playing
Blackjack or any other games in the casinos, you have to change your
mindset and mentality. You'd better tell yourself that you would be
a winner if you could end up with a “break-even” status after
stepping out of casinos, because you have enjoyed a free of charge
service provided by the hotel and its staff members. To achieve
that goal, players should play patiently and cautiously in order not
to get wiped out prematurely. “