Recently in Las Vegas, more than 60 of the sharpest blackjack players from around the world, with a few other successful gamblers invited as well, got together with their guests for an evening of socializing, drinking champagne, and competing against each other. We voted to select the newest member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame. The last man standing in the skills contest won the Grosjean Cup. The names of both of these winners will be recognizable to most of my readers.
The ballot for the Blackjack Hall of Fame, alphabetized by first name, included Anthony Curtis, Blair Hull, Cat Hulbert, Lance Humble, Maria “The Greek,” Mark Billings, Mike Michalek, Norm Wattenberger, and Richard Dougherty.
This was a strong list of nominees, and the votes were evenly split — with the exception of Anthony Curtis, who more than his closest two competitors put together. Often these votes are very close. Not this year.
Each year, before we play the game of 21 Questions, we have a Calcutta hosted by Max Rubin. A Calcutta is method of betting on which teams are going to win the competition. Teams are created out of players attending such as Hall of Fame Members, MIT Team, Gambling Writers, Lawyers, Players from Florida, etc. A particular player could conceivably be listed on two or more teams, but the individual names are listed so everybody knows.
The “field,” is everybody who isn’t otherwise listed. It’s often a good bet because there are so many players on this team and the questions are often out of left field, so you never know who is going to win.
I was the first bidder for the field, and my $4,000 bet was bigger than usual for starting out. The bid eventually got up to $7,500. It was by far the largest bet out of the $28,060 total prize pool.
Players on the teams were entitled to buy up to half of themselves back. Several field members bought $100 worth of the action. It turned out to be a good bet as it returned about $150.
For the competition to determine which five players get into the skills contest, there are 21 questions. As is my custom, I submitted 30-some possible questions, and five were chosen for the contest. (I am ineligible to compete, of course. With a five-question head start, I’d have too much of an unfair advantage.) I’ll include here the two that relate to video poker.
True or False. In Deuces Wild video poker, any pay schedule, you are exactly 10 times as likely to be dealt a wild royal flush (i.e. a royal flush containing one, two, or three deuces) than you are to be dealt four deuces.
Answer: True: Out of the roughly 2.6 million starting hands, 48 of them give you four deuces and 480 of them result in being a dealt wild royal flush.
In which of the following video poker games would the value of a suited AK be greater than the value of a suited AQ?
a. Triple Bonus Poker
b. Triple Bonus Poker Plus
c. Triple Double Bonus Poker
d. A suited AK is always more valuable than a suited AQ in these games
e. A suited AK is never more valuable than a suited AQ in these games
Answer: A. Triple Bonus Poker is the only game where AK is better than Ace Queen, because in that game, you get paid for kings or better, while in the other two games, you get paid for jacks or better, meaning AK or AQ are equal.
My readers, on average, are more knowledgeable about video poker than were most of the people at the ball. And some of you, I’m sure, missed one or both of these. There were also other questions much harder than these, and scores were lower than usual this year.
Dustin Cummings was a guest invited by the richest horse player in the world. Although Dustin had never played a hand of blackjack in his life, he got the highest score in 21 Questions. So, he was the first to get into the skills contest.
Second and third place went to David Y and Dunbar, who has created bankroll analyzers for both blackjack and video poker. Blackjack Hall of Famer Arnold Snyder. We needed two more players to fill out the competition and there were three tied for fourth place including two Blackjack Hall of Famers and one writer — Rob Reitzen, Las Vegas Review-Journal gambling writer Todd Dewey, and Arnold Snyder.
The tie-breaker question was, “Name one of the United States that offers legal blackjack. A duplicate answer or repeat answer means the other two players get to go to the finals.” Starting positions were chosen by lot, with the worst position being the first — since in each round you get the chance to be eliminated first. Rob Reitzen drew the short straw and went first — and after numerous rounds said “Texas,” which doesn’t have legal blackjack. So Todd and Arnold joined Dustin, David, and Dunbar as the five participants in the skills contest.
Three of the five finalists (Dustin, Dunbar, and Todd) were members of the field. Although the finals only pay off four places, at least two of them were guaranteed winners for whomever bought them in the Calcutta.
The first skills test involved estimating the number of cards in a discard tray. There were 111 cards (slightly more than two decks). Dustin made the worst guess, which is not surprising as he has never played the game and hasn’t practiced the skill. Dustin’s departure left four in the skills contest.
The second skills test involved placing a specific card (the five of spades — which always started on the bottom of a single deck) as the dealer’s second card by correctly placing the cut card in the deck. Each would then choose the number of players to deal to, knowing the top card was always burned.
For those who have a tough time visualizing this, if you chose five players, then you’d want to cut the card 13 deep, as one card is burned, each player and the dealer (six total people) would receive two cards, with the dealer receiving the last one. If you chose six players, you’d try to cut 15 cards deep. With seven players, you’d need to cut 17.
As it turned out, the first three players (Todd, Arnold, Dunbar) all missed by three spaces. David Y missed by four spaces and was eliminated. Fourth place money (going to whomever bought him in the Calcutta) was $2,806.
The third skills test involved accurately counting down, using Hi Lo, two decks of cards from which three were removed. Speed matters and accuracy matters. With equal accuracy, the slowest person would be out. If only one person was inaccurate, that person lost no matter how fast he was.
The fastest counter was Dunbar — who also turned out to be an accurate counter. Between Arnold and Todd, it was really close as to who was the slower. In previous years, players were instructed to slam down the cards when they were finished, so it is much easier to tell the order. This year no such order was given. Richard Munchkin (who was the dealer at the final table) judged that Arnold Snyder was about a second faster than Todd Dewey. I was standing right next to Richard and agreed with his judgement.
It turned out that neither Todd nor Arnold were accurate in their count, but since Todd was the slower of the two, he was eliminated in third place, where the prize was $4,209. Had Todd been a teensy bit faster, or more accurate, he would have gone on and Arnold would have been eliminated.
The last skills test involved identifying 12 one-inch square card centers with pieces of kings, queens, and jacks from all four suits. James Grosjean used a version of this test at last years ball, and, surprisingly, it reappeared again this year.
Each contestant got plus numbers for being correct and minus numbers for guessing wrong. At last year’s ball, the average score was negative. This time Dunbar received a score of +4. An excellent score that would have won last year. Arnold Snyder, however, came in with an amazing score of +8.
Dunbar received the second-place award (The Richard Munchkin Award) and the owner of the field received $7,015. The grand prize winner was Arnold Snyder who won the James Grosjean award, and the owner of his team won $14,030.
There were engraved bottles of Luc Belaire Champagne for both of the two top winners, plus James Grosjean presented a secret award to the winner. When Arnold opened it up, I could see it was a thumb drive. What was contained on that thumb drive, I don’t know.
On Thursday, March 5, we’ll be airing a Gambling with an Edge podcast including Arnold Snyder (James Grosjean Cup winner), Anthony Curtis (newest inductee into the Blackjack Hall of Fame), Max Rubin (the host of the Blackjack Ball), along with Richard and me.
Join us!
Ahh . . . I miss the old days.
How fast was the fastest speed count hi/lo with 2 decks ? Mines around 42 seconds just wondering with all those greats if I’m close …Awesome Segment…Kudos to the winners.
Mike, I don’t know how fast we counted down the two decks. I was surprised I finished 1st. I was trying to take no chances on making an error. I finished at most 2 seconds faster than Arnold and Todd, and possibly just 1 sec faster.