Quote
Originally posted by: Boilerman
Rock'n Rick, I notice when a player makes an "unusual" hit causing the table to lose. Lots of folks notice this. Few of us, however, notice when the opposite happens. I do.
I've played exclusively blackjack on each of my 60 plus Vegas trips, and not once have I been upset with another players choice to hit or not to hit. In fact, when another player gets upset at such unusual play, I'll make certain to point out to the disgruntled player when the "unusual" hit creates a win. They each occur 50% of the time.
Right on, man !
When DonDiego is in a casino his foremost objective is to enjoy himself. He's been playing games since he was a little kid; growing up his older brother and he were the neighborhood hosts for playing all sorts of card games and board games like Rook and Flinch and Parcheesi and Park and Shop and Pirate and Traveler - sorta a precursor to Risk - and Monopoly.
And all along the idea of shaming someone from the table did not occur to him. He assumed everyone was there to enjoy himself. The only reason for ejecting someone from the game would be cheating or extreme ill-manners.
When he grew up, . . . to the extent that he has grown up, . . . he'd still enjoy a game of Monopoly with kids and/or adults, and Rummy/ Poker/Oh Hell/ etc. with family and friends.
And somewhere along the line DonDiego discovered casinos and Las Vegas.
As far as "serious gambling" goes, DonDiego limited himself to blackjack and NFL-wagering. He knows the odds at the other casino games cannot be beaten - at least not by DonDiego, so he'll play them either not-at-all or for low stakes to pleasurably while away the time. [Although, back in the last decade there was a company that offered some "slots" that one could improve one's odds at - a "submarine game" in which, like Battleship one could apply skill in the bonus shooting round and a "trivia" game where knowing the right answer paid off some. After a few years they vanished.]
But DonDiego digresses.
When he lived within a day's drive of Las Vegas DonDiego would study the NFL, before and during the season. he'd keep his own records and power rating for each team. He'd handicap each game. And occasionally, maybe 5 or 6 times during the season, he'd go to Las vegas to place some wagers. He'd walk around Downtown and along the Strip and note the odds at a bunch of sports books and narrow down his betting selections to a small handful. And then place them where he got the better odds and watch the games all afternoon Sunday.
Sometimes he won, sometimes he lost, lots of times he'd break even-or-nearly-so, and occasionally he won big.
He usually avoided the SuperBowl, but not always. In SuperBowl XXXII he thought the books had the wrong side and he placed a bundle on Denver+11 over GreenBay; Denver won 31-24. In SuperBowl XXXIV he placed lots of bets including St. Louis-7 over Tennessee and the UNDER, . . . and even a bunch of proposition bets and parlays at the Juarez Sports Book across the Mexican border from El Paso; he won every bet except he pushed on the side. But DonDiego digresses, . . . again.
Ok, . . . here's the point.
When DonDiego is in a casino his game of choice is Blackjack. He plays well. Sometimes he loses, sometimes he wins, . . . in fact, much of the time he wins.
And when he is at the table he hopes to i. enjoy the game and ii. win some money. Here is the most valuable lesson DonDiego can offer the aspiring table gambler: If one is at the table and something is sufficiently annoying that one is no longer enjoying the game, one should leave that table. This is easy in Las Vegas, there's lots of other tables one can go to, . . . but it still applies even in Deadwood and Pittsburgh, even if there aren't other tables.
Actually, poor old DonDiego is pretty laid back. And he doesn't wanna stand out at a table; if the table is low key and calm, he'll be likewise; if the table is energized, DonDiego'll join the party; if folks wanna chat DonDiego can be downright chatty. And even if someone is playing badly and "taking the dealer's bust card all the time" DonDiego'll just take the occasion to marvel at the variety displayed in human behavior.
Just as when he was a little kid unless someone at the table is cheating or extremely ill-mannered he is unlikely to be bothered, . . . and if he were he'd leave the table himself before trying to influence someone else to do so. n.b. This is especially the case if DonDiego detected someone cheating; DonDiego has no interest in sitting at a gaming table in Las Vegas if someone is cheating.
So a poor player is seldom the reason to leave the table, . . . although if there is another reason to leave, the bad player may serve as an apparent reason to leave.
All the above having been said, . . . DonDiego supposes the rationale that 50% of the time the poor player will "help the table" and 50% of the time the poor player will "hurt the table" may not tell the whole story. Especially, if for some reason one is varying one's bet, . . . say like Rainman's brother was, . . . one will occasionally have a large bet out and occasionally have a small bet out. DonDiego's observation is that the tendency among the poorest players, especially the one's that "take the dealer's bust card", is to hit too often as opposed to standing too often. So it may turn out that if the decks remaining were such as to favor placing a large bet, the skilled player might well find himself losing money as a result of someone else's bad play, even if the 50%-50% conclusion were true, because he'd lose more of his larger bets.
Even so, DonDiego would not shame another player. He might stay at the table; he might leave the table. It's not his job nor his personal inclination to shame anyone.
