My old BP “Santi” made a comment about one of our fabulous comeback wins, a quality game where we were down to the felt—no chips, no cash, no time. Well, almost. We had a little cash, a little time, and a big edge. It really was a phenomenal comeback, a fun time, and a happy memory, except for one thing. I don’t really remember it.
Now that Santi reminds me of it, I can say that I do vaguely recall being down to 400 bucks and making an incredible comeback, but if you told me, “Then that one-eyed transvestite sat in your lap and started betting with your chips,” I’d say, “Yeah, that sounds familiar, I’m starting to remember.”
Some of the details that a rookie would think are so unforgettable are, in fact, completely forgettable, at least to me. It’s interesting to see what aspects of a play are remembered over time. I’m curious what others experience in this area, but for me, I can strongly say that the first thing that is forgotten is the actual hands. Blackjack is not an interesting card game. It is not interesting to play, and it is not interesting to analyze (relative to deeper games like poker, gin, GOPS). The only reason we are aware of the game at all is because it’s played for money.
We had a strong hole-card game years ago, and our crew probably won around $500k on it over numerous sessions, with a final hit of $225k ($190k for our crew, and $35k for another crew for whom we had made an accommodation). Of the numerous sessions and thousands of hands that we played in all, there is only one hand that I remember. One. My BP had a $5000 bet and received AA v. T7 in this NoRSA pitch game. Against a hard 17, the play by the book is to hit the Aces, but not splitting a pair of Aces is unusual, so we have to factor in the heat risk to ourselves and the game. Because it was a handheld game, no one would realize that the BP even had AA, until the final settlement of the hand or until he busted. There were no other players at the table, no boss standing nearby, and no heat in prior sessions. We always weigh many factors when picking our spots. I hesitated, but decided to hit the AA. The first hit card—2. Already, I’m thinking that had we split, the A2 would be a $5000 loser against the dealer’s 17. But we’ll see what the next hit card brings. The next hit card—2. Now I’m happy, because splitting would have resulted in a $10000 loss on the hand, but now we’ve got AA22 with hits coming. The next two hits are 66, giving us AA2266, a winning 18, an outcome $15000 better than the alternative of splitting. Obviously the expected profit of hitting vs. splitting is not that great a difference, but I was happy that we were rewarded in real dollars given the heat risk we took on the hand.
And that’s why the hand is memorable—the heat risk. The money we won was nice, but we’ve made bigger bets, had much bigger single-round wins, and had bigger session outcomes. The cards were interesting, but way less so than some of the rare hands I’ve had in card play over the years (an eight-card hard 17, a community Royal Flush in Ultimate Texas Holdem, QhQh vs. dealer BJ in Lucky Ladies, etc.). In the biggest single-session win of my career, I remember not a single hand.
Even the session wins are not memorable. My main BP recently reminded me of two back-to-back $50k wins we had against the same dealer. I had no recollection of either session, and only vaguely remember that the two sessions did occur. You know why I don’t even remember those wins? It’s not because we’re so wealthy that $100k in a two-day period is a trivial amount of money—I wish that were so! To the contrary, I think that was a significant win by almost anyone’s standards, but the sessions were completely forgettable, because there was no heat.
If you have a high edge from skill, preparation, and hard work, then beating the card game is always a trivial task. The wins, even the occasional sizeable wins, are routine and numerous. Remembering wins is like remembering what you had for breakfast every day for the last decade—irrelevant and quickly forgotten, or never remembered in the first place.
The memorable part, for me, is the heat. Because we execute smoothly, most sessions come and go with no heat at all, or perhaps a bit of sweat (which is different from heat). Major heat is rare, serious, and stressful—hence memorable. I can remember the words that were said to me from every backoff I’ve ever had (the first real one: “This is a gambling hall, but we don’t want to gamble with you, so from now on, you’re on a flat-bet.”)
Most of the hands I remember are the hands where there was a heat risk, or actual heat (such as when I had Santi stand on a 12 vs. dealer Ten up, 5 in the hole at the Westward Ho). I remember how angry I was when one of my teammates hit a hard 17 in Biloxi, after he had already tucked the hand (he untucked and hit). I remember when Wheelchair split Tens at the Silver Legacy fifteen years ago. I remember seeing Wheelchair do a $500 money-plays double down on A9 v. T4 at the El Cortez back then, too. I remember having to fold something like KKA and AK3 suited against a dealer’s 876 with “cardfan” at the Hollywood in Tunica. On all of those hands, there was heat, or the potential for heat.
The dealers, the sessions, the amounts–as irrelevant as past weather. Am I the only one suffering from blackjacknesia? If it weren’t for the heat, I might not remember anything at all.
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I remember that Ho-lly-w-ood session. We first folded the AK3 suited on the grounds that I could play dumb and say I didn’t notice the flush but then I think we ate the KKA for cover.
Another session memorable not for the result but for the pit interaction was the one in Southern Indiana when the boss made the dealer give you a purple chip to reimburse you for the losing pair of queens he talked you out of folding at Caribbean Stud.
As I recall of the Southern Indiana play, I had a small pair 44xxx, and we knew the dealer had 55xxx. I folded the hand, but the freewheeling boss (maybe his name will come to me) scooped up my cards and looked at them. He asked, “You’re folding a pair of Fours?” I said, “It’s pretty small, you think I should play it?” I think the dealer had a 5 as the upcard, and we knew she had paired up. So I played the hand at his urging, and then when the hand lost, the boss a moment later did tell the dealer to give me back the money, since I had already folded the hand before he interceded to coax me into playing it. That’s a great example, because you’re right–that hand is the only one that I remember from that session, and I do not remember the financial result of the session at all (did we win a couple thousand maybe?) The reimbursement from the boss was perhaps one of the sportiest gestures I’ve experienced in my career. That particular game was critical in the history of modern APing, because the verbal codes still widely used today were largely developed over dinner at the steakhouse there (the same boss assured us that the cook would give us a special meal preparation).
codes still widely used today were largely developed over dinner at the steakhouse there
Nice history lesson : )
BTW, my recollection of the Ho_llywo_od play is this: I’m sitting in maybe Seat 4 or Seat 5, with you next to me on my right. The dealer’s cards are coming one at a time, with the first two being 87. The third card is a 6, but I know that even if there is a 6/9 error (not one that I am prone to make, but some of my teammates have a recurring problem with that), the dealer still has a Straight. Cardfan picks up his hand first, and I look at it and see the suited AK3 (the third card may have been some other small card). We consider pretending that cardfan didn’t see the Flush, but my idea (a standard practice) is that if we muck both of our hands together, the dealer will be less likely to examine the pile of six cards and figure out what our individual hands were. THEN, I pick up my own hand, and see the KKA, and realize that even if we mix our cards when mucking, the dealer will see all big cards, and know that our hands had to be big hands. But we’re betting 2x$200, and the $400 we would lose if we Play both hands for cover seems too great. There is still a chance that the dealer won’t look at the hands, and we’re probably leaving town shortly. My recollection is that we mucked both hands and then bailed (I know we were strongly considering this move, but I’m not sure if we did it!). I don’t know whether the dealer saw the hands or not, but: we did get flyered by Hol_lyw_ood from that trip, and the info went into Griffin.
Here are my thoughts on this-(and the disclaimer that I am less experienced compared to you 🙂
Remembering something and the “ability to remember” something are two different things. (Einstein famously wrote his own phone number on a piece of paper as there was no reason to remember it) . For most APs, the ability to consciously remember and consciously forget is an important skill. In that spirit, there is no reason to remember any particular hand. Something extra ordinary has to happen for the hand “pop up” in our consciousness way after it has occurred. -Usually this happens when there is something extra-ordinary and usually requires two things to happen simultaneously. A few things that come to mind-
a) Exposed card and big money combination
b) Unusual play like “heat” related play and big money play that you mentioned
c) Mispays on something ridiculous as a 16 for example and big money combo
d) Very unusual hands like dealt royal
If you think of this another way, civilians remember hands very well. That is likely because they do not have to focus on anything else and remembering extra-ordinary hands is what they get enjoyment from.
I can barely remember the last round dealt to me let alone other hands.(unless there is a special reason:-)
The ones I remember are
a) My partner and I both getting straight flushes on the same hand of UTH
b) When I used to count for decent stakes, getting more than my share of high cards for the count (6 of the 7cards on my side (including A splits) were aces or faces) and yet I lost money on the round. I have already forgotten the hand but remember betting 2*1200 or something.
c) I remember what I want to remember. (and this applies to other APs I would llike to think). Some session results , some dealers, some locations are more in the consciousness for various reasons that are somhow linked to either game quality or heat – For one it affects the decision of waiting time between sessions.
Steve Waugh
Flashbulb memory is a term commonly used in Psychology. It is tough to remember how sessions played out or how a particular hand played out over the months, years, and 1000’s of hands later. Something has to happen that is out of the ordinary, such as where you were at when 20010911 happened, the birth of a first child, your first day of college, a weekend in the CCDC when you have done nothing wrong.