Monday, March 05, 2007

Poor blackjack play

I had forgotten about a $100 reload bonus that had been sitting in my Ladbrokes live casino account for a few weeks now, until I received a reminder via e-mail from them on Friday night. It's always nice to find money I'd forgotten I had, kinda like find a cash in an old pair of jeans.


Ladbrokes live is one of those casinos that uses webcams to allow players to experience real-time play of blackjack, roulette, sic bo and baccarat.

Anyways, I logged in at around 2am local time, found an empty table and started to play ($400 total wagering requirement with an EV of +$98). I chatted with the croupier briefly, she was from the Dominican Republic and just happened to be very attractive (see photo).

Within a few minutes the table started to fill up, here's a selection of some of the classy comments from other players:

"Great rack Cindy"
"Massive Titz, I like big titz"
"Can you lean forward some more?"

Why she didn't call the pitboss over is beyond me.

I don't get to play blackjack with other players very often. I can't card-count, so live casino blackjack is -EV for me. Why would I make a habit of that? I play at private tables online because other players just slow the action down so much. Time is money after all.

Some of the strategy from the other players at ladbrokes was just pure comedy (for a geek like me). Within 10mins I had seen the full array of common mistakes.....refusing to hit on 12-16 when the dealer shows 7-10, splitting tens, doubling down on ten when the dealer shows an ace, not doubling down on 9,10,11 etc etc.

I know for majority of these guys playing cards is purely entertainment, but I don't get why they wouldn't want to learn to play blackjack properly. They turn a 99.5% return game into a 95% return game, which from my point of view (and the casinos) is fantastic of course, so I'm not complaining.

After completing my requirements I ended up +$155, apologised to Cindy on behalf of the other players, and hit the cashout button. The funds hit my neteller account 6hrs later.

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