Hot dealers

20 August 2017

By John Grochowski

Every blackjack player has run into hot dealers.

You know the drill. You have blackjack, the dealer has blackjack. You feel good with your 20, but the dealer pulls 21. You double down with 11 vs. 6, draw a 7 for a decent enough 18, but the dealer strings out three or four low cards to beat you with 19 or better.

It’s frustrating, but we all go through it. Let’s take a look at some tales of hot dealers shared by readers.

BLAINE: Ever have a dealer try to warn you off before you even start? That’s what happened to me, and I was too thick to listen.

I’d been playing video poker and had a few big hands. No royals, but I had four aces a couple of times, including once with the kicker on Double Double Bonus, and there were few other quads.

I was up between $800 and $900, so I told my wife I was going to try a little blackjack. That used to be my main game, but I mostly stick to video poker now.

There was an empty $5 table, with two guys just leaving. I put a $100 bill down to buy in, and the dealer said, “You might want to try another table. I’ve been red hot. I just busted those two guys.”

He was mid-shoe in a six-deck game, so I figured maybe the worst was over and the players’ cards were still in the shoe. No such luck. I lost my first eight hands, and it never got much better.

I’m just thankful the dealer didn’t give me a big “I told you so” as he took the last of my $100.

STEVE: This is more of a "dealer had been hot but I did OK anyway" story.

I had about an hour to kill before a breakfast meeting, and I took a seat at a blackjack player with two other players and a dealer named Aaron. They tried to warn me off. One said, “Aaron here has been tough on us,” and the other said, “Yeah, he’s been hot. Good luck.”

He wasn’t that tough on me. I won my first hand, won a double down on the second, had a couple of blackjacks all within the first 15 minutes.

The other two guys were both still losing, but they were pretty bad players. No basic strategy for them.

One of them gave me a high five after a blackjack and said, “Anyone who can beat Aaron is all right with us.”

Then Aaron spoke up. “He’s winning because he’s a real solid player. It’s not a guessing game with him.”

The high-five guy said, “Whatever, it’s working for him. I just wish you’d cool off against us.”

CONNIE: One night started with Yolanda dealing, and I won money. I was betting $10 a hand, sometimes up to $25 in good streaks, and I’d won about $250.

Then Kim came on, and she couldn’t lose. I took my bets down to $10 and left them there, but the losses still mount up when you lose four or five hands, feel lucky when you push one, then lose four or five more.

Kim kept apologizing. She’d get 21 and say, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I can’t control that.” Of course, she wasn’t getting any tokes with everybody losing.

It got down to where I was $10 ahead. I said, “Kim, you’re too tough for me,” and left. I wasn’t going to leave a loser when I was up so much,


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