A Question on This and That

14 March 2024

By Royal Flushes

CINDY: Okay, what do you think the right answer is to this and that?

ABBY: You have to tell me what this and that is before I would know the right answer or the wrong answer.

CINDY: You are shooting the dice and you have hit 3:3 which is a 6 obviously; you did it twice in succession. What do you do? Do you bet 3:3 as a single bet, add more to your wagers by putting some more money on a place bet of the 6 or what? You are in the midst of playing. What do you do.

ABBY: I don’t do anything other than what I had been doing. Because I hit that 3:3 is meaningless. The game is random and I must realize that. I make the bets I am going to make and I leave it at that.

CINDY: What is the Paroli system? Why don’t you use that?

ABBY: We now call that way of playing parlaying a bet. You take your win and increase your original bet in order to make more money. You can just put the whole win on top of your previous bet or do so partially.

CINDY: And you have no inkling of wanting to do that?

ABBY: The younger me would do it, at least maybe, especially if I were ahead of the game when this doubling of 3:3 happened. I was not as smart then as I am now – at least in this regard. But decades of play have taught me that many instincts of casino players can be absolutely wrong. The desire to increase one’s bet in a random game is usually not a good idea. So, parlaying would be out now, completely out.

CINDY: Very good.

ABBY: But now I ask you something, maybe a difficult something. Ready?

CINDY: Ready, willing and hopefully able. Go girl!

ABBY: You are playing blackjack at a full table and the dealer is hammering the players. Now he deals himself a two-up-card and you have a 12, what do you do? Do you stand, or hit? Let me make this worse for you. The people at the table want you to stand because they think the dealer will hit and bust. Not too many ten-valued cards have come out recently and one loudmouth points this fact out.
Just about all the other players are saying that you should stand. What do you do?

CINDY: I already don’t like that loudmouth. I’ve run into him over the years that I’ve played blackjack. Oh, yes, that fellow is out there all right. The correct play is to hit and I will hit the hand.

ABBY: I am not yet finished. You bust with a 10-valued card; the dealer hits his 12 and gets a 9 card and he wins and beats the whole table. Everyone is moaning. What now?

CINDY: Do I have a gun?

ABBY: I am being serious. They are all moaning, the players, and the loudmouth states emphatically that players like you should be banned from playing blackjack. The dealer is just ignoring all of this. What now?

CINDY: I just sit there and get my next hand and play basic strategy. I do not like to be the villain of the story but I have to play the right way. And I will play the right way.

ABBY: And now you get another…

CINDY: Don’t you dare give me a 12 against the dealer’s 2 again.

ABBY: I love you, sister, so I will deal you a blackjack and give the loudmouth the 12 against the dealer’s 2! Let him ponder that.

CINDY: Thank you.