Heard it on the River: Myths part of the game

4 October 2011

By Rudi Schiffer

They come from far away with money in their pockets and stars in their eyes looking for the Golden Fleece. They wander up to a blackjack table a bit tentatively and slide into a seat after watching the play for awhile. Your suspicion is confirmed when they hold the cards they are dealt with both hands until the dealer points out the error of their play.

Then the fun begins and the experienced players stetting at the table get a little uneasy…will this new guy screw up the game for them. ..did he bring a barrel of bad luck. Sit tight wise players because luck is what it is and a new player with little game knowledge might even bring good luck to the table. What happens is based on the decisions of each player and one loser does not mean you all go down with with him. Heck, I’ve seen new players make mistakes and rack up chips.

Was at that the Horseshoe Tunica, MS , one night when a slightly inebriated good ol’ boy from the sticks was whacking the house with some of the most ludicrous bets I have ever witnessed And he was playing with black chips and tossing them around like they were pennies.

He was dealt a pair of tens and the dealer showed an ace. He split them and players around him groaned but held their comments since this boy in greasy overalls was about 260.. Big boy got tens on his tens and was sitting pretty while the dealer turned over an 8 to go with his ace. Never split tens was on their minds. Everybody else on the table busted out.

The joker kept laughing as he made wrong move after wrong move but kept on winning. He had me laughing as he checked out with over $7,500 that was built from only $600.00. I was playing correct basic strategy and didn’t make a nickel. So much for the commonly held myth that you shouldn’t sit on a table with a wild player who makes his own rules and follows no strategy.

But myths are part of the game and create a lot of comment. Much has been written about these so-called myths so you are not going to get a tired rehash of this area. Go google the subject if you want to learn more but if you are a player, you heard it all. If you play basic strategy and get some breaks, you can win, or lose. In the long run you will have some fun and make some up myths of your own along the way like my pet myth…use a simple card counting strategy and you will beat the house. Good luck, loser.