We have all heard some of the weird and wonderful things that can happen at a blackjack table.
Let me tell you, I have been slapping cards for long enough to see some pretty strange, funny and straight up crazy wins at the table. So here are my top three craziest wins at the blackjack tables.
God protects drunks and idiots
The night was beginning to drag on by the time this bloke staggered up to my table. He had clearly put in a decent effort bending the elbow and managed some luck too along the way. He had a fistful of chips, and his two mates behind him had their arms loaded with a dizzying array of multi-coloured drinks.
The bloke with the fistful of chips slumped into the middle seat at the table and stacked his chips into one foot tall pillar, with the largest denomination on the bottom. I could see that he must have had some pretty decent drunken luck earlier because at the bottom of his pile were four $500 chips.
While talking to his mates behind him and swilling from their drinks, the bloke moved his pillar of chips across two boxes, leaving the bottom chip on each box: a $500 chip per box.
I waved my arm across the table and announced, “No more bets.” The bloke turned around to see the two $500 chips on the table and all the colour instantly drained from his face. It looked as though he had just been kicked in the pants department. Even in his drunken stupor I could see the terror in his eyes.
This bloke tried to kick up a stink and screamed for the Floor Manager and began to rabble on about not meaning to bet $1000. He thought he was betting $50!! The Floor Manager seemed to understand this bloke’s predicament before telling him that it is unfortunate but now that the game had commenced it was illegal to retract the bet.
There was nothing that could be done.
The bloke was furious and clearly growing sick in the stomach. His two mates behind him looked like stunned mullets. The Floor Manager remained at the table to see the outcome. The bloke waved his two hands away, terrified of busting. He had totals of 16 and 17. The bloke stood up at the table, like a heads-up game in poker.
My hole card was an eight. The next card I drew was a three, giving me a total of 11. I could see he thought he was doomed. But then, in rapid fire I drew a four and a King. I had busted and he had just won $1000. I’ve never seen a man swipe his chips off the table and run for the door quicker in all my days.
It just goes to show that God truly does protect drunks and idiots; luckily for that bloke, he was both.
The Hobo Legend
There’s an old legend of a hobo who would sit outside a casino begging. Drunks would stagger out and toss him a $2.50 or $5 chip every now and then.
One night, the hobo managed to collect $20 worth of chips. So he sauntered in to the main floor and found a lonely Blackjack table. He placed the minimum bet of $15 and threw $5 on Perfect Pairs just for a laugh.
On the first hand he got perfect 10’s, winning $150 on the pairs and $15 on the hand too. From there the legend goes that he punted on and on amassing a small fortune. Stopping only to order the finest whiskey and go to a restaurant and ordering a steak and a lobster.
His winning streak was so superb that he was welcomed into the high rollers room where he played on. He was even comped a room for the night. After gambling for 12 hours straight, he retired to his room for the most comfortable nights sleep he had had in years.
He woke up and hit the tables hard, losing the thousands he had made the night before.
The legend goes that he lost everything save for $100. As he sauntered out, a Floor Manager asked him why he had wasted all that money. He said, “The way I look at it, I started with nothing. I just had a great night and left with $100. It’s all good.”
The Run
Every now and then something amazing and unbelievable happens at a Blackjack table and one time, I was fortunate enough to bare witness to the truly mind blowing.
I was slaving away at a Blackjack table early one morning. So the table was full of barely conscious drunks and hardened gamblers. Not usually a great mix.
After a while, everyone at the table began to get excited, whispering among each other: how many is that now? How many hands has the dealer busted now? Five? Six? Seven in a row? No one was 100% sure, all everyone knew was that they liked it.
Then something even more astounding began to happen. Perfect Pairs were being hit around the table quicker than machine gun fire.
The howling and whooping coming from the table was electric. Everyone was ecstatic. Everyone in the casino had begun to cram in around the table, squabbling for a back bet or a piece of the Perfect Pairs.
45 minutes later the chip float had been completely cleaned out and a rush for more chips was delivered.
In that 45 minutes I would have won around seven or eight hands and just busted every other one. Dealer had too many!
