Two Hole Cards

I wasn't ready for this. Recently, playing Spanish 21, I asked myself, "Self, did you just catch a glimpse of some pips?" I knew this dealer, he had dealt to me many times before, nothing unusual. It took me three or four more hands to figure out what he was doing. I don't know if the dealer was sick, or about to have a stroke, or inebriated, but instead of sliding the card from the shoe, he would lift it and place it in front of him. Uh, ok. But there still was something not quite right. It seemed he was flipping over the wrong card to be his hole card, backwards from usual procedure. Hmmmm. Naturally, I stopped worrying about counting or strategy, I just glued my gaze in his direction. At times, I was seeing BOTH cards. Not that I needed to know both cards, just one. lol I've never seen anything like this. I got about twenty more minutes from him, and made some decent plays. Like standing on 16 v paint instead of surrendering, when I saw a small card underneath. I made a few mistakes, but made some decent plays, that looked natural. For instance, I hit 12 even though I knew he had 13 with a paint face up, I just couldn't bring myself to stand on 12 against a paint. I wasn't going to attract any heat anyway, no one was paying any attention I'm sure. I knew it wasn't going to last long, but I don't know what the dealer's problem was. And I never figured it out, either. He went to break after the deal, but it was about midnight and he never came back, so maybe it was shift change. I dunno, maybe he died. It was weird. Very weird. As I say, I've been dealt by him many times in the past. I would have noticed, or SOMEONE would have noticed, if this was his customary manner.

It takes me a few hours to drive there, so I ain't going to rush up there again just for that.

I do hope he's ok, and not about to have a stroke or something. Seems like something was wrong with him. I'm going to feel bad if I find out that he did die or have a stroke. But what was I supposed to do? Go find management and tell him I'm hole-carding his dealer, TWICE each deal, and they might need to get the medic? I dunno, maybe I should've. A situation I wasn't prepared for.

Strange.

Shortly after I moved to Vegas, I was playing a BJ game, just counting for tiny stakes. Dealer was fine, he went on break, came back 20 minutes later, and I swear he did heroin in the bathroom or some sh**. His eyes were damn near closed the entire time. He'd deal cards way to my left, way to my right, oftentimes the cards weren't even near each other.

If I lost, he'd basically put his hand on the felt near him, then feel around the felt until he found my chips. If I won, he'd just plop down some chips somewhere near me, but he wasn't doing the whole "size into the chips" like what a dealer is supposed to do. IIRC, he was even paying me with an extra chip here or there, but it was a long time ago. I vaguely remember it was super +EV straight up, think he may have been, like he was giving me extra green (instead of red) from time to time.

Anyway, I hadn't even considered he may have had an actual problem. I just figured he did some heroin in the break room. But now that I think about it, seems like he could'a had a stroke or something. Hope he's okay, too. =/

I once played poker against this rich businessman from New York. He was Latino or something and looked like an actor or news anchor or something with puffy hair and huge, capped teeth. He sounded like a news anchor too and would robotically say things as though they were announcements. It was kind of like a video game cuz he would just kind of occasional blurt out these canned phrases that were kind of relevant but unnatural. Imagine Ricardo Montoban just sporadically saying things like, "well, thatss the way she goess."

Anyway, he was a little drunk but not blind and he chose to demonstrate his contempt for the stakes we were playing by rarely checking his cards till the river.

However, though he wasn't looking at his cards, I could at least one and usually both when he picked them up and moved them in front of him. I was sitting ACROSS the table from him.

Profitable game. He grew more and more frustrated with losing and after running through all his money with several rebuys he said, "You gentlemen take this game too seriously. I am going to make love to my wife," and left.

Ten years or so ago, I played at the IP quite a bit. This was pre--Harrahs and they had some decent games.
My dealer was an older Asian woman who seemed like she'd been there forever.
It was the last shift before her long awaited vacation( taking grandkids on a cruise) and she asked a suit if she could end her overnite shift a little early. He said he'd see and walked away. She got agitated and her play got erratic. After he returned and told he he couldn't spare her,cards went flying every which way. As did chips.
First time I ever made money off an angry dealer.

Quote: bobbartop

I wasn't ready for this. Recently, playing Spanish 21, I asked myself, "Self, did you just catch a glimpse of some pips?" I knew this dealer, he had dealt to me many times before, nothing unusual. It took me three or four more hands to figure out what he was doing. I don't know if the dealer was sick, or about to have a stroke, or inebriated, but instead of sliding the card from the shoe, he would lift it and place it in front of him. Uh, ok. But there still was something not quite right. It seemed he was flipping over the wrong card to be his hole card, backwards from usual procedure. Hmmmm. Naturally, I stopped worrying about counting or strategy, I just glued my gaze in his direction. At times, I was seeing BOTH cards. Not that I needed to know both cards, just one. lol I've never seen anything like this. I got about twenty more minutes from him, and made some decent plays. Like standing on 16 v paint instead of surrendering, when I saw a small card underneath. I made a few mistakes, but made some decent plays, that looked natural. For instance, I hit 12 even though I knew he had 13 with a paint face up, I just couldn't bring myself to stand on 12 against a paint. I wasn't going to attract any heat anyway, no one was paying any attention I'm sure. I knew it wasn't going to last long, but I don't know what the dealer's problem was. And I never figured it out, either. He went to break after the deal, but it was about midnight and he never came back, so maybe it was shift change. I dunno, maybe he died. It was weird. Very weird. As I say, I've been dealt by him many times in the past. I would have noticed, or SOMEONE would have noticed, if this was his customary manner.

It takes me a few hours to drive there, so I ain't going to rush up there again just for that.

I do hope he's ok, and not about to have a stroke or something. Seems like something was wrong with him. I'm going to feel bad if I find out that he did die or have a stroke. But what was I supposed to do? Go find management and tell him I'm hole-carding his dealer, TWICE each deal, and they might need to get the medic? I dunno, maybe I should've. A situation I wasn't prepared for.

You were definitely not supposed to go to management, but I would've just tried to make conversation, and be like, "are you feeling alright? you look pale..."

Quote: bobbartop

I wasn't ready for this. Recently, playing Spanish 21, I asked myself, "Self, did you just catch a glimpse of some pips?" I knew this dealer, he had dealt to me many times before, nothing unusual. It took me three or four more hands to figure out what he was doing. I don't know if the dealer was sick, or about to have a stroke, or inebriated, but instead of sliding the card from the shoe, he would lift it and place it in front of him. Uh, ok. But there still was something not quite right. It seemed he was flipping over the wrong card to be his hole card, backwards from usual procedure. Hmmmm. Naturally, I stopped worrying about counting or strategy, I just glued my gaze in his direction. At times, I was seeing BOTH cards. Not that I needed to know both cards, just one. lol I've never seen anything like this. I got about twenty more minutes from him, and made some decent plays. Like standing on 16 v paint instead of surrendering, when I saw a small card underneath. I made a few mistakes, but made some decent plays, that looked natural. For instance, I hit 12 even though I knew he had 13 with a paint face up, I just couldn't bring myself to stand on 12 against a paint. I wasn't going to attract any heat anyway, no one was paying any attention I'm sure. I knew it wasn't going to last long, but I don't know what the dealer's problem was. And I never figured it out, either. He went to break after the deal, but it was about midnight and he never came back, so maybe it was shift change. I dunno, maybe he died. It was weird. Very weird. As I say, I've been dealt by him many times in the past. I would have noticed, or SOMEONE would have noticed, if this was his customary manner.

It takes me a few hours to drive there, so I ain't going to rush up there again just for that.

I do hope he's ok, and not about to have a stroke or something. Seems like something was wrong with him. I'm going to feel bad if I find out that he did die or have a stroke. But what was I supposed to do? Go find management and tell him I'm hole-carding his dealer, TWICE each deal, and they might need to get the medic? I dunno, maybe I should've. A situation I wasn't prepared for.

You STFU and bet big! 😉