Your First BlackJack Session

What was your first day playing Blackjack like? I remember when I turned 21 we went up to Four Winds. I was given 20, made it 120, then lost it all before the end of the night.

I remember it was a school night and I went to one of the closest casinos with my mom. I don't remember if I won or lost, but I loved it. Didn't play slots only blackjack. Remember feeling in awe at all the lights and sound. It was a great time.

In college, we used to hit a couple of so-called Las Vegas night's a week. We'd get mailings with $5 or $10 in free chips and go, play them once and leave. Minimum wage was $1.85 and we could make 10-15 in two hours, and some weeks pull in $100. One night, we decided to stick around and play $2 BJ. I was clueless to basic strategy but somehow turned $10 into $25 in about two hours.
Most places had $5 minimums and that was too rich for me. After a few months, we had a dozen people doing the hit and run thing and they caught on and shut us down. I'm surprised it took them that long as we were pretty blatant about it.

1978. Atlantic City shortly after Resorts opened.

Sat down at a $5 table, bought in for $50. Waitress in low-cut costume comes over, I order a coke. By the time she came back I was down to a single $2.50 pink chip. Took my drink, got up from the table. No tip.

My wife was amazed. "You can get free sodas here?"

"No," I replied, "I just paid $47.50 for this coke."

First Casino Blackjack session was at Binion's Late April '82. Shoe Game day time mid week 6 decks S17 DAS DA2 LS $10 minimum. What I don't remember is if I had to put up maximum bet on first hand. I know it was a House Rule in pitch games. Anyway in with 2 Benjamins out with 290 in about 45 min. That nite in with 250 and out with 350. So +150 on first day of 21. I had one $20 Blackjack day and a $10 one at nite.

Regards
Suited89

First time playing blackjack: $25 double deck in the "high limit" room of a casino that was also a boat. Bought in for $500 and had a target win goal of $500. Won $500, ate some mini sandwiches that were in HL for the players, then left. I believe I was counting properly, with some of the I18, but had no clue on bankroll/RoR/kelly. Got lucky, stuck with it.

Bank in on those sandwiches man.

Still playing my first and only blackjack session. Don’t remember much about it, nothing really out of the ordinary has happened. Win some hands, lose some hands, other humans doing things humans do.

I had just turned 18 and my family took me on a vacation to Atlantis in the bahamas. Was fooling around on some slot machines and made about $50 from my initial $20.

Went to find my folks who were at the tables and up about $450. My Dad gave me another $50 and I played it on the nearest Blackjack table only to hit A-K spades. Took the $75 and went to the cashier. Spent that money on drinks, cigars and souvenirs the rest of the trip.

Funny, I can clearly remember my first roulette session (when I was 18 on a casino boat out of the Port of Palm Beach) and my first craps session (when I was 20 on a casino boat out of Port Everglades), but I can't quite place my first BJ session. I think it was between these two occasions on another casino boat.

As I recall, I won my both first roulette and craps sessions. I must have lost my first BJ session since I can't recall it!

Played $1 BJ with my dad at the Horseshoe in Reno back when the tables were exposed to Virginia Street—separated only by an air conditioning “air wall.”

They used $1 slot tokens instead of chips, and I was down a few units most of the time. I recall thinking that it wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be.

It was nice sitting with my dad and playing “for real” though. Only my last Reno trip, I sat at a $25 pai gow tiles table, and to my surprise, my father-in-law joined me for a few hands. I think it was because he knew about the game but never had the opportunity to play it—and because it was only me there, it was less intimidating. It was nice sitting and playing with him too.

That's pretty sweet. :)

July 1976: I had just finished grad school on the West Coast and decided to take a cross-country motorcycle trip (for those of you into bikes it was a BMW R-60/5). One leg of my route was from Oakland to Salt Lake via Reno. If you've every ridden a motorcycle long distances, you know that any excuse to take a break and get off the bike is welcomed. Checking out a casino for the first time was therefore part of my plans from the beginning. A college friend of mine was a frequent visitor to Reno to play BJ and from him I had heard about Thorpe's book. A month or so before heading out I picked up a copy and spent some time learning the basic strategy.
I don't remember the name of the casino (probably the first one I saw) but I think I was playing a $5 table. There was a constant offering of free drinks by the cocktail waitresses but I stuck to OJ figuring any alcohol would doom my chances of remembering, let alone correctly applying, Thorpe's lessons. I played for an hour and then left $60 ahead after working my way out of a $20 hole.
My take at the time was that while $60 for an hour's work was nothing to sneeze at, it was still work. You had to maintain focus so I couldn't drink or play while stoned. Plus there were much easier ways for me to make a buck given I knew how to work with computers which back then was a very rare and sought after skill. I figured if I was going to spend time in a casino I wanted to have fun so after that I stuck to roulette until eventually migrating to craps. Never played BJ again until....

Aug 2016: My wife and I are at the Borgota where we were both having a pretty good day at the craps table (I was up $500, and she was up $150). Eventually she got bored and decided to "play some Blackjack". I put that in quotes because what she really wanted was for me to play with her money. In her view, the word "husband" is often synonymous with "voice activated remote control". She didn't know how to play BJ but figured that wasn't important as she could stand behind my seat while I did the actual playing with her money. After a few minutes of my explaining to her (again) why I didn't like to BJ and why didn't she sit down and try it herself, I gave in (which we both knew from the beginning was how this was going to go).
Since it had been 40 years since my last BJ experience, I spent a quick 5 minutes using my smartphone to quickly download and review the Wiz's "Simple Strategy". I found a $10 table that was empty figuring I didn't want to slow down or mess up anyone else's game. I won 6 straight hands and then lost the 7th at which point I got up and handed my wife her winnings of $100.

I haven't been played any BJ since them but I'll let you know how the third game goes sometime in 2056.

Quote: TumblingBones

July 1976: ...

Aug 2016: ...

I haven't been played any BJ since them but I'll let you know how the third game goes sometime in 2056.

Holy hell I'd LOVE to get a breakdown on the rules/decks of the first time you played, and the rules/decks of the last time you played =D. I would imagine they're, um, vastly different...

My first blackjack session?
Way back when giants roamed the land I flew into Las Vegas (hadn't yet learned to be 'hip' and say 'Vegas'), in such days of old passengers descended onto the tarmac and walked into the terminal with the heat being like walking into a wall of fire. Made my way to the Imperial Palace for five dollar(?) blackjack with half naked dealers.

Headlines were on the heat wave and the bodies being found in the dessert since a scandal involving "sleeves" on the Swing Shift was just breaking. I recall hitting hard 18 which dealer called out and floor came charging over to witness my getting a 3 when dealer had 20. Also recall my friend next to me asking twice for an additional card with dealer telling him "you have 21". We were experts back then!

NOTE: A sleeve is device painted to look like a stack of reds but hollowed out and actually filled with black chips. Surveillance sees nothing amiss.

Quote: Romes

Holy hell I'd LOVE to get a breakdown on the rules/decks of the first time you played, and the rules/decks of the last time you played =D. I would imagine they're, um, vastly different...

and I would love to be able to answer your question. Unfortunately, it's been way too long and I'm way too old to remember that stuff

My college friends and I would take $20 each and sit at the $2 table on Thursday nights. We'd set aside our winnings, and we were done when the 20 was played through. Whatever was in the pile of winnings was our beer/pizza money for the weekend.

I'd say that lasted about 4 months from fall 2000 to spring 2001. Its crazy how much has changed since then. In 2001 that $2 game was 4 deck, h17, Das, da2, ls. The same casino's $50 game doesn't have those rules today.

Just noticed this thread so I thought I would share my story. My first time ever playing Blackjack was actually my first time Card Counting, I had only ever been to a Casino once and just watched others play. After learning about Card Counting I spent several months practicing like crazy, decided to take a trip to Atlantic City with a friend and brought $1,000, stayed at the Tropicana. I remember the whole 8 hour ride there really nervous wondering if I was going to get thrown out or if I would even be able to keep the count at all. I played 8D H17 with absolutely terrible penetration, was able to keep the count and spread $10 - $100. Played all night long, had a bunch of free drinks and ended up winning $560 (Of course I was playing a barely break even game LOL). I had a blast and was hooked after that!

One dealer thought I was card counting so he dealt my cards face down instead of face up. He got that right quick.

My first time playing blackjack, other than home poker games, was dealing it at a Holiday Inn. This was 1985 in the Midwest, and it was an upscale hotel, with beauty queens as cocktail waitresses, including two who had competed in Miss America.

They had decided to offer casino-level games in their lounge, and hired a Vegas dealer to teach us. They advertised for dealers in the newspaper and said they would train, so I got hired. It was illegal to gamble in the state at the time, so they had a 2 dollar bet limit, and we played for hotel scrip that could be used against the room or bar bill. They would give the scrip to people on check-in.

I dealt there for most of a year and enjoyed it a lot. Single-deck to the bottom, pitch game, DOA, DAS, RSA, no surrender, S17, 2:1 BJ. Tips were lousy, though, because it all went to the waitri, but if I'd had to wear their bunny suits and 4" heels, it would have been a net loss anyway. We had long buttoned-up white shirts, black vests, black pants, so not very sexy.

My 18th birthday, I went to a local cardroom to play poker, but also threw $40 down on a blackjack table. I don't think I won a single hand.

I also didn't know that when cutting the shoe, you're supposed to cut at least a deck from either end. I cut it about two cards from the front, and the dealer was NOT amused.

Around the year 2009, a friend kept bugging me to meet him in Vegas. We played and stayed at the Venetian. I didn't know basic strategy existed. About 5 of us played 25 blackjack. We all lost. My friend said at the table, “I read the book.” He lost all weekend too.

I am quite sure that he never succeeded in card counting. He was a college track athlete

I heard a wealthy friend of a friend tried card counting but lost overall and quit. We think that he liked to gamble with friends more than counting.

I first tried counting in 2012, I lost 20k. My friends didnt believe counting would work and suggested to quit. I quit bc i was busy. 2 years later, I returned to counting and came out ahead.