One my Vegas trip back in 2011 I was fortunate enough (skills) to win a big chunk of cash playing poker, and had always fancied having a pop at a high roller game of Blackjack. So over the road into the Bellagio I went and found a VIP Blackjack table where the Minimum bet was $100 and the maximum was an eye watering $10,000. In fact it might have actually been $100,000, either way, it was eye watering. I sat down with $10,000, in my favourite box, Box 2.
Already seated in Box 1 was a Chinese gentlemen who was receiving what appeared to be a tremendous shoulder massage from his girlfriend / wife / ‘special friend’, I made a mental note to get me one of those. He had conservatively $250,000 in chips in front of him, and was betting $10,000 per hand. Playing the perfect Blackjack strategy. I think. He was dressed immaculately. I mean he could have just stepped off a shoot for “The Asian Bespoke Suit Wearer of the Year supplement” in GQ, he was as perfectly presented as any human being could ever be. Unlike me, who was in jeans and a jumper, but I did have shoes on.
We played as a duo for a couple of minutes before a large Canadian fella joined in Box 3. He was large enough to force me to shuffle over my chair. He was dressed like a man who had just woken up in a pond on a golf course, as he sat down he proceeded to empty each of his copious pockets of chips and soon had amassed a rather messy pile (not stack, pile) of chips. There were plenty of those pinky orange $25k chips. I reckon he was out chipping Mr Neat next to me.
The next hour or so is one of the most interesting of my life.
The 3 of us played perfect Blackjack strategy, not daring I suspect to take a card out of sync, yet our fortunes were very different. Box 1 initially climbed steadily, winning a succession of hands and a few doubles and splits, within 15 minutes the pit boss was noting down that he was probably another $100k up. I was trading at break even. Winning and losing with almost equal frequency, I remained on $10,000. Canada in Box 3 was also killing it, he was probably $100k up. I felt like the loser at the table. Many would say I was. Even before the betting started.
Then Box 1’s fortunes took a nasty turn, he couldn’t hit a had. He couldn’t hit a double, his splits were rubbish, and in desperation he started betting erratically, much to the irritation of Canada. His chip stack was decreasing steadily, all the time I was breaking even and Canada had stabilised and was doing likewise. Box 1 was soon under starting stack, shipping off $10k after $10k in lost bets. You know a man is struggling when he is calling for cards on 14 against a 6 because he is convinced the dealer will draw an Ace. At one point a manager had a chat with him, and yet he still kept gambling. Perhaps he was only ‘warming up’ perhaps he’d won the money elsewhere and was just equalising the house, but it took him no time at all to lose the lot.
My fortunes had changed ever so slightly, and I was now up to $12k. Canada was stuck at probably $300k. To be honest he could have been stuck at $300m I simply couldn’t tell from his scattered chips but it appeared there were more $25k than he had previously. So he must have been doing ok. I had decided “ten more hands” when Canada decided he’d had enough. He scooped up his chips, flicked the dealer what I think were several $5k chips, and turned to leave, knocking over the valet table, the drinks and a chair in the process. His progress out of the VIP area was like a large dump truck making it’s way through the china section of a department store.
I played my 10 hands, won a couple more and left with $13,500. The $500 went to the dealer, he was happy enough.