Wanna Bet ?

Last week, my account in JBET Poker had a few cents in it. I decided to transfer $40 from my other accounts with the express intention of just playing the $10+1 APT Macau Qualifier. The first night, I did pretty well. I think I was in the last 20 until this hand came up. Someone with around 8xBB went all in. I sensed weakness and looked down at AQ. I had about 12 BBs left, so I went all in to isolate. Guy shows A9. I believe the river was a 9. Next hand I had 33, go all in. Got called by KJ. A jack flops and that was it.

The 2nd night was a fiasco. There was this Korean guy who kept going all in almost every hand. I believe he rebought more than 20x in that first hour span. Actually that was fine with everyone in the table as everybody just waited for premium hands and doubled up. Unfortunately it allowed this Japanese guy to accumulate a ton of chips. I don't remember the actual hand but he killed with me one suck out. I rebought and after a few hands got KK. Went all in, got somebody to call with Ax and the Ace flopped. And I was out.

This left me with around $10 in my JBET account. I was tilting from the KK suckout so I just opened up the JBET Blackjack window with the express intention of just betting it all and clearing out the account.

After a few minutes of winning and losing, I had it up to $50. Hey, not so bad, I got back all the money I lost in poker and then some. I was pretty much just using basic Blackjack strategy. My logical mind was telling me to stop. But the gambler in me wasn't in the mood for any sissy moves that night. So I played some more, then suddenly it was up to $100.

Now I was torn. $100 is quite good. I could just withdraw it and spend it buying a new shoe or something. Imagine the regret you'll feel if you end up losing everything back and looking at your shoeless foot.

OK. My mind was saying. One last bet. See if the luck holds. $100 is not bad, but $150 is certainly better. Even if you lose $50, you'll still have $50 left which was the original amount you wanted to stop with in the first place.

And so I bravely or stupidly (depends on how you look at it) bet $50 on the next hand of blackjack. I got 19 if I remember it correctly. I was jumping with joy because dealer was showing a 5 (one of the worst possible hands in Blackjack) until he flops 20 with 2 more cards.

AAARGGHH! Fucking cheating Lameass computer program!! In a mindless red haze, I immediately bet the remaining $50. Just wanting to get back at the smirking blackjack program.

OK, we all know where this is going. I certainly deserve to lose the remaining $50 with my greediness. But lo and behold. I flop 20 the next hand and dealer gets 17. The balance was now back to $100. I bet another $50 and look down at 5 and 6 with dealer showing a 4. I press double. And a 3 comes out giving me a measly 14. But dealer luckily busts out with a 24.

The balance is now at $200. And here finally, my logical self prevails and I stop, giggling at the sheer absurdness of it. From $10 to $200. I immediately withdraw $100 out of the account just to lock it in and make sure that the new Nike Free trainers will be paid for by stupid gambling money.

The balance I keep in the account for a future night of blackjack craziness and who knows if I get lucky again. Har Har Har.

Please do not try to replicate this. I was extremely lucky this one time. Blackjack is negative EV and as poker players, we should know better than to engage in these kinds of games. You will lose more than you win in any casino game where the house always has an advantage. I wrote this only to share the fun, but know that I have in the past lost quite a bit in Blackjack. And that was certainly not fun. Some of the hands above may not be accurate as I am blogging from memory, but the sequence and the final result is all true. =)