Yet another game under the belt

It seems the new job has provided a little blog fodder lately, mostly because I've had to learn so many new games/procedures within the past 2 weeks its made my head spin! The place is just completely full of weird carnival games, blackjack variations, automatic card shufflers, etc. etc. And if you want sucker side bets, we've got 'em!! When I look at the road map and see my string, I never feel completely comfortable yet even if it says blackjack, because it could be one of many different variations. Let me try to name off the blackjacks only:

-single deck with lucky lady side bet
-double deck with lucky lady side bet
-6 deck shoe with lucky lady side bet
-8 deck shoe with lucky lady side bet
-8 deck shoe with dealer's option (where the player bets on the dealer's hand)
-any deck(s) with the winner's option (where the player can choose to win half their bet if their first two cards equal 20 and the dealer shows a ten value card up (after checking for blackjack)

The shoe games may or may not have an automatic card shuffler (which ALWAYS breaks) and the shuffle procedures between single, double, 6-deck, 8-deck, no machine, machine, etc. are ALL different! In other words, I just can't look at the dealer road map before the shift and know what type of blackjack game I'm getting. Oh, and you can split cards on all blackjack games, but for some reason you can not double down after splitting on the double-deck games, but you CAN double after splitting on the single deck and shoe games. Also, did you notice that there are a bunch of tables with the lucky lady side bets up there. Guess what, there are two different payout tables associated with the lucky ladies floating around, so I always have to look at the payout schedule whenever I step into a table (and usually promptly forget it once the first damn hand is dealt).

Now let's try to real off ALL of the games in the joint, not including blackjack:

-craps
-roulette
-let it die
-3-card poker
-bonus hold'em
-3-5-7 poker
-big six wheel
-casino war

I think that's it. My place used to have pai gow poker and mini-pai gow about 5 or 6 weeks ago, but both games were taken out. I believe they were axed due to the lack of dealers that knew how to deal them. It's too bad because I was just starting to get proficient in pai gow when I was laid off at the old place in Henderson and I kind of enjoyed dealing that game! For the record, the only game that I do NOT deal is roulette, but I'm sure they'll expect me to learn that as well down the road.

The last one on that list was casino war, which I dealt for the first time 2 nights ago. When I stepped in, I had the preconception of it being brutal, much along the same lines as Let it Ride and the Big Six Wheel. However, it really wasn't that bad. It seems the people that play War are pretty fun and spirited most of the time, and can actually grasp the simple concept of the game. And of course they should! It's basically the same damn game you played as a kid growing up. I deal you a card and I deal myself a card. If your card is bigger, I pay you even money. If my card is bigger, I take your money. If we tie, THEN IT IS WAR!!!!! That's where the big house edge comes into play. When there's a tie, I'll put out an amount equal to your bet (kind of like pre-paying) and you'll take that money if you win the battle. However, to go to war, you must also put out an amount equal to your original bet. So if you're keeping track, you now have 2 bets out there in the circle and I've only put one out for you to take if you win. 2 bets to win 1 bet. If you think that creates a hefty house edge, you're right.

One caveat is that if we tie AGAIN during the war, you win that bet I've pre-paid you plus a bonus bet, also equal to the original. One nice thing about this game is that, like the Big Six Wheel, the War table is off on its own like a little island within the casino. So there are never any floor sups roaming around. That kind of gives me free reign to be a little more edgy or weirder than normal, which I've tended to be since I escaped the vengeful grasp of Boulder Highway! The other nice thing about the game is that I can kind of pick the speed that the table goes at. As you can probably guess, the potential speed of the game can make Speedy Gonzales look like a mere Regular Gonzalez. It's just one card to each player and boom, one card to me. Take the losers and pay the winners, bada bing! I could literally deal one hand every 10 seconds if the players were quick enough to make their bets.

If the table is cool and we're having fun, I'll tend to slow down a little and chat it up with everyone. If a couple chain-smokers sit down and start acting like the douchebags over on LIR, then I'll shut up and deal at Ludicrous Speed (and probably go plaid).



All-in-all, War wasn't as bad as I expected. One aspect of it was that there tended to be way more "hit and runs" than on the other games. This is where some random dude will just come up to the table and plop down like a hundred bucks on one hand of war! The couple times it happened the other night, I won both times. And both times, the dude would put yet another hundy out there, and lose that one as well. War has the only continuous shuffle machine in the entire place, so I do not have to shuffle or anything. I just change the hundy into 4 green, he places them into the circle, we do battle and I take his money. There you have it, $200 gone in the blink of an eye (less than 30 seconds). I can just see him getting back to his buddies in the hotel room. "Yea man, I lost $200 at the craps table man! The table just went cold and I couldn't hit anything." "Oh yea man, well I lost $200 at the War table in less than 30 seconds! I can't believe my jack got beat by his queen both times! It sucked man!" Which story sounds a little more dignified?