Right next door to the MGM Grand is a well hidden movie theatre. All the first run movies are playing there and it is conveniently accesses form the strip. I was getting hungry and I had visions of chasing my money on the gambling tables.
At this point we had walked approximately .7 of a mile in about 92 degree heat. I had two drinks, lost $10 gambling. When I walked into the MGM Grand the smell of the Casino made me search for a black jack table.
Before I continue you should be well aware of the fact that having fun is what Las Vegas is all about, sometimes your plans don’t always work out the way they should. This is a perfect example of what I’m talking about.
I look around for a five dollar minimum black jack table and find there simply are none available. I look at my wife who gives me the usual nod of disapproval and pull out ten dollars from my pocket. I would have to wager ten at the MGM Grand. My wife reluctantly walked over to the table with me and we placed our money on the table. The dealer smiled as he dealt the cards and we confidently sat down. We were not about to play more than one hand, but the dealer didn’t know that so I took the weight off my already tired feet.
My wife was dealt a five and a six, I was dealt two eights and dealer had a six showing. I an instant our luck had changed and we were getting ready to make a killing. I looked at my wife and told her she had to double–down, once again she nodded in disbelief but as an expert blackjack player she would not have done otherwise. She pulled another ten from her gambling pot and placed down on the table, the dealer gave her one card face down. I did what is suggested by “the book”, that fictitious book that explains the right way to play the game. I split my eights. I put another ten down and the dealer placed another card beside it. Another eight, I had to split it one more time, thirty dollars on the table and only ten more in my gambling stash. It didn’t matter, the dealer was showing a six, he still had to hit.
The dealer gave me my next card and it was a ten, my first hand was an eighteen and I would stay with that one. He then dealt another and it was a seven, that hand was now a fifteen, but with a six showing I had to stand. We moved to my third hand and the coveted three came up, I would be able to double down. I placed another $10 on the table and the dealer dealt me a card face down. My wife looked worried, we now had sixty dollars on the table between us, one hand sixty dollars, we didn’t follow our simple rule of only five dollars a hand.
The dealer flipped his card over and he had a ten underneath, we were looking great. He had to hit and his chances of busting were good. His next card came out of the deck in slow motion, as if propelled by a magical flying turtle that could not move fast enough for the crowded casino. The card came to rest right next to the ten, it was a five. The dealer had just made twenty-one.
