An interesting type of

Interesting happening in a 2d game on the MS coast last night.

Had to sit at 3rd base, only open position. After a couple of hands, it became obvious we had a couple of ploppies in the middle of the table playing.

Next shuffle saw a bunch of 4-5-6 card hands dealt and before I knew it the TC was over +10. Had a 15 vs dealer 10 and stood. Dealer turned over a 6, drew a 5 (which I would have drawn) and hell broke loose. Ploppie-central complained for the next couple of hands. TC climbed further, I doubled my bet (lost the first hand) and got another stiff hand that the indices said "stand" on. Same song, second verse, dealer drew a winning card and the ploppy-pair erupted again. I was pretty tired of this by then. So I thought I'd see if I could come up with a solution.

Next hand, TC still sky-high, I get 20, to dealer's 6. Play gets around to me (now with my "big bet" out ($160) and I toss out another $160 and tell the dealer to "split 'em". Ploppies didn't notice until the dealer announced to the pit "splitting 10's". They look on incredulously as I draw two 10's to make two hands of 20, with $160 on each. The dealer turns over a 10, and draws a 3 to make 19, which beat their hands. Hell breaks loose again when they figure out that had I stood, the dealer would have busted. They announce they are not going to play and put up with this "crap" and away they go. Good riddance.

But all is not over. There is that deal of splitting 10's with $160 bets and the pit critter is standing there watching. I keep my big bet out as the count is still over +8 and play again. He keeps staring and I finally decide to ask "is there a problem?" He said "we are always on the lookout for counters, and your splitting 10's was a red flag." I said "Oh that. We had two morons that were continually complaining no matter what happened, and I decided to try to run 'em off." The dealer said "he's right, they were the biggest bunch of complainers I've seen." After that, the pit critter left, and things went well.

How's that for "cover"? Could I call that "ploppy cover"?? :)

Next time a ploppy complains, I'm splitting the 10's if the count is right. :)

told them you are a counter! Maybe you'd like to bust your post?

I hope you changed some details (not really last night, not on the MS coast, not exactly two ploppies, etc) so that you told us the essence of what you wanted to without identifying yourself.

Otherwise, great story! Congratulations on running them off.

The date was incorrect. Number of ploppies was correct. Location was not for obvious reasons. :)

Only reason I mentioned it was that the look on the two guy's faces was worth the risk of splitting the 10's. :) It is my policy to avoid 3rd base at all costs for this very reason. But 2d games are not that common. Usually the morons collect at the $5 shoe games, not at the $25 DD table.

I can deal with most anything at the table, so long as someone doesn't puke on the felt or anything like that. :) But the obnoxious ones I really try to avoid. Last time I played at the IP on the MS coast we had a ploppy doing all sorts of antics. Splitting 10's. Shouting "monkey" when he wanted a 10 (apparently some sort of reference to bacarat althouth I don't play the game myself) and so forth. But he wasn't obnoxious at all and livened up the table a bit. But the complainers/whiners can take a hike. Although I now have a few new "cover" ideas to work with. :)

My son had devised another way to run 'em off, but I have not tried it as it is a painful method. He found some "fart in a spray can" at some novelty store. The can is about like an old right-guard spray can so it isn't that big. Stinks like hell. He had suggested a quick spray, and then a "pardon me, those baked beans on the buffet are working on me now..." Not a bad idea but you have to sit in the stink yourself, and it sort of reminds me of the hippo building at the local zoo. Pretty tough to deal with. :)

Of course the dealer / pit critter might back me off or bar me for a reason _other_ than counting. My wife said "The EPA would probably arrest you for that" after she took a whiff... :)

Ah, the life of a serious-but-amateur blackjack counter... :)

Sometimes must be like an old Vaudeville act. :)

Why didn't you resplit your tens?

I had a similar incident when I kept jumping in and out with the count and was accused of "messing up the cards." Nothing I did got the ploppies to leave. Even though it was obvious I was just trying to piss them off. (hitting 20, standing on 7.) Glad you had more luck. When I split tens, one made the comment "What are you high?" especially when I drew a 12 and 15. Of course the dealer busted and I added "Yeah, I'm high."

I have little tolerance for this level of ignorance.

I was reading SW's glossary and had seen "monkey" as a term on it. It apparently is what some Far East (Vietnamese, Cambodian, etc) players shout when they want a ten like when doubling down. Says it probably comes from "monarchy" and just sounds like "monkey" because of the accent.

I don't usually read glossaries, but I wanted to get familiar with more BJ jargon. Thought it was interesting.

Why didn't you split your tens again? The count would still be high enough to split. I see it among nearly everyone that splits tens (as a dealer) they will split once, but when they pull another ten I ask them what they want to do and they look at me like I'm an idiot. "Of course I want to stay, what else can I do with a 20?!" they say.

Just an observation.

It is also "correct" to simultaneously slam your fist on the table while yelling "monkey" . This greatly increases your chances of receiving a ten (It does ???).

Note that I did it the first time to torque the ploppies. I didn't want the pit over there with a magnifying glass. :) I figured I could explain that one away as anti-ploppy strategy. At 160 bucks a split, I figured the pit would say "I doubt he'd smoke 480 bucks to run off some obnoxious players..."

Great play! Besides the immediate return, it's the type of play that can pay off for the whole session. For example, when people try to join, just say (as I got to say once), "You're welcome to join, but I have to warn you that the cards haven't been too good since I split my 10s a few hands ago. I'll split my next 10s to fix the flow. Hope it helps." When the dealer nods, affirming the fact that you split your 10s, they'll likely leave you alone with looks of horror on their faces! ;)

wary of posting such stories so soon after the event has happened, casino personell could be reading your post and if they were either the dealer or PB in you story they will remember you next time. Granted the chance of that happening is prety slim but sh*t happens.

* Just because I am not paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get me *

I flew into this city for a meeting. Had to stay overnight as we were going to finish up too late. Friend mentioned that there were local casinos and was I interested.

I doubt I'll go back there period, although it is possible. Certainly be a long time before that happens most likely...

I still like the fart in a spray can idea.

I've resorted to picking my nose and eating the you-know-what to blow some ploppies off my table. Just a thought.

Belching can work, too.

Your real concern should be the "Eye In The Sky." Don't worry about the moron pit bosses.

Had my brother "wong" in and out multiple times (not really back-counting, he doesn't count) playing a hand, leaving for a few minutes, coming back (this was on a $10 6d shoe game where mid-shoe entry was O.K. After a few attempts at this, several of the superstitious ploppy-types got up pissed and left. Saying things like "the flow of the cards is all screwed up with this bouncing in and out..."

I wanted to play heads-up at this particular table, because when there was only one player, the dealer ignored the stop card slot in the shoe and stuck it in with less than 1/2 deck cut off. Last couple of decks could really be profitable when the count/luck cooperated. Much better to be head-to-head in such circumstances. I just had him stand back and when a new person or two plopped down, he would do his in/out trick a couple of times and they'd usually leave. Not every time of course as not everyone is so moronic...

Nothing like head-to-head with a big count, as it will go on for a while usually, unlike the rapid up/down/reshuffle of 1d games...

I'm not a "pro" at this doing it every day. I'm lucky if I play every other week, although I've been out a bit more than that the last couple of weeks due to particularly favorable travel scheduling. But for me, most of the trouble starts at the pit critter level first. But bear in mind I rarely play at a $100 min table. I most commonly play $10 or $25 tables to stay out of sight and out of mind for the most part.

My back-offs usually start with a call to upstairs _from_ the bit boss. He continues to watch carefully, while I presume they play back a tape to see what was happening. Then he (or someone else) will do the "no more BJ" although it is often worded differently depending on what I don't know. IE "no more BJ on my shift tonight", or "no more BJ here, play other games all you want" and the like.

Have you seen problems without the PC apparently paying you any attention???

I think it's a shame everyone is so intent on running off recreational players like myself. Where do you think the casino is getting the money to pay you?

If you sit down at the table, and play, no matter how incorrectly, I don't care. You are more than welcome to join the fun. But there is a "class" of ploppies that are a pain. The ones that slow the game down to a crawl while they consult their strategy card for _every_ hit or stand decision. You really _should_ know most of the BS by memory. If you need it to determine whether to split 4's against a 5, that's fine. But not when you have a 5 vs a dealer 10. Just hit it and go. Others are simply obnoxious. IE I choose to hit a 12 vs dealer 5 because of the count, I don't need howls of protest from a ploppy about me "screwing up the flow of the cards". When I spread to a second hand because of a good count, I don't need howls of protest from a ploppy about me "screwing up the flow of the cards".

You get the idea. You are polite, I am polite, I'll play beside you _all_ day long. I'll even give you BS advice at times, if you ask politely and it isn't contrary to what the count currently suggests. IE I'd hate to have a negative count, and you ask "should I hit this 12 vs dealer up 5?" and I say "no" but then I hit it when it is my turn. :) You get obnoxious, or draw unwanted attention to our table by your protests, and I'd like to see you play elsewhere and attract the attention over _there_.

It doesn't bother me one bit if you hit 16 vs a dealer 6. Just burns one more card out of the deck. If the count is high, and you draw a 10, that hurts somewhat of course, but that's ok. Play however you want. But be polite, play at a reasonable speed, and don't draw every eye within 50 feet to our table...

I don't think that is asking too much. I feel the same way at football games where a spectator is out of control, cursing, drunk, spilling stuff everywhere, and so forth. You have every right to enjoy the game as much as I do. But neither of us has the right to make it an unpleasant experience for everyone else at the table...

If you know BS perfectly, good. Just don't make comments when I apparently violate it. I can assure you I know it _perfectly_ myself, and were I playing BS only, I would not make a mistake very often. I generally run drills to make sure I don't forget anything, and I go for weeks before I make a mistake on these drills using CV blackjack. When I do, it is often just a confusion between 1d and 2+d strategies.

Hopefully you get the gist of this. I don't mind joking, I participate in fact. I don't mind most anything that doesn't detract from the game. But I don't like to play 20-30 hands per hour because someone takes forever on each decision, and I don't like to play with the pit critters standing around to see what the fuss is about...