another anti-ploppy measure

Had forgotten about this until last night late. Back in June, my brother, his wife, my wife, my son and I were in Vegas for a week. My brother's wife loves 3-card poker and was playing at the table adjacent to the table I was playing BJ on. My brother decided to stop on BJ and move over to the 3-card poker table for a while when a seat opened up. His wife was at what we would call 1st base in BJ, he was closer to 3rd base but not on it. After a few hands, the person on his right got up and left. After a few hands where he took a beating, the guy to his left said "these cards here suck, I'm moving" and he moved around to the right-side of my brother. Got a straight flush (40-1 payoff I think). Had he stayed where he was, that would have gone to my brother (this was using one of the auto-shuffler/auto-dealer machines that spits out 3 card hards 3 cards at a time... He then said "well, no more good hands here so he got back up and moved back to where he was. Got 3 kings. That would have gone to my brother had the guy stayed still.

Fast forward to the Beau in September when we all went down there together. We were (I was, he was watching) playing 2d BJ and doing OK, but we had this ploppy ($25 table) that was playing beyond slow. Each card he would stop, think, look at his BS card, think some more and finally indicate hit or stand or whatever. We were not playing 60 rounds an hour. My brother decided to help out, although he didn't know how much at the time. He sat down between me and the slow-ploppy-from-hell, and immediately got a BJ. Ploppy got pissed. He then said "hmm, no more good hands for this spot so he moved to the other side of the ploppy (btw the count was sky-high when he jumped in) and immediately got another BJ. The ploppy slowly turned beet-red, sputtered something I couldn't understand, and then left. My brother said "enough for me, thanks" took his $150 (he bet $50 on each hand) and left me to play heads up at probably 4-5 times the speed of what we were seeing with the ploppy playing. Now agreed this is not going to happen very often. But you do have a 1/4 chance of getting a better hand than the ploppy for two consecutive hands. That should be enough to spook 'im. :)

We developed the strategy of when someone is muttering about "the flow of the cards" when someone leaves or joins, I'll get my brother's attention and we run 'im off. :)

Both the dealer and I had a good laugh about the "stranger's" luck on drawing those two BJs and the ploppy looking like he was about to have a stroke his blood pressure was so high..

Another sort of "team" play. :)

The ploppy slowly turned beet-red, sputtered something I couldn't understand, and then left.

Great description. Made my day. I can't stop laughing.

The family that plays together stays together LOL

You would have had to see it. I almost wanted to duck behind the BJ table, I really though he was going to explode in a shower of body parts and blood... I was drinking a coke and crunching on the ice from time to time, and as this happened and he stalked off muttering obscenities, I almost got choked. :)

My brother took it much better when he missed out on the straight flush and three of a kind due to the same kind of place-shifting nonsense. :)

However, I can't get my brother to take up counting. "too much trouble and takes away from the enjoyment of the game" he says. Yet he notices that I talk to the players, and the dealer, without any trouble.

However, he is certainly not above doing something odd from time to time, and this form of team-play has worked more than once. Can't get him to act like a big player however, and drop in when the count is high. He will drop in, but bet the minimum which means he wins a little since he is only playing in positive counts, but if the table is a $5 min where I am betting $25, he will drop a red chip out _every_ time. :)

My son is better, _if_ I supply the money. Then he'll bet as I tell him to via a couple of simple signals. But notice whose money is at risk. :)

Damned amateurs... :)

In thinking about this, the scene from the movie "Total Recall" where the "fake head" goes nuts came to mind. :)