Blackjack and Those rare occurrences
I was sitting at an online casino blackjack table recently, and noticed something unbelievable, which led me to the topic of being prepared if this were to happen to you. There are situations that come up in blackjack more rarely than getting struck by lightening or hitting the lottery, and probably ones that don’t yield nearly as much pain or pleasure on the player, but require action all the same. Would you know what to do if that once-in-a-lifetime occurrence happened to you?
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. I was sitting at a small-limit table, $15, and the action was small. Nothing much was happening, neither the players nor the dealer were riding any major streaks. Shuffle was normal, didn’t seem like anyone was counting, etc… My point is there was really no reason for anyone to be on their toes, so to speak. And then it happened. The gentleman next to me was dealt a pair of aces.
So, as any blackjack player who’s got that handy strategy chart available would do, he split the bullets. Now here’s the fun part. Those bullets each paired with the remaining two Aces. He split them again, and for the life of my I can’t remember what the next four cards were, but the significance of how rare this was almost shocked me. I can only imagine what the player who was receiving these cards was feeling.
Needless to say this isn’t something you should expect to happen to you. There is, if I’ve done my math right, a 0.000001239 percent change. In online blackjack player’s terminology, you’d have to play about 100 hands an hour, and even then you’d be lucky if it happened once every 8,000 hours. Not exactly a situation you’re studying and preparing for.
I’m not saying this particular example wasn’t an easy decision to make. Of course you’re splitting Aces, but who know what other impossible situations regular players like yourself have run into and didn’t know what to do. You tend to lose track of things like “true count” or what the chart tells you to do in that situation. Like a kid staring at fireworks for the first time, you’re just in awe of the cards in front of you.