Casino Night

Friday night, my husband’s company had a casino night at a local hotel. They brought in a company and tables so the employees could play games.

We decided to go.

I wasn’t looking forward to it. It didn’t sound like fun to me. I’ve never been drawn to casinos — ever. I know the odds are not in my favor to win — so why bother?

After dinner, and eating sulfite foods, I wasn’t feeling the best. I actually wanted to go home but instead my husband, a co-worker and the co-worker’s wife went into the ballroom to see about playing a casino game. Upon entry, we were informed they had blackjack, poker, blah-blah-blah. It was all foreign to me. I don’t know how to play these games — and frankly, I could care less.

Even worse, I was a bit intimidated because I didn’t know how to play any of them.

In typical fashion, I immediately spoke up telling all who cared to hear, I didn’t know how to play anything — and with that — they must have decided by their own lack of skills to choose the easy game. We sat down at a blackjack table.

Of course, there were no slot machines. The easiest of all to figure out.

As we sat down, the other wife also confessed to not knowing how to play. I felt a little relief!

The dealer was a real dealer from Las Vegas. She was a beautiful Hawaiian woman and she explained to us that she dealt at a blackjack high-rollers table for 11 years before leaving to marry one her gamblers! She explained the game — and when any of us made foolish mistakes, she was sweet and helped us along. It made the game a lot more fun.

We each started out with $500 in chips, and before I knew it, I was doing good.

Really good.

I started gambling $100 chips. And when I looked left and right, the other three players were struggling to stay in the game with only $5 and $25 chips remaining. I still had all my $5, $25 and $100s. I decided to make bigger bets.

It paid off.

Yet I was exhausted, and feeling really sick (I started wondering if my appendix had burst — I had sharp pains) — but in between zoning out with the pain — I was loving the thrill of it all. I loved tapping into my intuition and following the cards dealt before me – so I could guess my odds. It went well.

I realized the best seat at a blackjack table is the last one to receive a card — because you can see the deck come out before you. You can see if all high cards come or low cards and make your call for another card much easier.

I was sitting there with over $800 dollars , when I started to get really tired. I couldn’t focus with all the pains.

I remember at one point, the other players saying, “Hey you — Ms. Moneybags — you won again!” It was when I gambled another $100 chip.

I kept zoning out and then trying to focus. I told everyone at the table, I didn’t know how come I was doing so well — and since I didn’t realize I won half the time because I was in so much pain — it must have been pure luck!

My husband begs to differ with me. He tells me even in half a mind, I did great! I have a talent. And it’s a talent, he’d really like me to combine with my lie detecting skills.

That’s right. He’d like me to learn poker — and you know what? For the first time in my life, I’m really interested to do so.

Please tell me, is Blackjack just sheer luck or what?

I ended the game some two hours after we started with over $1000. No one else at the table even came close! I more than doubled my “fake” money.

If only it were real…