davechan.com - a slice of dave

Friday night

Ah yes, another late night for Dave. It wasn't meant to be this way...

A bunch of us went to the office Christmas party pretty much after work, with a quick detour to my apartment to drop stuff off. After battling traffic (it was already 6:30pm and still heaps of traffic!) we finally made it to the party, which was at Cockle Bay Wharf.

As with all office parties, the food was okay, and the alcohol flowed freely. As usual, not many people got up to dance, and it took until about 10ish before people started getting pissed enough to venture out and tripping the light fantastic.

To say that all the people dancing were drunkards would be to take away the superb dancing skills of a select few. Our project's technical manager for instance, was really burning up the floor with his partner, engaging in some mean swing dancing. Very cool, yet another thing for me to learn!

Anyhow, it got boring towards this end of the night, as people either started getting up on the dancefloor or leaving. We were hanging around the tables, and ended up going to have a bit of a dance because we were rather bored.

We made a detour to a little club on Darling Harbour, but it wasn't really happening (although there was this weird girl invading my personal space with her dancing) and so we headed off to the casino.

Star City (it's not *just* a casino, but a complete entertainment hub...) was humming with people. Gamblers, pretenders, tourists, and everyone else. There's a cool bar up on the 17th floor, Alteni's or something like that. From here, there's a great view of the city. Oh, and the music ain't bad either, with a live DJ mixing up some moody lounge, at a good volume for chilling out and having a good conversation to.

Unfortunately, there weren't any tables! So instead we headed on down to the gaming floor. Like any other casino, Star City is very lavish, and yet at the same time so tacky. I'm not quite sure how casino outfitters manage it, but with so much money at their disposal, you'd think it'd be a lot better. I guess some people would find it looks great (and they do have to cater to a lot of different people's taste), but plastic palm trees aren't really my scene.

At Star City, you can sign up for membership, which is free, and they give you $10 complimentary credits to use at either the pokies or the tables. Myself and another guy signed up, and duly received our membership card loaded with the $10 free credit. At this point, while wandering around looking for cheap pokies, I managed to lose everyone else. Oh well.

I lost the $10 free credit and another $2 on the pokie machines, which are just so unbelievably boring. You sit there, you press some buttons, the computer does some processing, and you lose more money. So I headed over to the tables.

Ah yes, what defines a casino more than rows upon rows of gaming tables? Here is where the action is! I do enjoy watching people gamble. There is a bit of a buzz watching people (who know what they're doing) playing cards. As usual, I floated around different tables looking over people's shoulders and seeing how the table was performing.

At casinos, it is everyone against the house. Everyone at the table is helping each other to beat the house. It's kinda like helping other people find (legal) ways to minimise tax. Anyhow, because of this, in a lot of cases, it's true that the players at a table are either winning or losing as a collective group.

I love watching blackjack, and so I wandered around the blackjack tables. I rarely play myself. Too much stress. So much stress in fact, that the last time I went to the casino they were actually handing out stress balls. I made good use out of mine that night! Tonight though, I happened upon a $25 table where the people playing were doing fantastically against the house.

It's true that in most cases, the people at the $5 or $10 tables are hacks. They don't want to bet much because they either don't want to or they can't afford to. Which is good, because they are aware of how much money they are prepared to play with. However, this does not make them good blackjack players. Inevitably, betting on someone at a $5 table will result in lost money because they players generally don't know what they're doing.

The real players are at the more expensive tables.

Unfortunately, so are those that have too much money and aren't afraid of losing it. That's why I watched the $25 table very intently. I would have been there for about a half hour, through a change in deck, and also a change in dealer. And yet the table was still performing strongly. The players were smart and knew what they were doing. They took calculated risks, and weren't being stupidly aggressive, and yet also being bold when it counted. It was definitely time to place a bet.

Two bets actually. Each of $25. One each on two of the players. $50 on the table, all on the one hand.

Now when watching the more expensive tables, I find that watching people betting large sums of money really scares me and fills me with wonder. I mean, betting a few hundred dollars on a single game of blackjack is just crazy. What's crazier is losing, and then getting right back up into the saddle, and putting up that same money again. I guess most of these players know what they're doing, but it's still a funny feeling watching people bet on one hand what it would take me a few days to earn.

I won that hand though, and I was really happy. I'd just won $50! Yay!

I should have quit at this stage. Before I pulled out my wallet, I had told myself that should I win, I'll just walk away, and I'll be happy. But no, I took my $50 winnings, and left my original stake of $50 on the table, to put on the next round.

I lost. Dealer drew 20 and beat everyone. It was a surreal feeling watching the croupier calmly sweeping up hundreds of dollars worth of chips, with my $50 in there somewhere. In the same time it took me to win $50, I'd lost it again.

I still had the $50 I started out with of course, and so with a shrug I put that down on the table, again $25 each on two different players.

The first player I was backing drew 20. Excellent.

The second player I was backing had 10 showing. He doubled. I pulled my wallet out again, and handed over another $25 to double with him. This increased my stakes for this hand up to $75. I had $75 riding on this one hand.

When you're playing with chips, the reality of how much money you are betting is strangely abstracted. It doesn't feel like much. After all, it's only a few discs of plastic. Well, I had $75 of plastic on the table.

The croupier dealt a 9, giving my second player 19. Great! Play continued around the table, and I was in a bit of a trance (mind you I was also pretty sleepy). I only had $5 in my wallet, which was okay because that was enough for the bus fare home.

The croupier got back to himself, and dealt himself 18. For the players at the table, who had played hundreds of games during the time I'd observed them, it was good news that they'd won, but certainly nothing to get excited about. Me on the other hand was just relieved. I'd not lost all my money! Yay! The croupier dealt out the winnings, and I took my $150 in chips and immediately left the table, after thanking the two players that had helped me win my money.

Feeling very happy, I cashed in the chips, and was $75 richer than when I had walked in. Thank you Mr Star City!

I walked past the table again, but by now, things weren't looking as great. After almost continually winning for the past half hour or so, the tables had turned (sorry, bad pun) and now the house was starting to claw back some of its money.

Phew I thought, it's a good thing I left when I did! No sense being greedy. The fact I was given a second chance to walk away from the table with more money than I started with was definitely a sign to get the hell out of there.

I walked back over Pyrmont Bridge to the city, and to my usual bus stop, and caught the bus home.

A good night.

Posted by davechan at December 6, 2003 04:21 AM