Putting the fun
back in to Blackjack!

Alright cowboys! Roll up, roll up, for another trip aboard the good train Blackjack Tables. This time out I’m going to jaw with you about the benefits of playing away from home. Now, now, partner, I don’t mean playing away in no ’sneakin behind your wife’s back’ way, I simply mean it literally: Sometimes it’s good for you to get out of your familiar environment and see if lady luck serves you something nice to chew on…

With this in mind I headed to the Bridge Street Cafe around the corner from my house for a nice, big slice of old Apple Luck Pie, and a brew. They had no pie, but luckily the WiFi they had was in perfect workin order and so I connected and before long I was off. Straight away I got a big win. Then 3-for-3, 4-for-4, 4-for-5. Not bad going, huh?

I retired an hour later with a 15-for-24 streak. Not bad at all! I headed home and told my wife and she was pretty damn pleased! Of course, I didn’t tell her about my little system of changing my playing environment – it’s best she doesn’t get too excited when I leave the house in future!

So did playing somewhere else work? Why don’t you ask my wallet, buddy? Looks like that bad boy’s spitting out fivers like nobody’s fool. I believe that changing your locale = big on the pay scale, so keep alternate your background and who knows? You could be quids in before you know it.

But where to play? I’d recommend staying away from the drinking holes. Only fools play blotto. I’d also recommend not playing outdoors – you could have all kinds of problems with your laptop running out of battery, that’s if you can even see the screen.

I say: Keep it midday, keep it café.

An old friend came to stay recently. And I don’t mean a buddy from the past, or a former lover, or even an old illness popping in to say hello. I’m talking about bad luck.

Now bad luck can take many forms. It can be a door locking shut just before you reach it, or that gift horse you looked at in the mouth dropping dead the moment you take it back to the good old stable of life. Lady Fortuna brought me a heap of bad luck this week, and she parked it in a stable I’ve come to call ‘blackjack’.

Playing online blackjack is different to roulette or any other game in many respects. First off, because it’s a game of skill, you always think you can master whatever hand comes your way. The trick is to know when to hold them, know when to fold them. Secondly, it’s an ego thing – nobody wants to leave the table empty-handed – there’s always that ‘one more hand’ mentality. That mentality has got me out of some tough jams, but it’s also dug me right into others.

So I’ve been on the bottom-end of the old win-lose scale this past couple of weeks. There are two good things I can take from this. Number one is that I didn’t tell my wife about any of it. If she’d been on the ball, she’d have noticed something was up when we downgraded from Shredded Wheat to Tesco’s own ‘Wheat Rectangles’. She’s in the dark, although I feel bad her old ticker ain’t as strong as when she’s eating the product endorsed by good ol’ Beefy Botham. Second, well, second is that I know I got me a good streak o’ luck just about ready to burst all over me.

Here’s to the future…