by Matt Forbeck
I thought about parsing out my stack and just betting a single chip at a time. Although it would break with our plan, it would keep me in the game for at least another few hands. That had to be worth something, right?
I pulled the top chip off my tiny stack and glanced at Bill for confirmation. He gave me a noncommittal shrug. I didn't see any hatred, anger, or even frustration in his eyes. It was something worse: resignation. It said, "Of course you blew it. I knew you would."
I may not have been able to pull out the cards I wanted when I wanted, but I knew one thing. I wasn't going out like that.
I shoved all my chips forward.
Justin dealt the cards. Mine both came up aces. I groaned. That gave me either two (playing both cards as ones) or twelve (playing one card as one and the other as eleven), since the third option — using both aces as elevens — would bust me out.
The dealer's up-card showed the ace of diamonds. "Insurance, anyone?" he asked, offering us a side-bet that would keep our original bet safe if he happened to have Blackjack.
None of us took him up on it. It was a sucker's bet. "Only card counters and idiots take insurance," Bill had said during one of our practice sessions. "You're neither."
I couldn't have paid for the insurance anyhow, even if I'd wanted to. I had nothing else to bet.
Despite that, I held my breath as Justin peeled back the corner of his hole card to take a peek at it. For an instant, I thought he'd flip it over to show a ten or a face card, then sweep up the last of my money along with everyone else's bet. Instead, he put the card back down and kept playing.
"Card, sir?" That's what he said when he got to me.
Players in the zone — ones who are good at the game and are there to win, rarely speak, and the dealers don't talk to them. They don't need to. They used distinct and simple hand signs to show what they want. This makes it easy for the dealer to know exactly what they mean and for the eyes in the sky to keep track of it all.
When my turn came around, I'd kept my hands on the rail in front of me. I'd been trying to concentrate on the next card out of the shoe, and I'd forgotten to scratch the table to signal the dealer to hit me.
"You should split those," Bill said. "You always split aces."
"I can't," I said. I nodded at the blank space on the green felt where my starting stake had once been.
"Would you care to purchase more chips, sir?" Justin asked.
I grimaced and shook my head.
Bill grabbed a short stack of chips from his pile and shoved them next to mine. I gaped at him. After all the crap he'd given me up until now, I figured he'd just let me go broke and then be stuck watching him win for the rest of the week.
"You can't bet on my hand," I said.
"It's a loan," Bill said. "Not a bet. Split them."
"Sure you're not just wasting your money? I can't pay that back if I lose."
Bill smiled. "So don't lose."
I pointed at the cards and asked the dealer to split them. Justin moved them apart, and I pushed Bill's chips over to one of the aces, and my stack over to the other.
I stared at the plastic shoe and the first card sitting in it, the one the dealer would slip out of there and place next to my first ace. I willed for it to come up a face card. I visualized the jack of hearts — and that's just what landed next to my ace.
"Blackjack," Justin said. He reached into his tray of chips and put a stack of four green chips right next to mine.
The dealer's complete lack of enthusiasm did nothing to dampen mine. I wanted to jump up and let out a war whoop, but I refused to let a single success distract me. I still had another hand to win, and it was Bill's money riding on it, not mine. Somehow, that meant even more to me that I not lose it.
"Can I double down on that ace?" I asked.
Justin nodded. I moved my the chips I'd just won from him over to double my bet on my remaining ace. With the double down, I'd only be allowed a single extra card, but I only needed the one.
I stared at the deck and reached out with my mind again. I pictured the king of diamonds, the One-Eyed King, the Man with the Axe.
The dealer reached for the shoe, drew a card and flipped it over in front of me.
Hello, Your Majesty.
Table of Contents
Extras
Table of Contents
Extras