BJ Dealer mucks her own 21; what\'s the penalty?
 

My friends were playing blackjack at Stratosphere last week and an interesting thing happened. It was a pretty full game and the dealer drew a 6 on 15 to get a 21. All the players sort of scoffed as usual but suddenly the dealer grabbed for chips and payed off everyone's hand, thinking she had busted. Nobody said anything, and when I got to the table a couple seconds later everyone looked very still and serious. My friend had $50 on the hand and lots of others won where they should have lost.

If she had been caught by the pitboss or big brother, what likely would have happened to her? Could she have been taken aside after her down if the camera noticed? Does this happen at all often?

Re: BJ Dealer mucks her own 21; what\'s the penalty?
 

Not only could she have been taken aside, she could have been fired if they had deemed it serious enough. If they thought she was colluding with the players things could go even worse for her. Your chips could also have been confiscated if they had been watching and got there in time. If they really wanted too they could still go after your money since it's all recorded. I doubt they will though. But Vegas doesn't make money by paying off winning hands. They take these matters seriously there.

Re: BJ Dealer mucks her own 21; what\'s the penalty?
 

Most likely this was an inexperienced dealer and an honest mistake. If she was caught, they would probably watch her for a while to see if this was repeated and if so she could go to jail. Just getting wrote up would be the most likely senerio for a first mistake.

Re: BJ Dealer mucks her own 21; what\'s the penalty?
 

Accidents happen, but you don't want to make a huge habit of it. Someone would have said something and told her she needs to be more careful if it was discovered later. If it was after the fact where they couldn't recover the $, it could range from a talking to, to a write up, to firing depending on circumstances. You'd be arrested if they believed you were engaging in criminal behavior.

I suspect she might have had 87 and counted 16, instead of 15. New dealers tend to blackjack often enough for this to happen from time to time. Most of the math is pretty easy in BJ but with enough hands anyone can make a mistake here and there.

The supervisors and floors are there (in part) to prevent really big errors (why larger buy-ins and payouts are called to the floor, for example), and to identify dealers prone to making a lot of mistakes in the first place.

A lot of the time when dealing you know you've busted, but won't know exactly what you have - if you have 15 and draw an eight, for example, you know you're busted and there's no point in counting, get people paid and move on.

The clue though is the eerie quiet that suddenly comes up - that and a bunch of wide eyes. If you make a mistake in the house's favor, you hear it immediately, but a lot of the time no one will speak up if overpaid or something.

If you've ever worked fast food as a kid, it isn't much different. If your register was a dollar off here and there, no big deal, but if there was a consistent problem or huge shortages you probably didn't last very long. Same thing.

Re: BJ Dealer mucks her own 21; what\'s the penalty?
 

[ QUOTE ]


The clue though is the eerie quiet that suddenly comes up - that and a bunch of wide eyes. If you make a mistake in the house's favor, you hear it immediately, but a lot of the time no one will speak up if overpaid or something.



[/ QUOTE ]

I always knew I made a mistake when the table suddenly stopped complaining.

Re: BJ Dealer mucks her own 21; what\'s the penalty?
 

ive played alot of BJ and this has yet to happen to me....guess i jsut dont runn this good in Blackjack

Re: BJ Dealer mucks her own 21; what\'s the penalty?
 

its happened a few times to me
nothing is gonna happen to the dealer
unless there are huge bets out noone is gonna catch it anyway

Re: BJ Dealer mucks her own 21; what\'s the penalty?
 

I was recently playing Pai-Gow with a bunch of friends at the Avi, a small indian joint south of Laughlin, NV. The dealer had 5789TJK and set his hand KT, J9875. I said, "a straight and... KING HIGH! SWEET! KING HIGH!

We were all drunk, but I was the only one who noticed the error. My brother had just shown the floor guy his crappy ass hand and said, "How can I win?" He then called the same floor guy over and said, "That's how I can win! Look!" Floor guy notices the error, walks away, immediately returns with another floor guy, they both count the box, and a new dealer pushes the guy within one one hand. I really don't think that he had any idea, and nothing else happened.

Devo

Re: BJ Dealer mucks her own 21; what\'s the penalty?
 

I worked as a blackjack dealer (am now a poker dealer). It would probably depend on the house. Some houses might fire her. A place like mine might just write her up or even just laugh and tell her not to make the same mistake again.

Re: BJ Dealer mucks her own 21; what\'s the penalty?
 

I had a 21 dealer pay me off on a push (both had 17) once.

In New Zealand, I saw an interesting thing happen at the 21 table once. Over there it is not uncommon for other people to wager in your betting box. The rule is that the total of the wagers in one betting box can not exceed the table limit.

I saw a guy betting the limit ($1000/hand) and his buddy would bet $25 behind it in the same box. Dealer didn't realize that, combined, they were exceeding the limit. The dealer ran hot and won I don't know how many hands in a row. Floor finally notices the problem and tells dealer to pay attention. Floor also told the bettor to hang around, they are going to check video tape to see how many bets the guy lost. They wound up giving him his chips back for every bet that the limit was exceeded and he lost. Never saw that before.