Gambling in Blackjack (Part 1)

The three of us stood in darkness for a brief moment, followed by a series of creaking noises.

“Careful, I don't know what kind of tricks this crazy pipper is trying to pull.” Rollnaldo warned.

Moonlight began to flood into the room as all the castle’s walls fell outward, collapsing the entire castle, leaving an open clearing. The card guards stacked the collapsed cards into a platform, which Andy-Ka-Dabra stood on top of. The ground beneath us also began to rise, as they began erecting a platform of cards beneath Rollnaldo and I and a separate one beneath Eight. Around us, a circular wall of cards was formed, resembling a colosseum. In front of each of us, was a table with a series of frisbee sized poker chips on it.

Andy-Ka-Dabra held up the list of demands that Eight had given him. “So if you manage to win this game, you're demanding that I sweep all your crimes under the rug, return your bombs, and…” He held the piece of paper closer to his face as he reread it. “You want me to force that dice to marry you? I don’t think I have the power to do that.”

“He's a citizen of this province and you're the governor. Just make a law or something that requires him to.” Eight adamantly pointed at him.

Rollnaldo waved his arms around, flustered. “Woah, woah, woah, I never agreed to this.”

“No need to play coy, Recruit Number One. If you just want to propose now, I won't stop you.” The look in her eyes was that of a crazy insane stalker.

Rollnaldo pulled a black marker and notepad from his logic-defying pockets. “Change of plans, Lucky. You're gonna challenge both of them simultaneously and if we win, these will be the terms both of them will be abiding by.” He tore the page out of his notepad and folded it into a paper airplane, which he tossed across to Andy-Ka-Dabra.

“What's this?” Andy-Ka-Dabra wondered as he caught the paper airplane.

“I guess, I’m challenging both you and Eight now to a Gamble Showdown.” I responded.

“What the muck, Recruit Number Four!? This was supposed to be a team effort.” Eight glared at me.

Andy-Ka-Dabra unfolded the paper airplane. “So you're demanding all of your crimes be pardoned, this dice’s cart and merchandise be returned, and you want out of this girl's terrorist organization.”

“Oh, and also I want a size thirty two waist pair of pants.” I added.

“I wasn't expecting a one v. one v. one, but no matter. The game we'll be playing is blackjack. In front of each of us is a table with four chips on it. Each round, you'll place your bets on that table in front of you. The minimum bet required per round will be one chip. We’ll keep playing until two of the three of us busts.” He attempted to make it look like he manifested a wand from thin air, unfortunately the effect was ruined when it got caught on his sleeve. He held the wand in his hand and waved it around. “I need all fifty-two of my card guards to pile up.”

All marching in a single file line, a group of card people made their way to the center of the arena that had been created. One by one, they obediently fell on top of each other, forming a neatly shuffled deck.

I knew the object of blackjack was to get as close to twenty one as possible without going over. In Vegas though, that was about where my knowledge ended. In like two hands I managed to to lose $3,000.

I turned to Rollnaldo. “I’m terrible at cards. You're going to have to coach me through this again.”

He shot me a serious look. “Trust me, I intend to give this everything I have. I don't need daddy issues over there ruining our quest to make it to the Kasino King.”

“Wait a mucking second, if the three of us are going to be the players and Recruit Number One is spectating, who's going to be the dealer?” Eight brought up a good point.

Andy-Ka-Dabra pulled off his top hat again. This time his rabbit hopped out and down from the platform. “My rabbit, Bill, can act as the dealer.”

The rabbit's black soulless eyes stared out into the void as it began to mindlessly nibble on the corner of the deck.

Andy-Ka-Dabra took another handful of silver glitter from his pocket and tossed it in the air. “Without further adieu, the game will begin!”

Rollnaldo suspiciously stared at the deck of card guards. “Something seems off.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Most people in the kingdom, including myself, should easily be able to card count a fifty two card deck like that. It almost seems too good to be true.” He then turned his attention to the betting table in front of us. “Not to mention, he even gave us a copy of the black jack strategy chart.”

Laying on top of the table was a laminated piece of paper with a green, red, and yellow color coordinated grid printed on it.

“What's the purpose of that?”

“It's meant to help determine the optimal decision based on your hand. The fact that he's giving it to us, makes me wonder…” He went into deep thought for a moment, before directing me as to what to do. “Just put the minimum one chip bet down for now.”

I did as he said and plopped down a single green frisbee sized chip on the table in front of me. Looking over toward Eight’s platform, I could see that she set out two green chips on her table. Andy-Ka-Dabra was the only one who had not placed his bets yet. He stood silently as he waved his arm in front of himself. A red aura encompassed him.

“He’s already using his gambling sorcery?” I looked on in surprise.

The deck of card guards suddenly glowed red. They began to levitate, as the number of cards in the deck began to multiply while reshuffling itself. The size of the cards themselves increased from being about six feet long to about the size of a semi trailer.

“I knew that pipper had a trick up his sleeve!” Rollnaldo shook his head, not seeming surprised in the least. “Looks like we're playing with eight decks now.”

“Increasing both the deck and card sizes…seems more like you're compensating for something else.” Eight shot Andy-Ka-Dabra an arrogant smirk.

Ignoring her attempt at emasculating him, Andy-Ka-Dabra snapped his fingers. The now even larger deck stopped glowing and fell to the ground, shaking the entire colosseum.

“The show's about to begin!” Andy-Ka-Dabra declared, slapping down two green chips.

Bill the Rabbit tapped the top of the deck with its paw. There was a rumble, followed by six of the card guards on top of the deck sliding off and dealing themselves out to the three of us. Another two then slid off and were placed in an area on the ground labeled, ‘Dealer’. One of the dealer’s cards laid face down, while the other laid face up. The face up card was an ace of hearts.

I looked up at the towering cards that were dealt out to me. “Ten of diamonds and seven of clubs, that equals seventeen.”

“Hmmm.” Rollnaldo took a moment to analyze the field. “Just play it safe and stand. I’m still trying to get my bearings on what tricks are at play right now.”

“I'm going to stand.” I declared, meaning no more cards would be dealt out to me this round.

“I'll do the same.” Eight spoke next. The two cards she was dealt were a nine of clubs and an eight of hearts, which was also equal to seventeen.

Andy-Ka-Dabra confidently stared at his cards, which were a king of spades and a six of clubs. “I'd like to buy insurance.” He said, as he set down another green chip.

“Who the heck buys insurance in blackjack?” Rollnaldo looked confused.

“I don't even know what that means.” I murmured to him.

“It's a side bet that you can place when the dealer immediately pulls a face up ace. If the dealer gets a blackjack in the round, it cancels out any losses you would have taken from your initial bet. Meaning you breakeven.” He explained.

“Why is that a bad thing?”

“Buying insurance is considered one of the worst bets in blackjack. The odds are always in the house's favor. Andy-Ka-Dabra isn't an amateur, so him making a rookie move like buying insurance boggles my mind.” He looked at the field with uncertainty and intrigued.

There was a brief pause, followed by Bill nibbling on the corner of the face down card guard before it flipped up to its feet, revealing… a jack of hearts

“What the muck!?” Eight loudly cursed as she kicked the leg of her table.

Rollnaldo shook his head. “I had a feeling my hunch was right.” He looked toward Abra-ka-Ronny, who was taking a bow. “Now I get what the gambling sorcery he cast did. It didn't just multiply the number of decks being used in the game, it shuffled them in his favor.”

Eight and I both lost our bets, while Andy-Ka-Dabra broke even off of his play. All the card guards that had been drawn this round returned to their normal size and made their way over to the side of the arena where they all stood in a square on the ground that was labeled, ‘discard pile’.