GSN is four weeks into its new, 13-episode World Series of Blackjack. Each episode, five notable players of the game compete to advance to the final rounds where there will be serious cash awards.
This is tournament play, which is somewhat different from playing the way you and I play in a casino. In tournament play, you're competing against the other players, so it's actually good when you lose a hand, providing the others at the table lose more. There are situations where it might make sense to split tens, double down on high hands…or even double down on a Blackjack. A player has the usual problems of deciding when to hit, stand, split, double or surrender ("surrender" is employed more often than in non-tournament play) but the real strategizing comes with figuring how much to wager. You could easily win every hand but lose the match to someone who lost most of the hands but bet more skillfully.
All thirteen rounds were taped some time ago, and a new one airs every Friday night at 10 PM Eastern time or 7 PM on my satellite dish. GSN has reruns throughout the week but I can't figure out how to tell which one they're airing when, so I just TiVo the Friday night installments. At some point, they'll probably have at least one marathon with all the episodes to date aired in sequence.
I used to play a lot of the common variety of Blackjack but gave it up more than ten years ago. It was fun at first, but it got to feel like work, and if I was going to work, I figured I should work at my writing, which paid a bit more predictably. Even when it was fun, I was less interested in the cash than in the puzzle. Counting cards and figuring progressive wagers tapped a part of my brain that enjoyed the workout, but when that lobe lost interest, I decided to quit while I was ahead. If you play any of those games long enough, you cannot help but lose everything.
Watching tournament play reignites some of that interest, though not to the point where I would ever enter a contest. I'm just having fun watching good players, and occasionally pausing the TiVo before they act to think, "Hmm…what would I do in that situation?" My answers rarely match the decisions of those who go on to win, which is a major reason you'll never catch me trying it. But I play along, armchair style, and then log into two Internet forums for the post-game chatter. Those who competed in the games are contractually barred from discussing an episode until after it airs, but then Anthony Curtis — one of the players and also the publisher of Las Vegas Advisor — does play-by-play on this page, and another player, Ken Smith, posts recaps and analysis on this other forum.
Watching other folks play Blackjack may not interest you. At times, depending on my mood, it doesn't interest me, either. But at times, it rekindles the fun I had for a time playing the basic, me-against-the-dealer version. In a way, it's better because there's no chance of losing money, no cigarette smoke, no idiot players to your right who can't add up a hand with an ace in it, and no pit boss staring at you every time you win a big bet, wondering if you're up to something. Then again, there's no chance of winning money, no cute cocktail waitress bringing me free Sprite, and no way to score a comp to a buffet.