Well, my best (i.e. largest) bets would also be my worst bets, as they are usually the 'hail mary's' that I do at the end of a losing session to try and 'make it all back'. Of course, at the stakes I play, such bets have never exceeded $50 or so.

However, I was in Harrah's in New Orleans this last Wednesday night when I saw something truly impressive, or lucky. An elderly gentleman sat down next to me at the blackjack table, and cashed in for $850. This was a $10-$500 table, so it caught the pit bosses attention. Well, everytime he'd win, he'd press his bet, and pretty soon he was betting $500 a hand. Thing was, he didn't seem to be all that mentally aware (would try to bet more than $500, even when told numerous times about the table limits, would get the purples, blacks, and greens mixed up, etc.) although he did have the smarts enough to play basic strategy.

Anyway, I think he played 3-4 shoes, and then out of the blue said "That's it! I'm done!", pushed all of his chips in, and cashed out for like $8,400. He fumbled around with all of his chips (the table didn't have colour higher than $500), and pushed 4 of them to the dealers, and said 'thanks' and walked away. My first reaction was 'Did he just tip the dealers $2000?', and unfortunately my second reaction was 'Dang, spread some of that love around the table.' Of course, all of the dealers in a particular shift split the tips there, so everyone was going crazy.

I think I was slightly down for the time that he had spent at the table, but my heart was racing like I had been betting the hands. I eventually got ahead (like $100), but people were still talking about it for a couple hours later.

Brent J. Jensen
R-6335
orbis non sufficit