I recently had the opportunity to actually hit a hard 18. It was not during a tournament, just a regular casino table at the high roller pit at the Crystal Palace Casino in Nassau just about a month ago.

Here's what happened:

The dealer had two times in a row where she had an ace up. She of course offered insurance. Now comes a new hand, and she has a Queen up, she offers insurance again, and looks at her down card and begins to turn it over, showing a second queen as she announces "sorry". I then say "hey...hey, that's twenty!" She gasps at her mistake, and calls the pit boss over to deal with the situation. The decision was that the cards have to play.

I'm sitting with K-8, and I know she has a twenty, so I take a card.... and I'm dealt a 3 !!!

Talk about making my day !!!