Amid the chaos, a man took the opportunity to take back his losing bet, almost a complete success. If for not the honesty of the individual who's action helped kickstart the chaos, that man would have stayed in the casino and probably continued to test his abilities on the table.
This is how the situation progressed. Player on seat one is banking, he has put out 400$ in chips to play using the dealer hand on blackjack. He can only win or lose 400$ the first bank he does. Other than him, there are five other players playing at the table, all of which bust and lose except 1, who has a 50$ bet and a blackjack. The bonus payout is 10$, making it a 60$ winner.
Very important to the player banking is the down card of the dealer hand. The numerical value of that card becomes the action point. This is where payouts/collections begin. Action card is a 5, so the action hand is seat 5, which is where the blackjack hand is. The player banker has only big chips (100$) in the bank, so the dealer would have to break down a chip to make the payout. Instead of letting the dealer break down the chip into 25's and 5's, he takes 60 out of his own stack, which would not be a big deal to me if the banker covers the action on the table, in this case, if there was 400$ or less in player bets.
At this point I do a snapshot of total action and count over 400 on the table, so I immediately stop the dealer from continuing. "What is the problem," is basically the response I get from the dealer, player/banker and another player on the last seat. I explain that it is fine that he pays 60$ from his own stack of chips, but because there is only 400 in the bank, he can only win 340$, basic subtraction. Somehow this deduction I have made does not make sense to the dealer and the other 2 mentioned above, so after some dialogue between me and them we decide to go back, skip the shortcut, and go step by step. Problem solved....
......Only now his 400$ covers the table!!! Sadly I did not stop the game at this point to determine if I counted wrong earlier, I just let the dealer continue with the payout/collection process. I felt inside that there is something wrong with this picture, but brushed it aside assuming I just counted wrong. We continue the hand and when finished I get up from the table.
While on the adjacent table, my coworker asks me how much the player on seat 5 had bet, and I said 200$. It appears there is something wrong on the table. The player banker now realizes that I was onto something and notices that the losing bet amount was not accurate.
After a camera check, we find out that seat 5 had pulled his money back while I was being triple teamed. He saw an opportunity, me being distracted, to get his money back. This revelation pissed me off because...how many times before this with other players did this happen? I always thought of myself as an exceptional banker with great observational skills, but here I was proven otherwise.
Thank you opportunist, because I have been shown a fault in me, overconfidence, and now I am prepared. There is so much for me to improve on, I just needed to be beaten to see his.
