I was playing at sands Bethlehem recently and sat at a $50 table and there was one guy playing; he wasn't a counter. He had a nice shoe and was up three stacks of blacks.

Then I bought in and I was in utter shock as he proceeded to surrender some hands that had me scratching my head.

At one point he had $300+ up on 2 hands and surrendered a 12 and 14 versus a dealer 7... dealer flipped a face; next two cards were 6&7. Two hands later with the same bets he surrendered a 13 and 14 versus a dealer 8, flipped over a 3 and a 6.

Then there were about four or five more surrender hands like that (not once did the dealer have a 9 or face or ace)!

Soon the inevitable happened and he went busto. Dealer and pit critter were shaking their heads. Even the 95 year old looky loo Made a comment. I was thinking to myself that he might as well just give the house all his money at one time. What a waste.

 

that was bizarre that he was betting those amounts, yet had no clue how to play the game

 

Kuwaitis are notorious for things like this. several times, I've watched 100k+ buyins go down the tubes in 15-20 hands while laughter filled the room. It's an amazing thing to witness. When the chips are gone, the "money man" standing behind them passes another clip and they rinse and repeat.

They're also great guys to drink with. I hate Jack with a passion but I'll always drink a few if I'm at a table with Kuwaitis.

 

That's prolly cuz 100k is an hour of work for a Kuwaiti oil man.

 

True. It's always easier with Monopoly money. Although, if I hit powerball tomorrow, I would still be playing quasi basic strategy.

 

You wouldn't know that until you are there.

 

Somewhat cliche..... I certainly wouldn't be hitting 19's or splitting 6's against faces for entertainment value.

I agree that generally we can't project behavior, but a basic strategy player is likely to remain a basic strategy player with greater means, simply at higher levels.

 

The weird thing about this was that other than the crazy surrender plays, he played within the confines of basic strategy ...