MWRT – 2025 – Black Hawk Colorado
The next two days were filled with the views of the drive from North Montana to the Rocky Mountains at Black Hawk Colorado where we would spend a couple of nights with my sister Sandy and brother in law John. Much of the drive was on two lane highways avoiding the interstates and it was really nice. On the first day we left Montana, drove through Medicine Bow, and arrived in Casper Wyoming for the night. The name Medicine Bow on the road sign immediately brought back early childhood memories of watching the hit TV show “The Virginian” with James Drury. For some reason the ranch foreman only was known as “the Virginian”, I never new why.
We spent the night in Casper and went out to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse, celebrating our 44 wedding anniversary that day, after a long drive. It was pretty much the same food as the one across the highway from home :). Consistent and we enjoyed the evening. The next day was a shorter drive to our AirBNB home in the mountains near Black Hawk. We met my sister Sandy and John after picking up provisions and had a great evening together in this really cool place which had been built and outfitted by an artist before the current owners took it over to be a short term rental.
We spent the next day in Black Hawk looking around and spending some time in the local casinos of which there were plenty. It was a really nice day and this was one of those little towns in Colorado that decorated the streets with arrangements of flowers all along the downtown area. Like Deadwood, every hotel and bar had slot machines and quite a few had Blackjack tables. After having a snack at one of the hotel steakhouses, we headed up the street to visit the Lodge casino with the plan to play some Three Card Poker all together for an hour or two.
Three Card Poker table at the Lodge Casino
I was the only one of the four of us with any experience playing Three Card Poker so everyone was kind of skittish to start. The dealer was pretty funny though, putting everyone at ease and showing how to play. Great thing about it was, we were all winning those side bets and John started raking in the chips hitting good hands after good hands. I gave Kathy a hundred dollars to play.
As soon as she had $110, she wanted to color up and stop playing! She is so funny. I talked her into playing a few more hands by bribing her with another $100 if she lost the first one. Pretty soon she had 250 bucks and I couldn’t convince her anymore and she colored up and just watched the rest of the time. We all played for quite awhile. John and Sandy came out with a good profit and I was not to far from even when we decided to move on.
Kathy went to look around the shops while Sandy and John found some slot machines to try. I went around to the Two Deck Blackjack table to check it out.
Blackjack play in Black Hawk
There was no one playing at the Two Deck table and I figured it would be a pretty good opportunity so I had a seat and bought in for a couple hundred dollars. Immediately another player joined me, all good. He was a young guy that knew the floor staff. He was already down a grand, he said, and was looking for some recovery at the Blackjack tables. This kid was playing the side bet “Dealer Bust” which I had not played before. After the hands are dealt, you can add a bet to the side for this one if you think the dealer will bust his hand.
Pretty soon this guy asks me if he can put $25 on the side bet for Dealer Bust on my spot. I said sure but he motioned that I was to place the bet since he couldn’t actually move the chip onto my spot. Sure enough, the dealer busted and paid my side bet which paid like 3 or 4 to one. The payout depended on the dealer up card value and on the combination of bust cards. For example, a dealer 8-8-8 bust paid 1000 to 1! Anyway, I pulled in the winning chips and handed them over to my new buddy. He was a gentlemen and tipped me two red five dollar chips so I placed them on the side bet and dealer bet hoping they were lucky chips. No joy, ha!
A few shoes went by and I had to buy in a few times as conditions warranted. My hands were just not winning until I finally got a pretty sweet shoe which the dealer only cut off about 26 cards and I had my max bet out for the final 5 or 6 rounds ending the shoe with a $1,000 profit. I knew my group was probably ready to move on and visit the casino next door so it was a good time to color up and cash out.
The Ameristar Casino next door had six deck Blackjack which I wanted to play for a short while so John and I walked over to a empty table and I sat down to play heads up, with John looking on to see how I played.
I was immediately pretty psyched when the dealer only cut off about 32 cards from the six decks. This could be good. The dealer got things started and was pretty fast. Within about 10 rounds with five decks remaining to play, conditions got really good and I was playing my max bet again. As luck would have it though, I just couldn’t win a hand with the dealer drawing 3 and 4 card 20’s and 21’s over and over. Although the cards wouldn’t know it, I was kind of happy when this dealer’s relief came, greeted me with a big smile, burned a card, and began dealing once again.
Everything shifted in my favor for the rest of the shoe which seemed like it lasted for half an hour. John said for him, it was flying by as I had $250 bet every hand. I was winning 3-4 hands to every hand the dealer won with several black jacks sprinkled in along with several double down hands which I won.
I did make a error at one point not being clear in my mind on a soft 13 versus a dealer 7, which initially I played correctly but for some reason, even though I knew better, decided to double at one point. It didn’t work for me.
The dealer was visibly into my game as I was playing heads up and he was paying my winning hands with 10 green chips every time saying “green is working we’ll stay with it until the trey is empty”! The pit boss came over and stared at what was happening with a grim look but said nothing. He wasn’t too concerned when I was buying in with $400 over and over but now he seemed quite concerned as my pile of chips grew and the trey emptied.
The last hand finally played which was another win and the dealer happily exclaimed he had never seen anything like it. I’d kept him interested with $5 chip bets placed for the dealer as long has I’d one at least once, so he won about $50- $75 bucks. The shoe was over and I was celebrating with John and the dealer as he counted up my winnings and colored me up. It was truly amazing, a glory shoe if there ever is one and something you don’t get to experience too often.
I went to the cage to cash in with quite a few purple chips. Unfortunately, the cashier wanted my ID and wouldn’t cash my chips without it. I didn’t want to give him my ID because casinos are funny about winning players and if I came back one day, they may not let me play if they recognized me. So, I made an excuse and took my chips with me. I recruited my group and between them and a couple of visits to the cage over the next hour or so, got all my chips cashed without giving up ID, all the good.
Having played Blackjack at more that twenty other casinos along my Mid West Road Trip, for over 65 total hours of play, I came into Black Hawk ahead quite a bit already and only wanted to play for a little while at the Black Hawk casinos since I was enjoying my time with Kathy, Sandy, and John. I’d would have been happy to just play a few shoes and not lose or win. To finish my Blackjack adventure this way was such a thrilling experience I could hardly sleep that night. Never the less, we were up at 6 am to start the long drive home. My Mid West Road Trip would soon be coming to an end.
View of Black Hawk with the Ameristar Casino
The Ameristar is the tall hotel in the distance.
