The Time I Gambled My Way Out of Detention...

My freshman year of high school, I played Blackjack a lot.

We usually didn’t gamble since…you know…we were at school. When we did, the stakes were low—mostly candy. If you’re currently in high school, I don’t recommend playing Blackjack at school.

On this particular day, we weren’t gambling at all. We were just sitting around a table waiting for our parents to pick us up. Our designated dealer was there, so the four of us started playing round after round.

At some point, one of the rounds got a little too intense—and caught a teacher’s attention.

He came over and asked if we were gambling.

Obviously, we said no.

He didn’t look convinced. He said it looked like we were gambling, and that was enough to land all of us in detention.

Meanwhile, my friend—the dealer—never stopped shuffling the deck the entire time the teacher was talking.

Then the teacher looked at us and said: “You know what. One round. Just me and you. If you win, none of you are in trouble. If I win, you’ve all got detention.”

Before I could even respond, my friend started dealing.

I got an eight and a ten.

And I took the first turn.

I looked at my friend. He met my eyes and said, “Hit. Trust me.”

So I did.

He dealt me a three.

Twenty-one.

The teacher had no choice but to hit… and bust.

What the teacher didn’t know going into that game:

My friend had been stacking the deck for me the entire time we’d been playing.

What I didn’t know until that exact moment:

My friend had been stacking the deck for me the entire time.

And what he didn’t know?

I’d been counting cards the whole time.

As far as I’m aware, none of our friends ever realized what was happening.

It just became:

Damn. Steph’s really good at Blackjack.

But if you do want to play blackjack somewhere a little less risky, a deck like this works perfectly: https://amzn.to/4euaLaH