This is the second post in the Nairobi Casino Adventures stream.
“You can’t chase the night! But I wore my running shoes so let’s play one more round!” Mitch slapped the cut card to his forehead so that it stuck, crossed his eyes upward and wiggled his extended fingers beneath his chin. Some of the pit bosses gave Mitch a curious glance. He was already down 100 dollars but he felt confident.
“You look crazy!” Hughie pointed at Mitch and belted an artificial laugh. “Big Bad Voodoo Daddy got his hex on now!”
Mitch made a snappy, repetitive double saluting motion towards the six decks of cards and grunted “Hent! Hent!” He took the cut card off his forehead and sliced the decks toward the left end of the stack. The dealer gave them a gratuitous glance at the bottom card. It was a ten of hearts. “Oh, yeah, baby! There’s a ten waiting for us at the end of the shoe!”
“Gotta love ‘dem tens. Now we just need some aces to go with ’em so we can get paid three-to-two.”
“Hell yes!”
“Service please?” Hughie asked the pit boss sitting next to their blackjack table. The pit boss adjusted his tie and panned around the room for the nearest cocktail waitress. He didn’t see any so he clapped his hands twice.
Hughie looked over the top of the heads of people playing roulette at the table next to him. He saw a waitress moving briskly towards his table. As she got closer Hughie noticed her name tag read ‘Eunice’.
“Yes, please?” Eunice forced a meek smile.
“You-Nice, I need a double Jack Daniels, ice cubes and a cold Coke. I’d like the ice cubes to be cold too. HA!” Hughie laughed at his own joke.
The young Kenyan woman stared blankly and asked “Double Jack Daniels and a Coke?”
“Ice cubes too. Remember. Cold.” Hughie smiled.
Eunice pushed her chin towards her chest, looked down and walked toward a distant bar.
Hughie turned around just in time to see his first card. It was a seven of spades. Mitch’s card was an eight of clubs. The dealer got a nine of spades. The second round was a king of clubs for Hughie and a jack of diamonds for Mitch. “The book says always stand on a hard seventeen, eh?”
“Yup.” Mitch nodded.
“No Cards.”
Mitch wiggled his fingers under his chin again and crossed his eyes at the ceiling. “No cards.”
The dealer flipped the next card on top of his exposed nine: a ten of hearts.
Mampruga 