Doubling Down

Rarity makes life special. That is why things may be exciting to children – flying on a plane or going to the top of a skyscraper – yet bore an adult that has become accustomed to “rarities.” As in life, rarity is what makes sports worth watching. Brett Favre would not be able to capture America’s heart if every team had a “Brett Favre” - i.e. good looking (or so the ladies tell me), down-to-earth, charismatic, humble, troubled, and honest player- at quarterback. There is, however, only one Brett Favre, and that is why America loves him. Recently I was reminded of the importance of rarity, when I was fortunate enough to witness the rarest of all events: the double down on twelve.

That may be a slight exaggeration. Some things are probably rarer than doubling down on twelve: an unassisted triple play; back-to-back no hitters; or a 100 point game in the NBA. Although those events are rare, I knew each of those events could happen, since they have before, even if I never expected to witness one during my lifetime. At not point in my life, however, had it occurred to me that I might see someone double down on twelve. Forget about wondering whether I thought I would see someone do it, I never thought someone would double down on twelve. Naively, I believed that everyone – blackjack players, the dealers, their respective mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children, grandparents, from any nationality whatsoever– doubled down on eleven, and only eleven. Yet, at a Casino, recently, a friend of mine clearly stated to the dealer “double down,” with an illustrious face card and two showing. Not believing what she had heard, the player to his left attempted to grab the chips off the table before the dealer had even realized that he had placed another bet. Exclaiming, "he did not mean it!" Oddly enough, that’s not the type of thing a dealer misses, and he politely explained to the woman that the chips would remain right on the table. (That's actually what his eyes said, since he spoke Portugese, we could not understand a thing he said.) Fortunately, fate is just, and has a sense of humor, because the double downer received a two, and lost to the dealer. (The story would not be remotely as funny had he miraculously comeback to win, despite that mental error of Chris Webber-esque proportions.)

Oh, for those of you who ignore the "don't try this at home" warning, please, PLEASE, do not attempt to explain away the event to your friends by saying "I never claimed to be a Blackjack expert." If you had an infinite number of monkeys, with an infinite number of typewriters, one of them would write Shakespeare. None of them, however, would double down on twelve.