[quote name=\'GS Warehouse\' date=\'Oct 13 2004, 11:38 AM\'] These may be uneducated opinions, but 1) having four players rather than five reduces the chances of the cut card coming out during the game, and 2) Hollywood Dave is a hoot.
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1) I was wondering about that, actually, wondering how many hands of blackjack a deck is good for, and whether the shoe needs filled along the way. Just to do some rough estimates, let's assume 5 players and a dealer, and that on a given hand, across those six players, three extra cards are drawn. I think we can all agree those are pretty conservative numbers, yes?
So that's 15 cards a hand * 21 hands (they play 21 hands, yes, as opposed to WSOB's 30?) for a total of 315 cards. Six decks is 312, never mind the indicator. So they're gonna restock a six-deck shoe along the way on the old show, guaranteed.
Now, with four and a dealer, that goes down to 13 cards * 21 hands, or 273 cards. The Vegas mavens can correct me if I'm wrong, but the custom is to plant the indicator fifty cards or so from the bottom, yes? That drops the shoe to right around 260 cards, little more, little less.
So if the intent was to not have to restock the shoe (or, more to the point, not to have to stop down tape to restock the show), it strikes me they didn't give themselves enough of a pad, and could have accomplished that better by switching to an eight-deck shoe. So I don't think that's the reasoning.
I'm thinking a closer guess might be something along the lines of the producers thinking that it might be less confusing for the viewers to follow less players, or something even as simple as budget: one fewer celebrity to pay per show.
2) I agree that Dave is enjoyable on CB. The thing about Dave that you have to watch out for is that there are two Daves: the one who deals, and the one who plays. As long as we have Dealer Dave, we're fine. But remember what a idiot he was as a contestant? I was watching this Vegas Challenge thing on Bravo where people play different table games for a night in an effort to be the chip leader at the end (three civvies and a "pro", Dave was the "pro" this night), and Dave was a perfect asshole the entire time.
So as long as Dave remembers his place, and Player Dave doesn't start peeking out, it should be okay.
(And I'd like this post archived as evidence when people start accusing me again of contributing nothing useful to this board.