Mr Cranky tones it down. It was his own fault, after all. I shrug. I have a decent stack of chips, and it seems the security people aren't going to bother carding me. If they had been going to card me on the door I wouldn't have come in. Let's face it, what's the point of trying to get into a place you know you're going to be turned away from? (A song by Nickelback enters my head, and I banish it quickly). The dealer is offering me the cards to cut. Possibilities swirl. Including... "I've got a pair of nail scissors in my bag? Ha ha!" That actual future was there as a possible reality - where I get out the scissors and start cutting the cards up. It ends badly. Most of the really random ones I see from time to time end badly. But the possibility where I crack the age-old joke about cutting the cards, that creates a swirl further down the time-line that I can't see the effect of yet, but it has no effect whatever on the immediate future.<br/><br/>I hover my hand over the two decks of cards, feeling the probabilities change as I move my fingers up and down. I decide to be nice to the old fart sitting next to me, and make the cut. The dealer takes the cards back and flips six out onto the table I have an eight and a five, my elderly companion has a nine and a king. The Dealer has an ace and a seven, but all I can see is the ace. I don't take out the insurance, there's no need. I'd just loose it. The old fellow does, probably because I did, last time the lady had an ace as her up card.<br/><br/>I stand. If I draw, I will lose, because the next two cards are a four and a ten. Mr Grumpy stands as well. He's lost his insurance bet, but with nineteen he'll create the win for both of us! The dealer flips her hole card and takes the $5 chip from the insurance box. She has eighteen or eight. She knows there is still a chance she can make 19, 20 or 21, and I'm pretty sure Casino rules say she has to try. There are two possibilities there. She can draw both cards and bust on 22 or she can stand and pay the old man, in which case I loose, but he was getting really unhappy, and I wanted to be nice to him! If she draws the four, she will be on 12, and must then draw the ten, with nothing to lose by trying.