BLACKJACK IN PARADISE: PARADISE ISLAND

On Monday afternoon, we visited the Straw Market, which is right on the dock in Nassau. There are a wide range of hand-crafted goods there, and locals enjoy a good haggle over prices. We also saw a number of fishermen selling conch (pronounced "konk" ) . Charlie the Great told us that conch was the local fish food, and that it cured everything from headaches to losing streaks in the casinos. I hope there is never a nuclear accident and the conches take over the world. They'll have a lot of getting even to do on the humans. We couldn't go anywhere that conch didn't appear on the menu in several different dishes.

Monday evening we went to the Neptune Room in the Holiday Inn and had a variety of seafood. The food was extremely expen-, sive, as Charlie had promised, but was nothing special. Later that evening I managed to play Blackjack in the Paradise Island casino.

The casino has 26 tables, all dealing four decks out of a shoe. Most dealers cut off 11/z decks with the red plastic marker. When the marker is hit, the deck is immediately reshuffled before re-suming play. The Blackjack rules at Paradise Island, like those of so many Caribbean locations, are less favorable than in Las Vegas.

Doubling is allowed on 9, 10, and 11 only. Resplitting pairs is not allowed, nor is surrender. Insurance is allowed, and at the $5.00 minimum tables, you must insure for the total $5.00. However, the tables stock no $2.50 chips, so if you Blackjack on a $5.00 bet, your second $5.00 winning chip is "imprisoned", until the next hand.

The tables were full most of the time. In the early evening, wh there are few players in the casino, only four to eight tables a open. In the late evening after 10:00 P.M., most of the tables ar open, but conditions are so crowded that people were three dee waiting for a seat. Part of this problem was due to being ther during the "season" in February, when the ocean liners brin thousands of tourists to Nassau. During this season, the best tim to play is Sunday evenings and in the afternoons between noo and 3:00 P.M.

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