Okay, I think I know how to do this, but I'm going to ask the professionals to be sure I get the CORRECT answer rather than my INCORRECT answer (and I think I can only do the first part of it, besides).

Here goes: recreational player, 2 years of playing experience. Absolutely no posibility of more than 100 hours of playing time in those 2 years, and probably closer to 50 hours. Plays at moderately full shoe games, so "100 hands an hour" would be a definite no-no. I believe 60 hands an hour would be fair. Given that range, my best guess is that this person has played anywhere from 3000 to 6000 hands of blackjack (60 x 50 to 60 x 100). Feel free to provide your own more accurate figures if you think you can.

This same person has been the (un)lucky witness to the dealer pulling 3 blackjacks in a row and now more recently, FOUR naturals in a row. The 3 BJs came in a 6D shoe game (no recollection of how many other players), the 4 BJs came during a double deck game (with one other player).

I think the math goes like this---help me here---blackjack occurs about 1 in every 21 hands. 4.8% I seem to recall from some text, but I'll let the experts present and then use their number for their calculations. So, to see 3 BJs come at you in a row, the chances of a 1 in 21 event occuring 3 times in a row is 21 x 21 x 21 or 1 in 9,261. I was told earlier, and obviously this would be true, if you play enough blackjack, you're going to see a dealer or player receive 3 blackjacks in a row. In order to get 4 in a row, the number above gets multiplied again by 21 to get to the highly unlikely odds of 1 in 194,481. Please confirm or correct these calculations as needed.

Now, given the original premise of the player being a "newbie" and playing so "few" hands relative to most people, what is the likelihood of seeing BOTH of these events in such a short span by the same player? Furthermore, for extra credit, since the 3 BJs in a row happened twice (the first time, and then the more recent time, in which the string continued on to a fourth sighting--what are the odds on seeing those same events (3 BJs in a row, twice)?

Last piece to the puzzle: they were both at the same casino. Luckiest dealers ever?

I can't wait for the "voodoo" howls to come in from the usual suspects regarding this, but c'mon...this is beyond the "pretty rare." Don't you agree?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts....I can't wait to read them.