A writer for a Vegas-themed website emailed me that question. It’s a question I’ve been asked before, and it’s a fair question, I suppose, but one that is difficult to answer (answer for the opposite question below!). In my case, just divulging the amount of the win would provide sufficient identifying information to compromise the participants and consequently the play itself. Continue reading What’s Your Biggest Win?
Category: Advantage Play
How We Do It: Handing Off a Seat
In this first post in the “How We Do It” series, I would like to discuss an extremely important task, nay, skill, that card counters have never even considered, but which my crew faces on a near-daily basis:
Michael Sam, Meritocracy, and … Gambling!
I admit it—I am putty in the hands of the mind-shaping juggernaut that is ESPN. By the time I wake up in the morning, the same episode of SportsCenter has been burned into my subconscious three times. (Thank goodness I don’t sleep late, or it would be twelve times.)
So, like millions of Americans, I followed the recent NFL Draft with bated breath, as if the fortunes of Jadeveon Clowney, Johnny Manziel, and Michael Sam have any significant impact on my life.
He Beat Me—Straight Up …
As I promised, I’ll now reveal my favorite gambling movie. There are a few “classics” that I haven’t seen, but I doubt that they can supplant my favorite.
Seeking Out Unfair Games
Many times I’ve written about video poker games that I consider fair. And what I mean by “fair” is that every unseen card has an equal chance of appearing next.
Most people seem to accept my definition — or at least understand what I am talking about.
However, I recently received an email at [email protected] from someone who calls himself “Reno Master.” The email read as follows: Continue reading Seeking Out Unfair Games
“Doctor, it hurts when I do THIS”
“Well don’t do that!” the good doctor quips. I have always found this joke entertaining, not so much for the wisecracking humor, but for the subtle wisdom therein. Note that the doctor’s advice is not “I’ll prescribe some medical marijuana for you,” or “You need to learn to live with the pain,” or “You need a thicker skin.” Steeling oneself to endure pain is an unhealthy practice (pain is a message to you), and yet suffering card counters constantly prescribe this regimen to each other.
The Best Gambling Movie of All Time–Not!
A friend recently forced me to watch the movie “Casino” for the first time. You may be shocked that a professional gambler wouldn’t have already seen “Casino” twenty times, but Hollywoodizations of what we do for a living aren’t always so appealing. Besides, we be werkin’ all the time! It turns out that “Casino” is not a gambling movie; it’s “Goodfellas” in a casino (with the same movie director, screen writer, and cast!). So, it didn’t come close to unseating our #1 gambling movie (guess what that is!), but “Casino” still contained some valuable lessons for the modern casino AP:
The Club Calling the Spade Black
On a blackjack Website, I read a thread about a card counter doing a “great drunk act” (that’ll be another blog entry later). The post read:
The count goes up a bit, the drunk stops play with, “Can I change my bet?” The pit says sure. The drunk then takes the two greens he had bet and replaces them with two different greens from his stack. It totally cracked me up.
Then another card counter posted the reply: “Hilarious.” Continue reading The Club Calling the Spade Black
The Denominator—Where “Due” Happens
After a weekend of listening to football broadcasters, I need to detox. I still feel this zinger from a few weeks ago during the Sunday Night Football broadcast: the commentator noted that Adam Vinatieri, the kicker for the Indianapolis Colts, had a career record of 18 of 36 when attempting field goals over 50 yards, and a season record of 2 of 4 at that distance. No matter how you look at it, he said, it’s a 50-50 proposition. Then Vinatieri kicked the field goal, upping his record on the season to 3 out of 5 from long range. Then the commentator quipped, “So I bet he misses the next one.”
Pushback and Bayes’ Rule
I’m only one post into this blogging adventure and I’m getting pushback from the cognoscenti. In my intro post, I advised APs to avoid using the word “stuck.” A player then tells me, “Using that word doesn’t make you a pro—it just makes you old school.” Sigh. I’m not sure where to start. First of all, you don’t want to be old school! You want to be an idiot tourist, one of the millions of new gamblers who only recently discovered the wonders of the Pairs Plus when gambling (er, “gaming”) was finally legalized in their state last year. You want to be the guy who boasts to his friends that he now has been to Vegas 6 times, oblivious to the fact that knowing the exact number undermines the spirit of his boast. On top of that, guess who defended “stuck” as an acceptable word in a casino? None other than a longtime professional player who is a member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame! QED! Continue reading Pushback and Bayes’ Rule