35 Years of Advantage Play – Part 2

The saga continues.  After I posted Part 1 and then re-read it, I realized how the “background material” was overwhelming the “financial report.”  I must tighten up and quit rambling I said to myself.  But then I read all the comments here and on Facebook where I also post these blogs.  Seems that many enjoy reading the “stories” and are liking the idea of my weaving in the figures leisurely as I detail the memories.

Despite the heated argument of what should and should not open up again during this pandemic there seems to be almost universal agreement that people at high risk (like the elderly and those with medical issues) should continue to stay at home – perhaps indefinitely. So, it looks like I might have plenty of time to reminisce while wandering unhurried down this 35-year path. And surprising enough, without her knowing in advance about this project, daughter Angela brought me for Mother’s Day a most wonderful inspirational gift she had made – 2 albums of pictures she had found while going through old boxes of keepsakes found in her closets and mine. I will never run out of memories!

To continue about our early blackjack years, almost from the first I realized that the comp game was going to be an important factor in becoming successful gamblers. Later down the path when we were able to make a profit from our actual play, we would consider comps as “gravy.”  But during these early years we included the comps since we really were not as skilled at card counting as we wanted to be.  Brad had a natural talent for numbers and was better at it than I was.  Words were more my forte, and although I put in a lot of study and practice and effort, I found I would lose the count too often, having to go back to basic strategy until I could restart.  Another reason we were including comp benefits in our figures was that we were also trying to cover expenses, like airfare.

During 1986-89 we found a comp benefit that afforded us vacations that were beyond our wildest dreams – gambling junkets.  Actually, a junket host found us – at the BJ seminar we had attended during our early study of the game.  I look back on this time and still am amazed that these two novice players with a pretty modest bankroll felt they could go from red chips up to green.  These junkets had pretty high minimum gambling requirements. We sometimes protested that we were afraid we wouldn’t qualify, but the junket organizer would just brush off our fears and say that he needed us to fill up the plane.

So off we went every few months.  A small executive private jet to Tahoe. With a group on a commercial flight to Puerto Rico.  With most of the couples on these junkets only one of them gambled – so Brad and I managed to keep qualifying since both of us played.  A charter to Atlantic City. A flight to the Riviera in Las Vegas.  A phone call from the junket guy, “Did we want to go to Santo Domingo?”  Of course – that sounded exotic.  All we had to ask was “Where is Santo Domingo?”

And finally, the ultimate invitation: “Would we like to go on a 7-day trip to Monte Carlo, with a 3-day stop in Paris on the way?” That took a little while to ponder – there was a hefty 20k upfront deposit to assure that we gambled to the required minimum level. That deposit, if lost, and possible heavy losses at the BJ table would pretty much wipe out our savings for gambling for the next year or two or three – or forever.  The thought was scary.  But it sounded like a trip of a lifetime.

And it was.  Here is Brad in our ornate French Provincial digs at a luxury Monte Carlo hotel.

And we were easily able to gamble to the required minimum level – but kind of a funny story about that.  Funny now – but scary then.  We were gambling with French francs – Brad and I at 2 different tables.  After the first hour, I went over to see how Brad was doing and about had a heart attack.

“Stop! Are you up or down?”

“If I win this next hand I’ll be about even.”

“Thank goodness.  Pull all those chips back!”

Although he is usually very good with numbers, the francs had confused him.  He had been betting $500 a hand instead of what he thought was $50.

Sometimes the gambling gods take pity!

Oops, I need to finish now and I haven’t put in the figures for 1984-88.  My records are so messy.  I need to pull out non-casino winnings (which were large at Tonk and Catholic Church Monte Carlo craps) and travel expenses and drill down to BJ numbers only. One exact figure is that we spent 224 days playing BJ during those years. However, exact win/loss figures are not so easy to come by.  It looks like the numbers circled in red outnumber those in green.  But as I go through and add the estimated value of the high-level comps we enjoyed during that junket period, it looks like we were comfortably financially achieving our goal of “breaking even” and having wonderful vacations.

Next blog will take up our journey in 1989 when Brad retired and we became full-time casino wanderers.  And glory be – I finally started keeping more organized records and will be able to give a more exact financial picture.