A whole lot was up. Last year, with much fanfare, we introduced the "Beyond Numbers" blog. The big deal was the blog’s author, James Grosjean, who’s easily the most renowned "advantage player" in the world today, as he has been for several years. Landing Grosjean was no small feat, but he and Anthony Curtis go back a ways and AC was able to get JG to come aboard. It was meant to be the first big step in a plan to build a much stronger gambling presence at LasVegasAdvisor.com.
Things started off well, but then something happened: James took ill with an extremely rare malady, one that his doctors still have no idea about, regarding where or how he contracted it. We won’t go into details, but it isn’t an exaggeration to say that all of the casinos out there who've wished they'd never have to deal with James Grosjean again almost got their wish.
To state that he was out of commission is an understatement, and we knew back in March that there would be no new contributions to the blog for quite a while -- or possibly ever again, for that matter. After much discussion, we decided simply to let it sit as is until things had played out. That's not our standard mode of operation, but it was the course of action that seemed to make the most sense given the information we had. We also discussed what we’d do with the blog if James never picked it up again. Thankfully for our sake, and more importantly for his, we don't have to worry about that anymore.
We’re pleased to report that James has made a great recovery (although he's still far from 100 percent) and is back on the case. His first new post was published yesterday. It's another in his "How We Do It" series, this one titled "Handling a 'Random' ID Request." Most of Grosjean’s blog posts are more like articles, plus he's just getting back into the swing of things, so we’ll still leave two- to three-week intervals between new posts for the time being, but the wait won't be anything like what was just experienced. There are also plans to add some additional components, which will bump up the frequency of new posts at "Beyond Numbers".
For those who don’t know about James Grosjean, he's not everyone's cup of tea. He has a distinctly adversarial relationship with the casinos (for reasons that will become evident from reading his blog over time) and that comes through in his writing. But he’s also a utilitarian and knows there must be a reasonable give and take in order to succeed. (On a personal note, he also loves bacon and despises cilantro, for anyone who may doubt his actual existence.) If you are a player at any level, you will learn valuable lessons by reading Grosjean's musings (and rantings) and you don't even have to gamble to benefit from some of his tips and general take on life. Welcome back, James; you have been missed (by us, at least!).
