James Grosjean

Posted on September 20, 2021 by James Grosjean — 21 Comments

Colin Jones (S2 E1): Pushback

If you’ve ever kicked the top off an ant mound to trigger and reveal an alarming frenzy of activity that is ultimately meaningless, then you know what it’s like to make an online post defending Colin Jones. The lurkers come out in full hater mode, trying to sting and bite everything in sight. A meta-analysis of the various websites now puts Colin Jones in a statistical tie with Jake “The Snake” Roberts, measured in terms of Villain Power Ranking. FiveThirtyEight projects CJ’s VPR to surpass Marlo Stanfield by the end of 2021.

There really weren’t any new criticisms. There are still three main categories: CJ markets easy money from counting like a snake-oil salesman; I learned on my own; CJ is killing the games.

Posted on September 11, 2021August 30, 2023 by James Grosjean — 27 Comments

Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.

Those were Todd Beamer’s last words to the outside world before he, Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett, Jeremy Glick, and other passengers successfully sacrificed Flight 93, on September 11 twenty years ago. There are a few flashbulb images that will never leave me from that day. The smoking World Trade Center tower is the one we all remember. It was around 6:30 am when I rolled into my room at the now Bridger Inn in downtown Vegas after scouting and playing all night. I still didn’t feel like sleeping, so I turned on the TV and watched events unfold live. The initial reports were that a small plane had hit the tower, and we mostly thought it wasn’t a big deal, other than the fire. And the 1993 bombing hadn’t moved the needle for most of the nation, or the world. When the second plane hit on live TV, and then the towers fell, we all collectively thought, “Whoa, who knew THAT could happen [architecturally speaking]!?!” When flights everywhere got grounded, I got stuck in Vegas. This was real, and had already affected all of us.

Posted on September 3, 2021 by James Grosjean — 7 Comments

An Opportunity or a Predicament?

In his recent blog post (which he coincidentally titled the same as mine), Bob Dancer ponders what APs have come to call a scavenging play: The stranger-cum-BFF gambling next to you is about to misplay a hand, and you have the opportunity to correct this injustice, merely by offering a bit of timely advice and bankrolling. For instance, BFF doesn’t have the money to split 88 v 6, and is about to wave off the hand. You charitably offer to help him out by providing the additional chips, and, in a supreme gesture of international cooperation and friendship, suggest teaming up to split all profits or losses. An enduring partnership—through thick and thin, until the very end, of the hand.

Most commonly, the scavenger will jump in to complete a double-down that the BFF was about to double for less, or forgo completely. In games like UTH, the scavenger could complete a 4x preflop wager that the BFF wouldn’t even consider, such as an Ace that the BFF would surely not fold on the river.

Posted on September 2, 2021 by James Grosjean — 4 Comments

Colin Jones (S1 E10 Finale): The Ultimate Vindication (or, A Cover Play Made in the Forest)

Throughout The 21^st-Century Card Counter, Colin Jones interviews former students who have gone off into the wild to ply their trade. There’s a bit of publication bias, because we don’t hear about the train wrecks, but that’s understandable. The success stories are still entertaining and educational, and include sufficient misery. Whenever I read those reports of extended losing periods, I send CJ a mental thank-you for reminding me—as he does throughout his book—why counting cards isn’t for everyone, certainly not someone as soft as I am.

Now comes “Joe” [not his real name], who turned $10k into $1 million! Do you know how hard that is? Imagine being thrown into prison, and digging a two-mile tunnel using nothing but a plastic spoon. Joe did it without the spoon! That result, and the four-year journey it took, makes Joe an instant authority on card counting in the, um, 21^st century. Yeah, what Colin said.

Posted on August 25, 2021 by James Grosjean — 21 Comments

Colin Jones (S1 E9): Knockout KISS

At the Blackjack Ball one year, Tommy Hyland came up to me saying he had a question. The preface “I have a question for you” is always a little unnerving, especially coming from someone you don’t talk to very often. So then he asked me … [wait for it …]

“Why do you recommend KO?”

Posted on August 18, 2021 by James Grosjean — 14 Comments

What is an AP?—Part II

[Colin Jones Season 1 will resume next time!]

Previously, we asked the question, “What is an AP?” As an example, I threw out for debate the machine player who learns a few fun facts on Twitter and then wanders around the casino picking up money as a button-pushing zombie. As kids, maybe as early as age 5, my brother and I would look in the coin returns of vending machines and pinball machines, and underneath the washers at the laundromat (those coins get yucky, no TITO!). Doesn’t every kid do that? I wouldn’t call that activity AP, and isn’t that exactly what some machine players are doing today?

Posted on August 13, 2021 by James Grosjean — 2 Comments

Colin Jones (S1 E8): Mail Bag

In this episode of my N-part series looking at Colin Jones’s book, The 21^st-Century Card Counter, I’m just going to briefly comment on various phrases and sentences that caught my eye. This is like the “Mail Bag” episodes of Gambling with an Edge, or the Potpourri category on Jeopardy.

[p. 26] “I’m not going to argue whether people should or should not gamble for entertainment (though it’s my opinion that gambling is a very high-risk low-reward form of it).” From spending so much time in locals casinos, I’d say that the percentage of gamblers who are problem gamblers—by virtually any definition of the term—is much, much higher than the industry would admit. As a resort destination, Vegas is a different animal. But locals casinos are built on degenerate gambling. That said, I think there is a role for recreational gambling, and CJ underestimates how enjoyable it is for some. CJ is a bit jaded, because blackjack (and baccarat) are not inherently fun games (you wouldn’t play them for no money), and because card counting as a living takes the fun out of the game! One of my old friends came to Vegas with me, and afterwards said, “You’ve ruined Las Vegas for me,” because he could never again see the experience in the carefree, oblivious way that gamblers do. I turned it into work.

Posted on August 7, 2021 by James Grosjean — 9 Comments

Colin Jones: Season 1 Episode 7

That’s a pretty dry title for this post, about as aptly dry as Colin Jones’s “The 21^st-Century Card Counter.” But the movie title’s better than the book’s. “Holy Rollers”—not just a play on words, but also an oxymoron that Hollywood loves. Remember that moment when the Preacher gunslinger swaps his clerical collar for a pistol in Pale Rider? And now Netflix has brought us Warrior Nun. It’s very entertaining watching the ostensible pacifist using violence to attain a righteous end.

Christians, who are presumed to have an aversion to gambling, take on the House, trying to stick it to the Man (meaning the casino, not the big G). The result is high drama, and subsequently a blackjack factory at blackjackapprenticeship.com [to which I have no affiliation].

Posted on July 28, 2021 by James Grosjean — 15 Comments

What is an “AP”?—Part I

[Note: Season 1 of Colin Jones will resume next time, and there is further good news: Netflix and GWAE have announced that Colin Jones is renewed for Season 2!]

A few times per year, my elderly parents used to make the drive from New Jersey to Boston. Like all old people who haven’t grasped the power of the “cellular telephone,” they would stock the car with snacks, bottled water, batteries, blankets, and other survivalist items, just in case the 4-hour drive turned into nuclear winter. They—meaning my daddy—would also use old-school paper diagrams of the land and roads, that they called “maps” (before the word earned a capital letter). The map was marked with an asterisk in Connecticut for a particular rest stop—the one that had immaculate bathrooms.

Posted on July 19, 2021 by James Grosjean — 9 Comments

Colin Jones (S1 E6): The Secret to Investing—OPM??

I walked off a game the other day, and I have Colin Jones to thank. On paper, the game could be a 20% edge or higher. In the real world? Not so much. My frustration grew. Why am I playing this 10% garbage? I’m out.

Where does Colin Jones fit into this? Something he wrote on p. 14 of The 21^st-Century Card Counter hit home, because I’ve wrestled with it my whole career, even though I’ve never seen it in print before: “Being responsible for other people’s money is a whole different animal. I never lost a night’s sleep riding out the swings with my own money, but shouldering the weight of family and friends’ money definitely came with bouts of night sweats and indigestion.”

Author: James Grosjean