How to Cheat at Blackjack is becoming very popular in my mailbox these days. No wonder why: The MIT Blackjack movie is just around the corner and now everyone and his old lady want to hit the blackjack tables for a killing. The big question is, Can Card counting still work with all this publicity out there, and in spite of the fact that every casino pit boss and blackjack dealer capable of sight, sound, or Braille is going to take in this movie, either now or within 6 months from now? Well, the answer is much faster than the question, and it's YES with a capital Y.
Why? Don't forget that card counting has been publicized now for decades. We've seen the famed card counter Ken Uston on TV shows, we've seen Dustin hoffman and Tom Cruise counting cards in another movie those same pit bosses and dealers saw, "Rain Man," and we've heard countless banter about the subject everywhere from the Starbucks in your favorite casino to the Starbucks in Katmandu (is one there yet?). So publicity about blackjack card counting is nothing new and casinos will continue to be just as vulnerable to it after this MIT Blackjack Team movie as they were before any of the geeks on that team were born.
The second most frequent question I've been getting asked lately is if I give courses on card counting. I do, but unless you're serious about it and have the diligence, discipline and bankroll to engage in it, don't get involved. You have to be really good to beat the casinos for substantial sums of money. I, for one, can tell you that.
My page on card counting courses for those seriously interested can be found here.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Blackjack Scams and Cheats Cheating at Blackjack
How to Cheat at Blackjack is becoming very popular in my mailbox these days. No wonder why: The MIT Blackjack movie is just around the corner and now everyone and his old lady want to hit the blackjack tables for a killing. The big question is, Can Card counting still work with all this publicity out there, and in spite of the fact that every casino pit boss and blackjack dealer capable of sight, sound, or Braille is going to take in this movie, either now or within 6 months from now? Well, the answer is much faster than the question, and it's YES with a capital Y.
Why? Don't forget that card counting has been publicized now for decades. We've seen the famed card counter Ken Uston on TV shows, we've seen Dustin hoffman and Tom Cruise counting cards in another movie those same pit bosses and dealers saw, "Rain Man," and we've heard countless banter about the subject everywhere from the Starbucks in your favorite casino to the Starbucks in Katmandu (is one there yet?). So publicity about blackjack card counting is nothing new and casinos will continue to be just as vulnerable to it after this MIT Blackjack Team movie as they were before any of the geeks on that team were born.
The second most frequent question I've been getting asked lately is if I give courses on card counting. I do, but unless you're serious about it and have the diligence, discipline and bankroll to engage in it, don't get involved. You have to be really good to beat the casinos for substantial sums of money. I, for one, can tell you that.
My page on card counting courses for those seriously interested can be found here.
Why? Don't forget that card counting has been publicized now for decades. We've seen the famed card counter Ken Uston on TV shows, we've seen Dustin hoffman and Tom Cruise counting cards in another movie those same pit bosses and dealers saw, "Rain Man," and we've heard countless banter about the subject everywhere from the Starbucks in your favorite casino to the Starbucks in Katmandu (is one there yet?). So publicity about blackjack card counting is nothing new and casinos will continue to be just as vulnerable to it after this MIT Blackjack Team movie as they were before any of the geeks on that team were born.
The second most frequent question I've been getting asked lately is if I give courses on card counting. I do, but unless you're serious about it and have the diligence, discipline and bankroll to engage in it, don't get involved. You have to be really good to beat the casinos for substantial sums of money. I, for one, can tell you that.
My page on card counting courses for those seriously interested can be found here.
Cheats at Poker Often Cheat Elsewhere
Many professional and not-so-professional poker cheats sometimes have to resort to other means of cheating when their operations in poker rooms don't go so well. Can you guess which are the top-10 scams that poker cheats turn to when their poker room wells are drying up? I am going to list them, but with a disclaimer that I have only participated in two of these, which, of course, I am going to...on second thought...not going to reveal!
1) Ripping Off Fellow Poker Players
2) Swindling Spouses, Lovers, Girlfriends and Boyfriends
3) Shoplifting
4) Non-Identity Theft Credit Card Fraud
5) Pyramid and Ponzi Schemes
6) Stock Market and Security Frauds
7) Using Dine and Dash Cards in Restaurants***
8) Kiting Checks
9) Forging Checks
10)All of the Above, plus others too numerous to mention!
*** I think you know what that is; if not, e-mail me.
1) Ripping Off Fellow Poker Players
2) Swindling Spouses, Lovers, Girlfriends and Boyfriends
3) Shoplifting
4) Non-Identity Theft Credit Card Fraud
5) Pyramid and Ponzi Schemes
6) Stock Market and Security Frauds
7) Using Dine and Dash Cards in Restaurants***
8) Kiting Checks
9) Forging Checks
10)All of the Above, plus others too numerous to mention!
*** I think you know what that is; if not, e-mail me.
Cheats at Casino Often Cheat Elsewhere
Many professional and not-so-professional casino cheats sometimes have to resort to other means of cheating when their operations in casinos don't go so well. Can you guess which are the top-10 scams that casino cheats turn to when their casino wells are drying up? I am going to list them, but with a disclaimer that I have only participated in two of these, which, of course, I am going to...on second thought...not going to reveal!
1) Identity Theft Credit Card Fraud
2) Non-Identity Theft Credit Card Fraud
3) Pyramid and Ponzi Schemes
4) Stock Market and Security Frauds
5) Shoplifting
6) Swindling Spouses, Lovers, Girlfriends, and Boyfriends
7) Using Dine and Dash Cards in Restaurants***
8) Kiting Checks
9) Forging Checks
10)All of the Above, plus others too numerous to mention!
*** I think you know what that is; if not, e-mail me.
1) Identity Theft Credit Card Fraud
2) Non-Identity Theft Credit Card Fraud
3) Pyramid and Ponzi Schemes
4) Stock Market and Security Frauds
5) Shoplifting
6) Swindling Spouses, Lovers, Girlfriends, and Boyfriends
7) Using Dine and Dash Cards in Restaurants***
8) Kiting Checks
9) Forging Checks
10)All of the Above, plus others too numerous to mention!
*** I think you know what that is; if not, e-mail me.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Proteggete i Vostri Casinò!
Proteggete i vostri giochi da tavolo e slot machines. Chiamate Richard Marcus, l'ex miglior baro di casinò del mondo, che attualmente svolge dei seminari sulla protezione dei giochi di casinò. Può anche aiutarvi a proteggervi da tutti i bari di casinò e dai dipendenti disonesti.
CBS' 60 Minutes to Investigate Absolute Online Poker Cheating!
According to poker writer Nolan Dalla, CBS' 60 Minutes TV News Magazine is set to air a segment on the explosion of online poker cheating with emphasis on the Absolute Poker scandal. The last time 60 Minutes aired a poker segment was back in 2005, when it covered the explosion of poker itself. A better terminology for this segment, with all the cheating going on, might be the "Online Poker Implosion!"
Here is the info coming from Dalla's blog:
There was a time when the sight of a 60 Minutes news crew gathered outside in the parking lot was every business owner's worst nightmare.
The prospect of Mike Wallace and his gang barging into the office with cameras rolling was the ultimate in sheer terror. Many lives, careers and businesses have been torpedoed by a relatively brief 17-minute broadcast that just so happens to appear on national television every Sunday night on CBS.
60 Minutes is no longer the power it once was. But it remains the most watched news show on American television. Its influence on our society and culture is indisputable. Popes, presidents, prime ministers and even Roger Clemens have supposedly "come clean" on the one-hour news show.
Now, word is that 60 Minutes' next subject of investigation will be online poker. That's right - in between the current presidential election, $4-per-gallon gas prices, baseball's steroid scandal and a war in Iraq costing trillions of dollars and thousands of lives, CBS' big boys will be looking into our favorite pastime.
I don't know whether to crow from the rooftops that online poker has now officially arrived on the mainstream media scene (is there any global business that has exploded so quickly, yet gets less attention from the major mainstream news moguls?) or if I should shudder to think this could be a real hatchet job?
Has online poker finally arrived, or is it in line for a hatchet job?
Sources tell me longtime correspondent Steve Croft will be the lead investigative reporter on the story. Plans are already under way for Croft to interview several people at CBS' 57th Street studio headquarters in New York in late March. A 60 Minutes film crew is also expected to be dispatched to Costa Rica - command central for many of the world's largest online gambling and poker sites.
At best, 60 Minutes has a spotty record when it comes to focusing on poker. In 1994, the late Ed Bradley roasted The Bicycle Club Casino in a brutal segment that focused on the government's takeover of the Bell Garden's mega-cardroom. Bradley called The Bike "a sleazy second-rate casino on the outskirts of Los Angeles."
In 2005, Dan Rather did a considerably more positive story on the poker boom. A colleague of mine was responsible for initially pitching this story to a CBS producer and I was able to watch the taping of this segment in person at CBS in New York.
I spoke to Dan Rather in depth during the story. Chris Moneymaker and others who were interviewed came across as terrific ambassadors for the game.
This time, there is serious concern the story will be overly negative. My sources inform me 60 Minutes will focus on the recent Absolute Poker scandal.
For those who may not have heard the news, last year an AP insider violated the most sacred unwritten and unspoken law in all of gaming, which is to make damn sure the game is always run on the square. The thief allegedly stole nearly a million dollars from his unsuspecting victims, who were regular online poker players.
Last time 60 Minutes dropped in on the poker world, Chris Moneymaker and others were great ambassadors for the game. This time, poker may not be so lucky.
In some ways, mass exposure of this creep on 60 Minutes would be absolute justice. A few months spent suffering in Guantanamo would be even more ideal. Trouble is, the casual uninformed viewer of such a segment is not going to differentiate between creeps like him and the millions of honest and decent online poker players worldwide who enjoy playing poker in their own homes.
Indeed, I fear the target is not going to be the creep, or Absolute Poker (which deserves scrutiny) - but rather the entire online poker industry.
If this is indeed the spin 60 Minutes uses, such a story could not come at a worse time. While there is admittedly no chance the federal government will revoke the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act of 2006, nor pass any of the pro-online legislation offered by our good friends in Congress within the current legislative session, public perceptions will be shaped for a long time by what is shown and seen by 20 million viewers on 60 Minutes.
I fear the portrait will be ugly - a slimy, unregulated, corrupt band of outlaws operating way outside the boundaries of the law or justice. Never mind that many online sites are publicly traded companies with top-flight managers and personnel, and are strictly regulated within their host countries. Perception and reality are two completely different things.
I talked to my good friend Mark Seif about this bit of breaking news and it came as a total surprise to him. Seif is perhaps the most visible public "unofficial" spokesman and representative of Absolute Poker.
Despite an unwarranted association with the AP incident, Seif says the 60 Minutes piece is a terrific opportunity: "I think if millions of people see a segment on online poker and come to understand more about the industry, there will be greater support for (legalization)."
As a well-known tournament player in the public eye, people often associate him with the poker site, although (to my knowledge) he has no official title there. I remain utterly convinced Seif had nothing to do with the scandal and was personally embarrassed by the course of events.
The fact that Seif was not associated with the scandal was corroborated by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission investigation which concluded a few months ago. Nevertheless, Seif, a former trial attorney always with strong personal views, is the perfect spokesman for Absolute Poker and much of the industry, should he decide to go face-to-face with Steve Croft in front of the cameras.
If he's interviewed, Seif says he plans to use the scandal to justify precisely why online poker should be legalized and regulated within the United States. He says a 60 Minutes feature is a "terrific opportunity" to generate massive support for legislation that will eventually make online poker legal.
"This is what happens when there is little or no oversight," Seif told me when asked about the former problems at Absolute Poker. "I think if millions of people see a segment on online poker and come to understand more about the industry, there will be greater support for (legalization). After all, online poker is not going to go away."
Seif's response is admittedly optimistic and perhaps just what the industry needs at a time of crisis. The question is, if 60 Minutes pulls into Mark Seif's driveway and he agrees to an interview, will his words of wisdom make the final cut? And if so, will anyone listen?
Here is the info coming from Dalla's blog:
There was a time when the sight of a 60 Minutes news crew gathered outside in the parking lot was every business owner's worst nightmare.
The prospect of Mike Wallace and his gang barging into the office with cameras rolling was the ultimate in sheer terror. Many lives, careers and businesses have been torpedoed by a relatively brief 17-minute broadcast that just so happens to appear on national television every Sunday night on CBS.
60 Minutes is no longer the power it once was. But it remains the most watched news show on American television. Its influence on our society and culture is indisputable. Popes, presidents, prime ministers and even Roger Clemens have supposedly "come clean" on the one-hour news show.
Now, word is that 60 Minutes' next subject of investigation will be online poker. That's right - in between the current presidential election, $4-per-gallon gas prices, baseball's steroid scandal and a war in Iraq costing trillions of dollars and thousands of lives, CBS' big boys will be looking into our favorite pastime.
I don't know whether to crow from the rooftops that online poker has now officially arrived on the mainstream media scene (is there any global business that has exploded so quickly, yet gets less attention from the major mainstream news moguls?) or if I should shudder to think this could be a real hatchet job?
Has online poker finally arrived, or is it in line for a hatchet job?
Sources tell me longtime correspondent Steve Croft will be the lead investigative reporter on the story. Plans are already under way for Croft to interview several people at CBS' 57th Street studio headquarters in New York in late March. A 60 Minutes film crew is also expected to be dispatched to Costa Rica - command central for many of the world's largest online gambling and poker sites.
At best, 60 Minutes has a spotty record when it comes to focusing on poker. In 1994, the late Ed Bradley roasted The Bicycle Club Casino in a brutal segment that focused on the government's takeover of the Bell Garden's mega-cardroom. Bradley called The Bike "a sleazy second-rate casino on the outskirts of Los Angeles."
In 2005, Dan Rather did a considerably more positive story on the poker boom. A colleague of mine was responsible for initially pitching this story to a CBS producer and I was able to watch the taping of this segment in person at CBS in New York.
I spoke to Dan Rather in depth during the story. Chris Moneymaker and others who were interviewed came across as terrific ambassadors for the game.
This time, there is serious concern the story will be overly negative. My sources inform me 60 Minutes will focus on the recent Absolute Poker scandal.
For those who may not have heard the news, last year an AP insider violated the most sacred unwritten and unspoken law in all of gaming, which is to make damn sure the game is always run on the square. The thief allegedly stole nearly a million dollars from his unsuspecting victims, who were regular online poker players.
Last time 60 Minutes dropped in on the poker world, Chris Moneymaker and others were great ambassadors for the game. This time, poker may not be so lucky.
In some ways, mass exposure of this creep on 60 Minutes would be absolute justice. A few months spent suffering in Guantanamo would be even more ideal. Trouble is, the casual uninformed viewer of such a segment is not going to differentiate between creeps like him and the millions of honest and decent online poker players worldwide who enjoy playing poker in their own homes.
Indeed, I fear the target is not going to be the creep, or Absolute Poker (which deserves scrutiny) - but rather the entire online poker industry.
If this is indeed the spin 60 Minutes uses, such a story could not come at a worse time. While there is admittedly no chance the federal government will revoke the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act of 2006, nor pass any of the pro-online legislation offered by our good friends in Congress within the current legislative session, public perceptions will be shaped for a long time by what is shown and seen by 20 million viewers on 60 Minutes.
I fear the portrait will be ugly - a slimy, unregulated, corrupt band of outlaws operating way outside the boundaries of the law or justice. Never mind that many online sites are publicly traded companies with top-flight managers and personnel, and are strictly regulated within their host countries. Perception and reality are two completely different things.
I talked to my good friend Mark Seif about this bit of breaking news and it came as a total surprise to him. Seif is perhaps the most visible public "unofficial" spokesman and representative of Absolute Poker.
Despite an unwarranted association with the AP incident, Seif says the 60 Minutes piece is a terrific opportunity: "I think if millions of people see a segment on online poker and come to understand more about the industry, there will be greater support for (legalization)."
As a well-known tournament player in the public eye, people often associate him with the poker site, although (to my knowledge) he has no official title there. I remain utterly convinced Seif had nothing to do with the scandal and was personally embarrassed by the course of events.
The fact that Seif was not associated with the scandal was corroborated by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission investigation which concluded a few months ago. Nevertheless, Seif, a former trial attorney always with strong personal views, is the perfect spokesman for Absolute Poker and much of the industry, should he decide to go face-to-face with Steve Croft in front of the cameras.
If he's interviewed, Seif says he plans to use the scandal to justify precisely why online poker should be legalized and regulated within the United States. He says a 60 Minutes feature is a "terrific opportunity" to generate massive support for legislation that will eventually make online poker legal.
"This is what happens when there is little or no oversight," Seif told me when asked about the former problems at Absolute Poker. "I think if millions of people see a segment on online poker and come to understand more about the industry, there will be greater support for (legalization). After all, online poker is not going to go away."
Seif's response is admittedly optimistic and perhaps just what the industry needs at a time of crisis. The question is, if 60 Minutes pulls into Mark Seif's driveway and he agrees to an interview, will his words of wisdom make the final cut? And if so, will anyone listen?
Thursday, March 13, 2008
A St. Patrick's Day Casino Cheating Story
Those of you who read my book American Roulette know the special relationship I had with my fantastic cheating partner Pat Mallery. You also know that Pat was Dark Irish, and about the only thing he liked as much as cheating the pants off casinos was drinking the pants off anybody who dared to stand in a bar with him. Well, one Friday night back in Las Vegas some years ago also happened to be St. Paddy's Day, Pat's favorite day and night of the year to get, as he put it, cocked up! Before we went out to work the casinos that night, I had to remind him that his cocked-up state sometimes caused us problems. One profitable night at the Hilton, I reminded him, he left his suit jacket slung over the back of a chair in the sports book while we were at the bar drinking. As soon as I realized it, I shot back out to the casino as if a grenade had just rolled under our barstools. I was enormously relieved that Pat's jacket was still there, anyone could have walked off with it. In the right front pocket was $16,000 in Hilton chips we hadn't yet cashed out.
But that St. Paddy's Friday night, we almost weren't so lucky. This time the incident involving Pat's cocked-up behavior in a casino turned into one of those both unbelievable and unforgettable stories.
It was a Friday night and the MGM was our target casino. My other partner, Balls, and I arrived at Pat's apartment at 10 P.M. to find him sufficiently cocked-up (if he wasn't, he didn't move on the tables). Balls drove us to the MGM and we went directly into the sports book. There, I passed Pat $11,000 in chips, two chocolates and a $1,000 in blacks. Ever since that Hilton incident with his leaving the chip-filled jacket slung over a chair in the sports book, I took extreme caution in handling and accounting for chips. I always counted them twice and watched Pat put them safely in his pocket before we left the sports book to cruise the casino.
We made a round through the MGM during which Pat had sat down at only one table, where he made three bets but didn't move because they all lost. Then we went back to the sports book and Pat developed a headache and said he wanted to go home for awhile and rest. We dropped him off at his apartment and returned two hours later. He was feeling better, so we went back to the MGM. In the sports book, Pat was preparing the chips for the move when he suddenly said, "Where's the other chocolate chip?"
"You only had two of them," I said. "One for the move and one for the back-up." I was thinking that he probably thought I had given him three chocolates, which was often the case.
"Well, I only have one now," Pat said, rifling through his pockets.
"What!"
"Johnny (we affectionately called each other Johnny), I don't know what you gave me, but I only have one chocolate chip."
I knew he wasn't kidding as well as I knew that I had given him two chocolates earlier that evening in the sports book. There was no doubt in my mind. I had given him $11,000 in MGM chips; I'd counted them twice.
Everybody searched their pockets but it was useless. I was sure that Pat had lost the chip somewhere in the casino. We retraced our steps through the pits, our eyes scanning the floor, darting to-and-fro, hoping to spot the missing chip. Unfortunately, the MGM carpeting was brown. I placed the remaining chocolate chip on the surface to see how it blended in. More unfortunately, too good. Finding that missing chip on the floor of a large, busy casino, even if it was still there in defiance of probability, was going to be a difficult if not impossible task. The best chance was that maybe Pat had dropped it near the lone table he played at while we were at the MGM the first time. That seemed to all of us the most likely scenario. Pat could have easily lost the chocolate while preparing the move and back-up chips.
I got down on my hands and knees, looking for the chip by the table. I wasn't bashful about crawling around under people's legs, making them feel uncomfortable. A floorman bent down over me to ask what I was looking for. I told him that I had been at the table earlier and had lost a contact lens. He wished me luck and turned away, and I continued brushing my hands through the carpet in search of the chip.
Nothing. It was gone. Some lucky son of a bitch was going to have a hell of a time partying tonight, I thought, walking away from the table. Pat's cocky attitude had finally cost us.
The question of infidelity or dishonesty concerning Pat never entered my mind. Nobody ever held out on anybody. But what bothered me even more than the loss of the chip was the possibility that Pat was thinking I was full of shit, that I had locked up the chip for myself and was taking advantage of his cocked-up state to say that he must have lost it. Later, I learned that such a thought would never have entered his mind either, but at the time, we'd only known each other a month.
Pat said that he had been twiddling with the chips back at his apartment while he was watching TV. Maybe he had inadvertently dropped the chocolate on the plush carpeting of his living room and hadn't heard any noise. Perhaps it was still there on the floor.
We rushed back to Pat's apartment, the adrenaline pumping through my body. I wanted more than anything to find that chip, just for the reason that a breach of trust wouldn't be created by its loss.
"I swear," Pat said with conviction in the car as Balls sped toward the west side of town on Tropicana Avenue, "if that chip isn't on the goddamn floor of my apartment, someone's in a lot of trouble" (he meant the casinos, that he would unleash a battery of moves against them). "You know what, Johnny," he said, looking over his shoulder at me in the back seat, "maybe we're better off if that chip isn't in the apartment."
We arrived and all three of us raced up the stairs to Pat's second-floor apartment. After a two minute search, Pat called out excitedly, "I found it!" But the chip he found turned out to be the other MGM chocolate he had placed mindlessly in the ashtray on the entranceway ledge as we all hurried through the door of the apartment. When he realized the mistake, he threw it against the wall. The roller coaster ride of my emotions—losing, finding and then re-losing the chip—was making me nauseous. We ransacked the apartment but the second chip was nowhere to be found. Pat kicked the sofa he had been sitting on while watching TV and shrieked, "Motherfucker!...Let's go."
We got back in the car and headed a third time for the MGM.
"I don't have another MGM chocolate for back-up," I said.
"I don't give a fuck, Johnny. I don't need any back-ups. They're dead over there at the MGM...Just get me there, Balls. I'm a little pissed off right now."
We cruised the casino looking for an available third base seat. You could see the impatience and aggravation written on Pat's face as he passed along a row of filled-up blackjack tables. He finally found a shortstop position open and made his two-hundred-dollar bet, which lost. He slammed his fist down on the cushioned edge of the table and got up, leaving a bunch of scornful stares behind him. He sat down at another table, lost again, and hollered at no one in particular as he got up in a rage, "I hope yuz all die." The third table he found, I noticed was the same one he had sat down at during our initial round of the casino, before we'd discovered the loss of the chip. He made the bet, which finally won, and moved and claimed super aggressively, perhaps now possessed by the Haverstraw insane asylum demon. He got paid the $5,100, getting us even for the night, and was in the process of playing his bet-back hand of $1,100 when a man sitting at the middle of the table began talking to him as he showed him something in his hand.
"This must be yours," he said to Pat with a slight drawl. "I just found it on the floor." The guy was an older Midwestern type, plainly dressed with an unsophisticated air. Pat didn't even hear him, let alone look at him.
I was looking into the man's hand. There was something brown and circular resting in the palm, the size of a casino chip. My brain needed a few seconds to sort out the message it was receiving from my eyes. It was the missing chip! This country bumpkin had just found the five-thousand-dollar chip that Pat had dropped at that very same table maybe four hours before. I couldn't believe it. That chip had not only been lying there on the floor all that time, but the person finding it was returning it to its rightful owner, as if it were about nothing more than a dropped handkerchief. I doubted that the good Samaritan even knew the value of the chip, despite the fact he had witnessed Pat's claim on the move with the same-colored chip.
I had to go around the edge of the table and notify Pat audibly that the "gentlemen to your right has found something of yours, sir."
Pat took a look at the guy who was putting the chocolate chip in his hand, reached out across the blackjack table and gruffly pulled the man's head toward him and gave him a kiss square on the lips. The man was mildly shocked himself and accepted gracefully the black chip that Pat put in his hand as gratitude. To amplify our joy at recovering the lost $5,000, Pat went on a bet-back streak, winning the next six hands in a row, including a double-down and a blackjack. With all that, he left the table with $18,000 more than when he had sat down. Then he went to another table, did a second move and got paid $5,100 again. Afterwards, in the keno pit across the street at the Tropicana, Pat said, "Johnny, let me ask you something. Do you really think it was a blessing that we found the chip...or would we have been better off if it stayed lost?"
Knowing what the man sitting next to me was capable of, I couldn't answer that question.
I told him so.
But that St. Paddy's Friday night, we almost weren't so lucky. This time the incident involving Pat's cocked-up behavior in a casino turned into one of those both unbelievable and unforgettable stories.
It was a Friday night and the MGM was our target casino. My other partner, Balls, and I arrived at Pat's apartment at 10 P.M. to find him sufficiently cocked-up (if he wasn't, he didn't move on the tables). Balls drove us to the MGM and we went directly into the sports book. There, I passed Pat $11,000 in chips, two chocolates and a $1,000 in blacks. Ever since that Hilton incident with his leaving the chip-filled jacket slung over a chair in the sports book, I took extreme caution in handling and accounting for chips. I always counted them twice and watched Pat put them safely in his pocket before we left the sports book to cruise the casino.
We made a round through the MGM during which Pat had sat down at only one table, where he made three bets but didn't move because they all lost. Then we went back to the sports book and Pat developed a headache and said he wanted to go home for awhile and rest. We dropped him off at his apartment and returned two hours later. He was feeling better, so we went back to the MGM. In the sports book, Pat was preparing the chips for the move when he suddenly said, "Where's the other chocolate chip?"
"You only had two of them," I said. "One for the move and one for the back-up." I was thinking that he probably thought I had given him three chocolates, which was often the case.
"Well, I only have one now," Pat said, rifling through his pockets.
"What!"
"Johnny (we affectionately called each other Johnny), I don't know what you gave me, but I only have one chocolate chip."
I knew he wasn't kidding as well as I knew that I had given him two chocolates earlier that evening in the sports book. There was no doubt in my mind. I had given him $11,000 in MGM chips; I'd counted them twice.
Everybody searched their pockets but it was useless. I was sure that Pat had lost the chip somewhere in the casino. We retraced our steps through the pits, our eyes scanning the floor, darting to-and-fro, hoping to spot the missing chip. Unfortunately, the MGM carpeting was brown. I placed the remaining chocolate chip on the surface to see how it blended in. More unfortunately, too good. Finding that missing chip on the floor of a large, busy casino, even if it was still there in defiance of probability, was going to be a difficult if not impossible task. The best chance was that maybe Pat had dropped it near the lone table he played at while we were at the MGM the first time. That seemed to all of us the most likely scenario. Pat could have easily lost the chocolate while preparing the move and back-up chips.
I got down on my hands and knees, looking for the chip by the table. I wasn't bashful about crawling around under people's legs, making them feel uncomfortable. A floorman bent down over me to ask what I was looking for. I told him that I had been at the table earlier and had lost a contact lens. He wished me luck and turned away, and I continued brushing my hands through the carpet in search of the chip.
Nothing. It was gone. Some lucky son of a bitch was going to have a hell of a time partying tonight, I thought, walking away from the table. Pat's cocky attitude had finally cost us.
The question of infidelity or dishonesty concerning Pat never entered my mind. Nobody ever held out on anybody. But what bothered me even more than the loss of the chip was the possibility that Pat was thinking I was full of shit, that I had locked up the chip for myself and was taking advantage of his cocked-up state to say that he must have lost it. Later, I learned that such a thought would never have entered his mind either, but at the time, we'd only known each other a month.
Pat said that he had been twiddling with the chips back at his apartment while he was watching TV. Maybe he had inadvertently dropped the chocolate on the plush carpeting of his living room and hadn't heard any noise. Perhaps it was still there on the floor.
We rushed back to Pat's apartment, the adrenaline pumping through my body. I wanted more than anything to find that chip, just for the reason that a breach of trust wouldn't be created by its loss.
"I swear," Pat said with conviction in the car as Balls sped toward the west side of town on Tropicana Avenue, "if that chip isn't on the goddamn floor of my apartment, someone's in a lot of trouble" (he meant the casinos, that he would unleash a battery of moves against them). "You know what, Johnny," he said, looking over his shoulder at me in the back seat, "maybe we're better off if that chip isn't in the apartment."
We arrived and all three of us raced up the stairs to Pat's second-floor apartment. After a two minute search, Pat called out excitedly, "I found it!" But the chip he found turned out to be the other MGM chocolate he had placed mindlessly in the ashtray on the entranceway ledge as we all hurried through the door of the apartment. When he realized the mistake, he threw it against the wall. The roller coaster ride of my emotions—losing, finding and then re-losing the chip—was making me nauseous. We ransacked the apartment but the second chip was nowhere to be found. Pat kicked the sofa he had been sitting on while watching TV and shrieked, "Motherfucker!...Let's go."
We got back in the car and headed a third time for the MGM.
"I don't have another MGM chocolate for back-up," I said.
"I don't give a fuck, Johnny. I don't need any back-ups. They're dead over there at the MGM...Just get me there, Balls. I'm a little pissed off right now."
We cruised the casino looking for an available third base seat. You could see the impatience and aggravation written on Pat's face as he passed along a row of filled-up blackjack tables. He finally found a shortstop position open and made his two-hundred-dollar bet, which lost. He slammed his fist down on the cushioned edge of the table and got up, leaving a bunch of scornful stares behind him. He sat down at another table, lost again, and hollered at no one in particular as he got up in a rage, "I hope yuz all die." The third table he found, I noticed was the same one he had sat down at during our initial round of the casino, before we'd discovered the loss of the chip. He made the bet, which finally won, and moved and claimed super aggressively, perhaps now possessed by the Haverstraw insane asylum demon. He got paid the $5,100, getting us even for the night, and was in the process of playing his bet-back hand of $1,100 when a man sitting at the middle of the table began talking to him as he showed him something in his hand.
"This must be yours," he said to Pat with a slight drawl. "I just found it on the floor." The guy was an older Midwestern type, plainly dressed with an unsophisticated air. Pat didn't even hear him, let alone look at him.
I was looking into the man's hand. There was something brown and circular resting in the palm, the size of a casino chip. My brain needed a few seconds to sort out the message it was receiving from my eyes. It was the missing chip! This country bumpkin had just found the five-thousand-dollar chip that Pat had dropped at that very same table maybe four hours before. I couldn't believe it. That chip had not only been lying there on the floor all that time, but the person finding it was returning it to its rightful owner, as if it were about nothing more than a dropped handkerchief. I doubted that the good Samaritan even knew the value of the chip, despite the fact he had witnessed Pat's claim on the move with the same-colored chip.
I had to go around the edge of the table and notify Pat audibly that the "gentlemen to your right has found something of yours, sir."
Pat took a look at the guy who was putting the chocolate chip in his hand, reached out across the blackjack table and gruffly pulled the man's head toward him and gave him a kiss square on the lips. The man was mildly shocked himself and accepted gracefully the black chip that Pat put in his hand as gratitude. To amplify our joy at recovering the lost $5,000, Pat went on a bet-back streak, winning the next six hands in a row, including a double-down and a blackjack. With all that, he left the table with $18,000 more than when he had sat down. Then he went to another table, did a second move and got paid $5,100 again. Afterwards, in the keno pit across the street at the Tropicana, Pat said, "Johnny, let me ask you something. Do you really think it was a blessing that we found the chip...or would we have been better off if it stayed lost?"
Knowing what the man sitting next to me was capable of, I couldn't answer that question.
I told him so.
Poker Tips Online Poker Cheats Strategy
Poker Tips, Cheats, Poker Strategy, Poker Sytems. Have you ever searched these keywords in an attempt to improve your game? Well, I have checked out lots of the sites that fall under these keywords, and unfortunately, the vast majority of them do not cover tips about how to protect yourself from poker cheaters. There is some mention of these problems when the subject is online poker, but why do these sites vastly omit information on good old brick and mortar poker cheating. For those of you who may not no it, I give daily poker tips and casino cheating warnings and advice on my Poker Cheating and Casino Cheating Tip of the day page. I hope you will stop by on a daily basis for my tip of the day.
Another Remote Online Casino Poker Hack Attack!
This is really becoming a major online casino and poker problem. I first began reporting on these attacks two weeks ago when notified of them by a very astute reader of this blog from Italy. The latest victim of these remote attacks is Dublinbet.com, an Irish online casino operated by the Fitzwilliam Card Club, which is offering live online casino games. The site has now been down for four days! That is an online poker and casino eternity!
Here is a message transmitted from the dublinbet.com support that was posted on a French casino forum:
"Our site is currently under a distributed denial of service network attack
(DDOS) from an unknown source. We are working to resolve this issue, and hope to be back online soon. Please be assured that all data, game systems, and player accounts remain completely secure and private. This is just a severe overloaded network attack, preventing access to our systems and unfortunately is not uncommon for gaming sites to be targets of such activity. We are doing our best to get the site back online as soon as possible. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience."
Cecile
Support DublinBet.com
4 days now!...How many days more do they need to "resolve this issue"? Maybe the
players accounts are no longer "completely secure and private"...Check your bets!
Here is a message transmitted from the dublinbet.com support that was posted on a French casino forum:
"Our site is currently under a distributed denial of service network attack
(DDOS) from an unknown source. We are working to resolve this issue, and hope to be back online soon. Please be assured that all data, game systems, and player accounts remain completely secure and private. This is just a severe overloaded network attack, preventing access to our systems and unfortunately is not uncommon for gaming sites to be targets of such activity. We are doing our best to get the site back online as soon as possible. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience."
Cecile
Support DublinBet.com
4 days now!...How many days more do they need to "resolve this issue"? Maybe the
players accounts are no longer "completely secure and private"...Check your bets!
NEW POKER AND CASINO CHEATING TOP-10 MOVES PAGE!
I have added a new page to my website called "Poker Cheating and Casino Cheating Top-10 Moves. This page details the ten poker cheating and casino cheating moves I feel were the best ever. Some were done by poker and casino cheating teams that I was a part of. Others had nothing to do with me. In order to qualify, the move had to have been repeatedly performed over a period of at least one year, which means certain classic poker and casino cheating moves like the French Cigarette Scam (see my Scam of the Month Page) may have been amongst the best of all-time but did not endure long enough to qualify.
Take a few moments and read about these incredible cheating moves and exactly how they were pulled off. You will surely appreciate the cunning craftiness and military-like precision and discipline that is evident in all of them.
Take a few moments and read about these incredible cheating moves and exactly how they were pulled off. You will surely appreciate the cunning craftiness and military-like precision and discipline that is evident in all of them.
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