Black Jack Player wins 15 Million.

Pa. blackjack player wins about $15M at AC casinos

The Associated Press

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - A high-rolling blackjack player from Pennsylvania says he's the gambler who has won about $15 million overall at three Atlantic City casinos over the past six months.

Don Johnson of Bensalem tells The Press of Atlantic City that he's quite thankful for his run of good luck, though he's also lost an unspecified amount during his hot streak and also has paid "millions in taxes."

And while Johnson's unwilling to disclose his betting strategy, he told the newspaper there's nothing underhanded about his success. He doesn't consider himself a professional gambler and emphatically denied cheating or being part of an organized gambling ring.

"I'll take luck over any other skill," Johnson said with a laugh. "There's no magic to this. Eventually, someone would whack them. I'm just glad it was me. ... I'm not breaking any laws," he said. "I'm beating them with my own skills."

Johnson says he won $4.23 million at Caesars Atlantic City in December alone and took in about $5 million at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa over a five-month stretch. But his biggest success came when he won $5.8 million during a 12-hour spree at Tropicana Casino and Resort in April, a record loss for the casino.

Casino officials have previously confirmed that one player had recently won millions of dollars playing high-stakes blackjack but declined to identify the person, citing privacy concerns.

The newspaper reported Sunday that it had confirmed Johnson's accounts with multiple sources within the casino industry. And one expert told the newspaper it was entirely plausible for one player to win so big at blackjack , if they had sound knowledge of the game, deep pockets and exercised self-discipline.

The 49-year-old Johnson is chief executive officer of Heritage Development LLC, which uses computer-assisted wagering programs for horse racing. He started gambling at casinos about 15 years ago, placing $25 bets at blackjack tables. As he became more proficient, he transitioned into high-stakes wagering , for example, the Tropicana last month allowed him to bet up to $100,000 a hand.

But his run of good luck has caused some setbacks.

Johnson says he's been banned at the Caesars and Harrah's casinos in Nevada and was turned down by Resorts and Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City. And he says casinos no long offer him a 20 percent discount on his losses or shower him with other high-roller perks.

"I don't think they will let me play anymore," he said of the Atlantic City casinos. "But it's not going to change my life. If I don't play blackjack, I'll just go to the horse races."

Read more: (Dead link: http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/new_jersey/20110522_ap_pablackjackplayerwinsabout15mataccasinos.html#ixzz1N7sMvfJk)
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So he's an AP! zg

20% loss rebate?!!!?!!!!!! :laugh::laugh::laugh: What were the casinos smoking?!!!

this guy must of had the worlds best run of Positive Variance in the history of black jack! Along with balls of steel.:grin:

zengrifter said:

So he's an AP! zg

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What makes you say that?

the dude runs a gambling company. (software for horse racing) i highly doubt he was a ploppy when it came to BJ at $100,000 a hand.

seriously, what did he tell them he did for a living? If he said "gamble" then they should have said see ya.

on a side note, what sort of things do other fulltimers claim to do? i always have a hard time with this. i always just hope they think im a drug dealer or a trust fund kid

Midwestern said:

the dude runs a gambling company. (software for horse racing) i highly doubt he was a ploppy when it came to BJ at $100,000 a hand.

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If you play on a loss rebate, that type of wager is exactly what you want.

The guy was lucky to win so much but Basic Strategy + Loss Rebate = Big Edge.

The Chaperone said:

The guy was lucky to win so much but Basic Strategy + Loss Rebate = Big Edge.

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How do you figure that?

Say he's playing BS in AC with a HE of 0.5%. He wagers 100K, so the house makes $500 on that. They give him back 20% or $100. H'es now down $400. Where's his big edge?

zengrifter said:

So he's an AP! zg

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Agreed!

Who wants to figure out how to invite him for a guest chat?

21forme said:

How do you figure that?

Say he's playing BS in AC with a HE of 0.5%. He wagers 100K, so the house makes $500 on that. They give him back 20% or $100. H'es now down $400. Where's his big edge?

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Note: The following is speculation. Read/flame at your own risk.

One guess is that the 'The big edge' (not really an edge, but...) comes from being able to play for larger stakes when the player is up. I know the math guys will step in and say, "He wagers x, so the house makes y on that.", but that's a long run scenario - they don't exactly rake y and pay even money every hand.

I'm not advocating some progression strategy, nor am I saying that, given a statistically significant number of hands that the EV changes, but a recreational player may never get to the 'long run', so if they ever catch a heater playing with house money, they may (not will) make more in an unusual session than they can ever lose back. For example, I watched this about 4 months ago:

A once-a-month guy that buys in for $500, plays for ~3hours (unless he loses his buy-in) and leaves whether he's up or not, sits down and hits the house for ~$13k. Yes, if he continues to play for years, he will eventually lose it back, but during his subsequesnt visits, he reverted to his $500 BI, played for ~3 hours, and left. If he happened to be on the 25% rebate plan (and he may be close if comps are factored in) playing a .5% HE game, he's pretty much good to go for a long, long time.

I hope that the 'big edge' comment wasn't as literal as it sounded, but was more like, "If a player is getting a 25% rebate, he has an x% chance of overcoming the house advantage given a particular betting style and frequency of visit, assuming he will eventually die."

Again, it's just one interpretation of the 'big edge' comment, so please - hold your fire.

Best ~ L.I.A.

P.S. The $13k guy left with about $6k in checks and cashed the balance. I'm sure he will report his winnings to the appropriate taxing authorities

The Chaperone said:

The guy was lucky to win so much but Basic Strategy + Loss Rebate = Big Edge.

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How much % loss rebate will turn BS into +EV? zg

zengrifter said:

How much % loss rebate will turn BS into +EV? zg

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It of course depends on how much action you're required to give. I'm sure there is a chapter on this in Exhibit CAA

KenSmith said:

Who wants to figure out how to invite him for a guest chat?

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You know his name, and you know where he works. He should be aware of you, or could easily google you. I'd think it wouldn't be that difficult to get in touch with him.

21forme said:

Say he's playing BS in AC with a HE of 0.5%. He wagers 100K, so the house makes $500 on that. They give him back 20% or $100. H'es now down $400. Where's his big edge?

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That's not how you exploit cashback.

Say you place a single bet of 100K on a single BJ hand (make sure you can affort splits and doubles ^^). Let's ignore pushes, splits, and doubles for the sake of argument. Let the house edge be 2%. That means you lose your 100K with probability of 51%, and you win 100K with probability of 49%.
On average he loses 2K to the house. Agree ?

Now what happens with cashback (say, 10%) in place ?
He still loses 51% of his hand. But he doesn't lose 100K, but only 90K.
He stil wins 49% of his hand (100K).
Putting the numbers together:
0.49 * 100K - 0.51 * 90K = 3.1K
He now has a respectable edge of 3% on this hand.

The real life is much more complicated, though.

That's still not the idea.
This isn't settled after any single hand.
Instead he would play for a period of time.
At the end of the trip, if he was a loser the casino would give him back 20% of his total actual loss.

KenSmith said:

That's still not the idea.
This isn't settled after any single hand.
Instead he would play for a period of time.
At the end of the trip, if he was a loser the casino would give him back 20% of his total actual loss.

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If I'm playing and find myself down 10 big bets, why not call it a day, collect my 20% rebate and go across the street to keep playing?
I often find myself down a good chunk due to bad variance, but then almost always make a comeback.If I could collect a rebate, I would and then move on.

KenSmith said:

That's still not the idea.
This isn't settled after any single hand.
Instead he would play for a period of time.
At the end of the trip, if he was a loser the casino would give him back 20% of his total actual loss.

Click to expand...

Of course it is not a single hand, but that doesn't matter much.
What you want for cashback is high variance. This way you dip as often as possible into the negative (with same EV) per, and hence you collect cashback. These are the finer things of "real life". Blackjack is the perfect game for that play. Low house edge and high variance.
Together with some sort of clever progression system it's a killer.

(the progression system will not make you EV on the game itself. But it will shape variance, and hence EV of the cashback).