zengrifter
Banned
LAS VEGAS TRIP REPORT (November 2004)
By Barfarkel (aka LV Pro)
(Dead link: http://www.blackjackinsider.com) _www.blackjackinsider.com_
Barfarkel is a serious recreational player who started with basic strategy in 1996 and learned the Silver Fox count by the end of 1998. He has been counting since early 1999, starting with a $2K bankroll and slowly trying to build it to $10K. Barfarkel's new book, You've Got Heat, contains the details of his playing trips to Las Vegas over a 4 year period. He also wrote the article "Graduating From Red to Green" that appeared in the Winter2003/2004 edition of Blackjack Forum. For details on You've Got Heat, including ordering information go to www.youvegotheat.com.
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It was a welcome change to drive to Las Vegas in the light of daytime rather than my usual night-time departure. It gave me a chance to experiment with a slightly different route. I wanted to see if taking the 210 freeway from just east of downtown Los Angeles would get me to Interstate 15 faster than my regular eastward route on the San Bernadino (10) freeway. I'm not sure if this new northern course got me to the main highway to Vegas any quicker, but it sure was pleasant to drive on a newer, smoother, less crowded road. It was only recently that they had finally completed the connecting ramps between this new freeway and the main road to Vegas. I preferred to try out this new route in the light of day for better visibility and less chance of mistakes.
After enduring the same two construction zones that had bedeviled me for way too long now, I made it to Sin City in less than four hours and checked in to the Stardust on a "two nights for $38" room mailer. After unpacking, I played a forty-five minute session at their badly cut s17 double-decker. Despite using my two $20 matchplay coupons, I couldn't put any kind of positive run together, losing most of my double-downs for a $300 loss right off the bat. Damn. I hate starting a trip with a loss!
All right. No sense getting worked up over it. I'd guess slightly more than half my trips start out the same way and I've been vowing lately to stop stressing over session and short-term trip results. Rather I should just be trying to get in the hours and let the long-term EV take care of itself. But you know me. I absolutely love winning each individual session and love having every trip come out a winner. Although I have been trying to play and react less emotionally lately, I'm not a robot, and sometimes just can't help getting frustrated or dejected about individual session losses.
I was starting this trip with a bankroll of $11,700. For the past year-maybe the last five or six trips-I haven't been able to increase the BR significantly. A winning trip would be followed by a loss, then another loss and a small win and so on, back and forth, and I had not been able to jump my stakes up in any major way. Still, I decided to stick with the $15 unit and spread 1-10 on red tables and go 1-6 in green on $25 minimum games, using a max bet of $150 throughout.
When the narrative ended in July 2003, in the last chapter of my just-released book, You've Got Heat, I had finally achieved my original $10k goal. Since that time, the bankroll has not even gained $2k. It's been over a year now and I've only managed to net $1,700 since that last chapter concluded. That barely covers expenses. Throughout my playing career, I've been trying to build my bankroll while steadily lowering my risk-of-ruin number from over 33% to under 5%, and have successfully achieved that reduction. Now it looks as if I might have to backtrack and endure a higher risk if I want to jump start the EV by increasing the unit size and top bet. Higher risk equals higher reward. But for the moment, I decided to start this trip with the BJRM 2000 prescribed spread and see where that takes me.
Heading downtown, I settled in at a Plaza double-deck table. In the middle of this forty-five minute session, I looked up. Standing in the aisle and smiling at me was The Grifter, big as life. We hadn't arranged anything-it was a chance meeting. Of course you're more likely to run into other counters at this place than just about any other Vegas casino these days. Motioning for me to follow, we met in the bathroom, where he told me that there was now another, less crowded blackjack pit to the south. I headed over there while he went back to the main pit.
Later, we drove over to Benihana's at the Las Vegas Hilton to meet Fezzik for dinner. Fez had brought some other sports wise-guys, and so the main topic of conversation was their evaluations of what the next week's lines would be. They wrote down their predictions, which they would later use to compare to the upcoming posted lines to see if there were any discrepancies of three points or more, so they'd know if they had an edge on those bets. Fezzik also gave me some good football picks to bet this weekend, conditional upon my being able to find the right point spread number. He liked Mississippi State taking 10.5 points in college ball, and in the pros, he liked the 3.5 points (but don't settle for only three) and the Houston Texans against Green Bay on Sunday. The one game they all agree was mis-priced was the underdog Chargers plus 3.5 points vs. Kansas City. San Diego won the game outright. In the Mississippi State game, it turned out that they lost by only three points, covering the spread easily. Green Bay won by three points, so the underdog Texans did cover the spread by that crucial half-point, making Fezzik look like a genius. Next time Fez gives me some picks, I have to remember to actually place some bets on them, but regretfully, this time I didn't.
This was the first time I had dined at Benihana's, although I've always longed to. I had the steak and shrimp which, as you may know, they slice and dice and flip and fry the food in front of you on a large grill that is built in to the center of each table, with the diners seated around the perimeter in a semicircle. I guess that's so you'll see what someone else is getting, and say, "Hey, that looks good. I'll have some of that too." We all got to taste each others orders. As usual, Fezzik had fish and seafood only, with no meat. Although he's still on his strict health and diet regimen, he didn't give me "the glare" when I ordered my steak. What a relief. I guess he's mellowed a bit since the last time I dined with him. He even insisted on picking up the check and would not accept any cash from Grif or me, despite our offers to chip in. Thanks again for the tasty dinner and your fine company, Fez.
Later I joined a $25 double-deck table at the Hilton, with one other player. The Grifter back counted the game while pretending to carry on a cell phone conversation in the aisle behind me. The first time the count went south, he said to me, "Here. She insists upon talking to you right now, even though I told her you're in the middle of a game." I'd pull my bet back, stand away from the table and resume the "conversation" as Grif handed me the phone. "Yeah, yeah...we'll catch up with you in about an hour, ok? Dinner was great...oh you shoulda been there....okay... okay...it's about ten-forty-five now...yeah...okay....what? Speak louder...it's noisy in here." By this time the count had gone positive, or the shuffle was ending, so I'd hand the phone back to The Grifter, who wasn't playing, and he'd continue to "talk." Since the pen was only 55%, I played less than thirty minutes and we left. I had won all of $40 after all that duplicity. This was the first time I had seen this new exit-wonging stratagem of Grif's, which he apparently just created on the spot.
Driving back to the Plaza, I settled in at a double-deck table in the new side pit. Soon I made my first max bet of the session. I had to double-down 5, 5 vs. a nine. The dealer turned a six in the hole for fifteen, and busted with a ten. When she turned up my card, it was another ten, of course. Why does it seem you always get it when you don't need it? Too bad you're not allowed to "bank" those cards, saving them for when you really need them.
Anyway, I had won $550 to put me in the black for the first time on this trip. We split up. The Grifter stayed at the Plaza, and I walked across the street to the Las Vegas Club, where Grif's mugshot is always prominent on the pit's podium stack of "undesirable" photos. I found a seat at the $25 single-decker with a third base player who was betting odd amounts on the Royal Match. It took the dealer forever to make the correct payoffs. We must have been getting less than forty hands per hour. I was losing, so it was even more irritating. My cell phone rang, but I ignored it in a plus count. Let the voice-mail pick it up. The phone rang again. I let it ring. I looked at the door. Through the glass, I could see The Grifter waving at me to come outside. I waited for a negative count, and told the dealer that I'd be right back.
Outside we found Max Rubin, who was shepherding some Barona players on a gambling competition tour. They would go to different casinos and play with house money to see who could achieve the highest cumulative total, much like those Travel Channel shows in which four contestants start with the same amount of chips and rotate through four table games, competing to see which one can win the most money. Max recognized me right away, even though I hadn't seen him in at least two years. We had met only once at a Rat Pack dinner one night. He was sporting a beard and it looked good-a different appearance than the clean-shaven look I was used to seeing on TV. I thanked him for the good review he had recently given my new book, You've Got Heat. He replied that he had enjoyed the book thoroughly, and especially liked the honesty in the narrative that showed how grueling it can be for a low stakes card counter trying to build his bankroll these days. I asked him if the fact that I was now an author would qualify me to attend the next Blackjack Ball. Max told me that a committee of BJ Hall-of-Famers compile and decide on the guest list each year, and that he'd nominate and put in a good word for me. I'm not holding my breath over it, but it sure would be an honor to attend, so if it happens, it happens, and if it doesn't, oh well-wait until next year.
A month later I found out that the BJ Ball Committee had left me off the list in favor of four well-known tournament players who had just competed in the second annual World Series of Blackjack, held this year at the Golden Nugget. So I guess I'll have to wait and hope for next year. Now I know how fans of the Chicago Cubs feel. J
I wanted the Grifter to demonstrate his new Royal Match count, so we drove to the Western at 2 a.m. Actually it's not a formal count system per'se. Rather, he'd observe the first round or two to the two of us. If there was one suit that hadn't appeared, or conversely an excess of one particular suit, or an excess of one color versus another, he'd place bets on the Royal Match. The Western has the better 3/10 payoff schedule. Any suited match wins 3-1, and if it's the suited king and queen, it wins 10-1.
At first I tried to keep a side count of red vs. black cards, which is one of several different ways to get an edge on this side bet. I found just I couldn't sustain it and keep my regular count too. After awhile, I gave it up and hit upon a simpler strategy-I'd just make a $10 Royal Match bet whenever I saw The Grifter doing it. We didn't have good results in this short sample. I think I only got two payoffs in eight or ten attempts. Oh well. I understand the variance on this side bet is rather high, so that may account for it. We finished up around 4:30 a.m. Down only $85 for the trip so far, I called it a night.
The next morning I switched between the $10 and $25 double-deck tables at Stardust, doing better at the higher limit table in my morning session. In for $600 and losing, I managed to recoup. The key hand was a $100 bet on a plus three true count, when I doubled 8, 3 vs. a seven upcard. When the dealer busted, I was back to exactly even, and quit at the end of the hour.
Taking a mid-morning break, I parked the car and entered the Gambler's Book Shop. The clerk told me they've been getting a number of phone inquiries about when You've Got Heat will be available. My publisher, Henry Tamburin, has the book at the printers at present, but the printed book covers still have to be shipped to another facility where they'll get laminated. So there'll be another two-week wait before the book is in stock and ready to sell. I didn't tell him that we had already pulled out thirty copies with un-laminated covers and sent them to Al Rogers at Pi Yee Press, so that Stanford Wong could sell them Saturday night at the annual Vegas Green Chip party. So far, Wong is the only one who has copies to sell. My publisher had made special arrangements to get Pi Yee Press a supply of my new books in time for this event, so that I could be there to sign them.
I bought two Bob Dancer books, Sex, Lies and Video Poker and Million Dollar Video Poker, as well as a used copy of Dustin Marks Cheating at Blackjack Squared. I also picked up another copy of Munchkin's Gambling Wizards, which I had loaned to The Grifter. He had lost it in Federal Prison Camp in Miami, so in repayment he's holding for me a copy of McDowell's new Ace Prediction book, which I was about to buy but didn't, after a cell phone conversation with Grif confirmed it. While totaling up the sale, manager Howard Schwartz groused that I had written a book just so I could get a 20% author's discount every time I came in.
It was just a short hop from here to downtown. The Plaza is still dealing an excellent double-deck game. I half-expected to find a bunch of advantage players at every table, now that the Green Chip party weekend was starting. As it turned out, the only one I ran into was my old buddy Packrat. After an hours play, and a $400 win, we went in for a comped coffee shop lunch. Packrat had the Spanish omelet and I ordered a club sandwich and chocolate shake. We talked about the Lucky Ladies and Royal Match side bets. Packrat has recently changed his count system from KO to Hi-Lo, which was more appropriate for his part-time job as a spotter for some multi-black spreading teams. He's studied and simmed these side bets, and gave me the quick and dirty strategy for each. On the Royal Twenties, he advised me to make the bet at a true count of plus six. Since my Silver Fox count is so similar to Hi-Lo, we both use the same strike numbers. On the Lucky Ladies, in double-deck games, we should make the bet at a true of plus five, if no heart queens are out. If one or both queen of hearts had been played, we make the bet at plus nine. However, Packrat also told me that if you're not keeping track of how many heart queens are out, or if you're getting good pen and the count shoots up towards the end, than it's ok to use the "blended" number and make the LL bet at a true of plus seven. In six-deck shoe games, where the numbers are the same, the best strategy is just to wong in at the plus five (or blended plus seven) strike number, although those opportunities are rare, as you can imagine.
After a luxurious late afternoon nap, I returned to the Plaza. I saw The Grifter at one table and Packrat at another. I played in the south pit, which is usually less crowded than the main blackjack pit. I lost $325 and was walking to the cage, when I ran into Stanford Wong. We had a long conversation, mostly about dice control techniques and a little about my new book. Where else but in a Las Vegas casino could you casually bump into the one and only Stanford Wong?
Packrat, Grif and I had a comped late night dinner, and then they left. I decided to play one more Plaza session before turning in for the night. This time I won $200, which is also my trip total up to this point. Hey, I know it's not much, but it's better than being in the hole. At least my variance had been mild up to this point, and I had suffered no big losses.
The next morning started rather badly. An hour-long session at the Stardust's $25 double-deck table resulted in a $400 loss, to put me back in the red again. Now down $200 for the trip, I turned the car west on Flamingo, heading for the Pi Yee Press office on Nevso Street.
Yesterday, I had received a cell call from Al Rogers at Wong's office. He told me that the very first shipment of my just completed book, You've Got Heat - The Vegas Card Counting Adventures of LV Pro, had finally arrived. When I got there, Al was out to lunch so I hung out with Chris Kelly, who showed me my finished book for the very first time. Chris told me how everyone just loved the book cover, and I could see why. The colors looked sharp and alive, much more vibrant than the computer files I had seen up until now. It looked wonderful, although I might have been a bit over-excited. After all, how often do you get to see your very own just-published book for the first time?
Chris let me use one of their computers, so I checked the websites. Sure enough, Al had posted a notice on both the main BJ Green and Free pages, announcing that You've Got Heat was now in stock and available for sale on www.BJ21.com. It was featured as a new product on their order page. On the book's own website, www.Youvegotheat.com, the online ordering link had just been activated, so now there were two websites actively selling the book. Soon, the rest of the copies will be back from the lamination processors, and will be shipped out to Viktor Nacht at Advantageplayer.com, to Howard Schwartz at the Gambler's Book Shop, to Anthony Curtis at Huntington Press, to Wendy at the Gambler's General Store, to Michael Dalton at BJRnet.com, and some other outlets. A month later in December, in the weekly Green Chip chat, Stanford would tell me that my book was their biggest selling title in the last month since it came out. Yay!
Chris was also kind enough to loan me one of the thirty copies they'd received. I wanted to have one with me to show people, but the main reason was to be able to hold a copy of my first-ever book in my own hands and just carry it, hold it, look at it and dig it. I just couldn't get over it!
The reason why Pi Yee Press got their book allotment before anyone else was that we wanted to have copies of the book for sale at the main Green Chip Party tomorrow night, where I'd be present to autograph them. Since the cover lamination process takes 10-14 days, we had left these few early copies unlaminated, pulled them out and shipped them. I promised to mail back a replacement copy within the month, but later upon talking to my publisher, Henry told me to just keep that copy, and he'll adjust the Pi Yee inventory accordingly. I liked that much better. Now that I have a copy, I don't want to part with it. As you can imagine, I was totally stoked and elated to finally holding the finished book in my hot little hands.
After a comped ham'n'eggs breakfast at the Stardust coffee shop, I checked out and moved my gear over to Casino Royale, where I had a mail offer for three free nights. CR has removed its one playable blackjack game. The $10 double-deck table has now been converted to a Blackjack Switch game. I had prepared for this, and printed out the basic strategy and a switch chart from the Wizard of Odds website. Although I hadn't yet memorized the basic strategy, I planned to give this new game some action. I also planned to play some coupon-hustling video poker there, in order to keep my name active for those valuable free room mailings that I received each month.
Later I drove downtown to the Plaza again. Each of the three tables I played at in this three-hour session could qualify for the "coldest table" designation in the encyclopedia. I lost almost all of my big bets and my double-down results were laughable, especially if you're sadistic and like to grin as you watch the chip stacks of otherwise normal advantage players get flushed down the toilet. I was actually lucky to lose only $400 here to put me at minus $600 for the trip, with two days left to go.
Note: The conclusion of Barfarkel's trip report will appear in the January issue of BJI.
By Barfarkel (aka LV Pro)
(Dead link: http://www.blackjackinsider.com) _www.blackjackinsider.com_
Barfarkel is a serious recreational player who started with basic strategy in 1996 and learned the Silver Fox count by the end of 1998. He has been counting since early 1999, starting with a $2K bankroll and slowly trying to build it to $10K. Barfarkel's new book, You've Got Heat, contains the details of his playing trips to Las Vegas over a 4 year period. He also wrote the article "Graduating From Red to Green" that appeared in the Winter2003/2004 edition of Blackjack Forum. For details on You've Got Heat, including ordering information go to www.youvegotheat.com.
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It was a welcome change to drive to Las Vegas in the light of daytime rather than my usual night-time departure. It gave me a chance to experiment with a slightly different route. I wanted to see if taking the 210 freeway from just east of downtown Los Angeles would get me to Interstate 15 faster than my regular eastward route on the San Bernadino (10) freeway. I'm not sure if this new northern course got me to the main highway to Vegas any quicker, but it sure was pleasant to drive on a newer, smoother, less crowded road. It was only recently that they had finally completed the connecting ramps between this new freeway and the main road to Vegas. I preferred to try out this new route in the light of day for better visibility and less chance of mistakes.
After enduring the same two construction zones that had bedeviled me for way too long now, I made it to Sin City in less than four hours and checked in to the Stardust on a "two nights for $38" room mailer. After unpacking, I played a forty-five minute session at their badly cut s17 double-decker. Despite using my two $20 matchplay coupons, I couldn't put any kind of positive run together, losing most of my double-downs for a $300 loss right off the bat. Damn. I hate starting a trip with a loss!
All right. No sense getting worked up over it. I'd guess slightly more than half my trips start out the same way and I've been vowing lately to stop stressing over session and short-term trip results. Rather I should just be trying to get in the hours and let the long-term EV take care of itself. But you know me. I absolutely love winning each individual session and love having every trip come out a winner. Although I have been trying to play and react less emotionally lately, I'm not a robot, and sometimes just can't help getting frustrated or dejected about individual session losses.
I was starting this trip with a bankroll of $11,700. For the past year-maybe the last five or six trips-I haven't been able to increase the BR significantly. A winning trip would be followed by a loss, then another loss and a small win and so on, back and forth, and I had not been able to jump my stakes up in any major way. Still, I decided to stick with the $15 unit and spread 1-10 on red tables and go 1-6 in green on $25 minimum games, using a max bet of $150 throughout.
When the narrative ended in July 2003, in the last chapter of my just-released book, You've Got Heat, I had finally achieved my original $10k goal. Since that time, the bankroll has not even gained $2k. It's been over a year now and I've only managed to net $1,700 since that last chapter concluded. That barely covers expenses. Throughout my playing career, I've been trying to build my bankroll while steadily lowering my risk-of-ruin number from over 33% to under 5%, and have successfully achieved that reduction. Now it looks as if I might have to backtrack and endure a higher risk if I want to jump start the EV by increasing the unit size and top bet. Higher risk equals higher reward. But for the moment, I decided to start this trip with the BJRM 2000 prescribed spread and see where that takes me.
Heading downtown, I settled in at a Plaza double-deck table. In the middle of this forty-five minute session, I looked up. Standing in the aisle and smiling at me was The Grifter, big as life. We hadn't arranged anything-it was a chance meeting. Of course you're more likely to run into other counters at this place than just about any other Vegas casino these days. Motioning for me to follow, we met in the bathroom, where he told me that there was now another, less crowded blackjack pit to the south. I headed over there while he went back to the main pit.
Later, we drove over to Benihana's at the Las Vegas Hilton to meet Fezzik for dinner. Fez had brought some other sports wise-guys, and so the main topic of conversation was their evaluations of what the next week's lines would be. They wrote down their predictions, which they would later use to compare to the upcoming posted lines to see if there were any discrepancies of three points or more, so they'd know if they had an edge on those bets. Fezzik also gave me some good football picks to bet this weekend, conditional upon my being able to find the right point spread number. He liked Mississippi State taking 10.5 points in college ball, and in the pros, he liked the 3.5 points (but don't settle for only three) and the Houston Texans against Green Bay on Sunday. The one game they all agree was mis-priced was the underdog Chargers plus 3.5 points vs. Kansas City. San Diego won the game outright. In the Mississippi State game, it turned out that they lost by only three points, covering the spread easily. Green Bay won by three points, so the underdog Texans did cover the spread by that crucial half-point, making Fezzik look like a genius. Next time Fez gives me some picks, I have to remember to actually place some bets on them, but regretfully, this time I didn't.
This was the first time I had dined at Benihana's, although I've always longed to. I had the steak and shrimp which, as you may know, they slice and dice and flip and fry the food in front of you on a large grill that is built in to the center of each table, with the diners seated around the perimeter in a semicircle. I guess that's so you'll see what someone else is getting, and say, "Hey, that looks good. I'll have some of that too." We all got to taste each others orders. As usual, Fezzik had fish and seafood only, with no meat. Although he's still on his strict health and diet regimen, he didn't give me "the glare" when I ordered my steak. What a relief. I guess he's mellowed a bit since the last time I dined with him. He even insisted on picking up the check and would not accept any cash from Grif or me, despite our offers to chip in. Thanks again for the tasty dinner and your fine company, Fez.
Later I joined a $25 double-deck table at the Hilton, with one other player. The Grifter back counted the game while pretending to carry on a cell phone conversation in the aisle behind me. The first time the count went south, he said to me, "Here. She insists upon talking to you right now, even though I told her you're in the middle of a game." I'd pull my bet back, stand away from the table and resume the "conversation" as Grif handed me the phone. "Yeah, yeah...we'll catch up with you in about an hour, ok? Dinner was great...oh you shoulda been there....okay... okay...it's about ten-forty-five now...yeah...okay....what? Speak louder...it's noisy in here." By this time the count had gone positive, or the shuffle was ending, so I'd hand the phone back to The Grifter, who wasn't playing, and he'd continue to "talk." Since the pen was only 55%, I played less than thirty minutes and we left. I had won all of $40 after all that duplicity. This was the first time I had seen this new exit-wonging stratagem of Grif's, which he apparently just created on the spot.
Driving back to the Plaza, I settled in at a double-deck table in the new side pit. Soon I made my first max bet of the session. I had to double-down 5, 5 vs. a nine. The dealer turned a six in the hole for fifteen, and busted with a ten. When she turned up my card, it was another ten, of course. Why does it seem you always get it when you don't need it? Too bad you're not allowed to "bank" those cards, saving them for when you really need them.
Anyway, I had won $550 to put me in the black for the first time on this trip. We split up. The Grifter stayed at the Plaza, and I walked across the street to the Las Vegas Club, where Grif's mugshot is always prominent on the pit's podium stack of "undesirable" photos. I found a seat at the $25 single-decker with a third base player who was betting odd amounts on the Royal Match. It took the dealer forever to make the correct payoffs. We must have been getting less than forty hands per hour. I was losing, so it was even more irritating. My cell phone rang, but I ignored it in a plus count. Let the voice-mail pick it up. The phone rang again. I let it ring. I looked at the door. Through the glass, I could see The Grifter waving at me to come outside. I waited for a negative count, and told the dealer that I'd be right back.
Outside we found Max Rubin, who was shepherding some Barona players on a gambling competition tour. They would go to different casinos and play with house money to see who could achieve the highest cumulative total, much like those Travel Channel shows in which four contestants start with the same amount of chips and rotate through four table games, competing to see which one can win the most money. Max recognized me right away, even though I hadn't seen him in at least two years. We had met only once at a Rat Pack dinner one night. He was sporting a beard and it looked good-a different appearance than the clean-shaven look I was used to seeing on TV. I thanked him for the good review he had recently given my new book, You've Got Heat. He replied that he had enjoyed the book thoroughly, and especially liked the honesty in the narrative that showed how grueling it can be for a low stakes card counter trying to build his bankroll these days. I asked him if the fact that I was now an author would qualify me to attend the next Blackjack Ball. Max told me that a committee of BJ Hall-of-Famers compile and decide on the guest list each year, and that he'd nominate and put in a good word for me. I'm not holding my breath over it, but it sure would be an honor to attend, so if it happens, it happens, and if it doesn't, oh well-wait until next year.
A month later I found out that the BJ Ball Committee had left me off the list in favor of four well-known tournament players who had just competed in the second annual World Series of Blackjack, held this year at the Golden Nugget. So I guess I'll have to wait and hope for next year. Now I know how fans of the Chicago Cubs feel. J
I wanted the Grifter to demonstrate his new Royal Match count, so we drove to the Western at 2 a.m. Actually it's not a formal count system per'se. Rather, he'd observe the first round or two to the two of us. If there was one suit that hadn't appeared, or conversely an excess of one particular suit, or an excess of one color versus another, he'd place bets on the Royal Match. The Western has the better 3/10 payoff schedule. Any suited match wins 3-1, and if it's the suited king and queen, it wins 10-1.
At first I tried to keep a side count of red vs. black cards, which is one of several different ways to get an edge on this side bet. I found just I couldn't sustain it and keep my regular count too. After awhile, I gave it up and hit upon a simpler strategy-I'd just make a $10 Royal Match bet whenever I saw The Grifter doing it. We didn't have good results in this short sample. I think I only got two payoffs in eight or ten attempts. Oh well. I understand the variance on this side bet is rather high, so that may account for it. We finished up around 4:30 a.m. Down only $85 for the trip so far, I called it a night.
The next morning I switched between the $10 and $25 double-deck tables at Stardust, doing better at the higher limit table in my morning session. In for $600 and losing, I managed to recoup. The key hand was a $100 bet on a plus three true count, when I doubled 8, 3 vs. a seven upcard. When the dealer busted, I was back to exactly even, and quit at the end of the hour.
Taking a mid-morning break, I parked the car and entered the Gambler's Book Shop. The clerk told me they've been getting a number of phone inquiries about when You've Got Heat will be available. My publisher, Henry Tamburin, has the book at the printers at present, but the printed book covers still have to be shipped to another facility where they'll get laminated. So there'll be another two-week wait before the book is in stock and ready to sell. I didn't tell him that we had already pulled out thirty copies with un-laminated covers and sent them to Al Rogers at Pi Yee Press, so that Stanford Wong could sell them Saturday night at the annual Vegas Green Chip party. So far, Wong is the only one who has copies to sell. My publisher had made special arrangements to get Pi Yee Press a supply of my new books in time for this event, so that I could be there to sign them.
I bought two Bob Dancer books, Sex, Lies and Video Poker and Million Dollar Video Poker, as well as a used copy of Dustin Marks Cheating at Blackjack Squared. I also picked up another copy of Munchkin's Gambling Wizards, which I had loaned to The Grifter. He had lost it in Federal Prison Camp in Miami, so in repayment he's holding for me a copy of McDowell's new Ace Prediction book, which I was about to buy but didn't, after a cell phone conversation with Grif confirmed it. While totaling up the sale, manager Howard Schwartz groused that I had written a book just so I could get a 20% author's discount every time I came in.
It was just a short hop from here to downtown. The Plaza is still dealing an excellent double-deck game. I half-expected to find a bunch of advantage players at every table, now that the Green Chip party weekend was starting. As it turned out, the only one I ran into was my old buddy Packrat. After an hours play, and a $400 win, we went in for a comped coffee shop lunch. Packrat had the Spanish omelet and I ordered a club sandwich and chocolate shake. We talked about the Lucky Ladies and Royal Match side bets. Packrat has recently changed his count system from KO to Hi-Lo, which was more appropriate for his part-time job as a spotter for some multi-black spreading teams. He's studied and simmed these side bets, and gave me the quick and dirty strategy for each. On the Royal Twenties, he advised me to make the bet at a true count of plus six. Since my Silver Fox count is so similar to Hi-Lo, we both use the same strike numbers. On the Lucky Ladies, in double-deck games, we should make the bet at a true of plus five, if no heart queens are out. If one or both queen of hearts had been played, we make the bet at plus nine. However, Packrat also told me that if you're not keeping track of how many heart queens are out, or if you're getting good pen and the count shoots up towards the end, than it's ok to use the "blended" number and make the LL bet at a true of plus seven. In six-deck shoe games, where the numbers are the same, the best strategy is just to wong in at the plus five (or blended plus seven) strike number, although those opportunities are rare, as you can imagine.
After a luxurious late afternoon nap, I returned to the Plaza. I saw The Grifter at one table and Packrat at another. I played in the south pit, which is usually less crowded than the main blackjack pit. I lost $325 and was walking to the cage, when I ran into Stanford Wong. We had a long conversation, mostly about dice control techniques and a little about my new book. Where else but in a Las Vegas casino could you casually bump into the one and only Stanford Wong?
Packrat, Grif and I had a comped late night dinner, and then they left. I decided to play one more Plaza session before turning in for the night. This time I won $200, which is also my trip total up to this point. Hey, I know it's not much, but it's better than being in the hole. At least my variance had been mild up to this point, and I had suffered no big losses.
The next morning started rather badly. An hour-long session at the Stardust's $25 double-deck table resulted in a $400 loss, to put me back in the red again. Now down $200 for the trip, I turned the car west on Flamingo, heading for the Pi Yee Press office on Nevso Street.
Yesterday, I had received a cell call from Al Rogers at Wong's office. He told me that the very first shipment of my just completed book, You've Got Heat - The Vegas Card Counting Adventures of LV Pro, had finally arrived. When I got there, Al was out to lunch so I hung out with Chris Kelly, who showed me my finished book for the very first time. Chris told me how everyone just loved the book cover, and I could see why. The colors looked sharp and alive, much more vibrant than the computer files I had seen up until now. It looked wonderful, although I might have been a bit over-excited. After all, how often do you get to see your very own just-published book for the first time?
Chris let me use one of their computers, so I checked the websites. Sure enough, Al had posted a notice on both the main BJ Green and Free pages, announcing that You've Got Heat was now in stock and available for sale on www.BJ21.com. It was featured as a new product on their order page. On the book's own website, www.Youvegotheat.com, the online ordering link had just been activated, so now there were two websites actively selling the book. Soon, the rest of the copies will be back from the lamination processors, and will be shipped out to Viktor Nacht at Advantageplayer.com, to Howard Schwartz at the Gambler's Book Shop, to Anthony Curtis at Huntington Press, to Wendy at the Gambler's General Store, to Michael Dalton at BJRnet.com, and some other outlets. A month later in December, in the weekly Green Chip chat, Stanford would tell me that my book was their biggest selling title in the last month since it came out. Yay!
Chris was also kind enough to loan me one of the thirty copies they'd received. I wanted to have one with me to show people, but the main reason was to be able to hold a copy of my first-ever book in my own hands and just carry it, hold it, look at it and dig it. I just couldn't get over it!
The reason why Pi Yee Press got their book allotment before anyone else was that we wanted to have copies of the book for sale at the main Green Chip Party tomorrow night, where I'd be present to autograph them. Since the cover lamination process takes 10-14 days, we had left these few early copies unlaminated, pulled them out and shipped them. I promised to mail back a replacement copy within the month, but later upon talking to my publisher, Henry told me to just keep that copy, and he'll adjust the Pi Yee inventory accordingly. I liked that much better. Now that I have a copy, I don't want to part with it. As you can imagine, I was totally stoked and elated to finally holding the finished book in my hot little hands.
After a comped ham'n'eggs breakfast at the Stardust coffee shop, I checked out and moved my gear over to Casino Royale, where I had a mail offer for three free nights. CR has removed its one playable blackjack game. The $10 double-deck table has now been converted to a Blackjack Switch game. I had prepared for this, and printed out the basic strategy and a switch chart from the Wizard of Odds website. Although I hadn't yet memorized the basic strategy, I planned to give this new game some action. I also planned to play some coupon-hustling video poker there, in order to keep my name active for those valuable free room mailings that I received each month.
Later I drove downtown to the Plaza again. Each of the three tables I played at in this three-hour session could qualify for the "coldest table" designation in the encyclopedia. I lost almost all of my big bets and my double-down results were laughable, especially if you're sadistic and like to grin as you watch the chip stacks of otherwise normal advantage players get flushed down the toilet. I was actually lucky to lose only $400 here to put me at minus $600 for the trip, with two days left to go.
Note: The conclusion of Barfarkel's trip report will appear in the January issue of BJI.
) Do you always use your same handle on other message boards? IE on hitorstand, there is a "grifter" that sounds like you but I was not sure. If you don't want to answer, I'll certainly understand, I just do my best to know who I am talking to when I can.