Team Hammer

[zengrifter]

Fleecing Las Vegas; blackjack team
(Dead link: http://ng.csun.edu/e310f98/3assignf98/esquire.htm)
BYLINE: Angeli, Michael

Family is everything. I am using these words as a calming mantra to keep the adrenaline from spurting through my eyeballs. It's Super Bowl weekend, I have $ 20,000 snuggled in my jacket pocket, and we're heading toward the casino we've picked to hit. I'm as pumped and alive as a donored heart. Back up in the hotel room, they offered beta-blockers, but I wanted to feel the danger-rush come at full strength.

"That's good, that's his lizard-brain telling him how to survive," Rob Reitzen, the team leader, informed the others when I refused the pills. Someone else countered that fear causes mistakes, and they all formed this little quorum on dendrites and brain synapses while I tried to remember what was said about being followed.

Family is everything.

A couple of weeks ago, I wouldn't have believed a word any of diem said.

I first heard about Rob Reitzen through J. B., a buddy of mine who works for Emilio Estevez and is to bullshitting what Secretariat was to horse racing. "Dude, I met this incredible guy at the Tyson-Holyfield fight," J. B. said. "He wears these awful flannel shirts, but he's got this killer black-jack system called the Hammer, and I swear I saw him win a hundred grand! You gotta meet him!" Hammer. Hundred grand. And down the stretch they come.

complete story -
(Dead link: http://ng.csun.edu/e310f98/3assignf98/esquire.htm)

 

[Ethan]

Recap on Hammer Article please

Excuse me, but will someone provide a recap on the 6,000-word Hammer Article please? I'm lost as I waved thru the article. What the hell were they talking about, i.e., when, where, how, what, why, who, how many, & how much? Thanks in advance.

 

[phantom007]

Re: Recap on Hammer Article please

For what it is worth, as a "semi-pro" (probably 2 cents), my take on this article is as follows:

"It takes $ to make $."

Or in other words, a well funded Team, with an out-of-work, but never-the-less, highly-recognized celebrity "shill", took LV for $1M, one Super Bowl weekend. An outsider, likely a nurse or physician (due to most all analogies being medically related), was invited along to report on same activity, and was given a brief "low-budget" taste of the action.

For me, the whole story gave me a "BB" (Bankroll Boner) with the first read...a $70,000. buy-in and a $502,000. pay-off. But with further recollection to my Ploppy days, I realized that this is not quite so big a deal...many times have I turned a $1,000. buy-in into $10,000...and as a ploppy, then turned the $10,000. into a "comp'd buffet". The big difference is that this group "kept their profits" and then had "lobster, crab, and good booze" brought to their rooms.

As I personally move into the realm of Advantage play, I have found that I:

-Lose much more often.

-But I do usually lose less than "before", usually much less.

-Win much less when I do win.

I will not otherwise attempt to answer your "when, where, how..." questions...re-read the article another time or two...

Res Ipsa Loquitor.

"The Thing Speaks for Itself".

 

[The Mayor]

This is an incredible and TRUE story of a weekend beating a shuffle that could be sequenced at a major strip casino to the tune of 1/2 Million. One of the team members lives here in Santa Barbara, and teaches BJ. I have met one of his students who filled me in on some details, but he has not contacted me directly (yet).

--Mayor