Las Vegas Tribune - for publication 12/15/04
Las Vegas Tribune - for publication 12/15/04
D R A F T
BOOK REVIEW: YOU"VE GOT HEAT
A NEW BOOK, YOU"VE GOT HEAT, IS A FIRST PERSON NARRATIVE DETAILING THE ADVENTURES OF A LOW STAKES CARD COUNTER IN MODERN DAY LAS VEGAS.
By Nicholas 'Little Nicky' Bernstein
Tribune Special Gaming Correspondent
I was up burning the midnight oil recently, reading a thoroughly fascinating book about a former chump gambler who turned himself into a skilled 'advantage' player.
What's it like to play with a real edge over the casinos? What's it like to be a David to the casinos' Goliath? Want to know what it feels like to kill the big, bad casino monster?
Then meet "Barfarkel," the nom de plume of an advantage blackjack player. Barfarkel, or "Barfy" to his blackjack buddies, began his playing career as a low stakes card counter with a mere $2,000 bankroll. His goal was to win enough money at blackjack to increase his bankroll five times, while simultaneously taking advantage of all the freebies that Vegas offers its valued players.
In the mid to late '90s Barfarkel was your average clueless gambler. He often drove from his home in Los Angeles to Las Vegas to play craps, because it was the most exciting casino game. However, he found he was steadily losing money playing craps and, since he hated to lose, he decided to learn how to play blackjack skillfully.
He first mastered the basic playing strategy. This was a good first step but even playing a strong basic strategy game the casino still had the advantage. In the long run he would still lose more than he won. So he decided to teach himself how to count cards in order to turn the tables on the casino and gain the long-term advantage over them.
Along the way, Barfy chronicled his story in the just-released book entitled: You've Got Heat - The Vegas Card Counting Adventures of LV Pro. What started out as this first-time author's desire to get free Las Vegas vacations and make money gambling at the same time, has manifested itself into a personal narrative spanning the last four years during which he has evolved from the typically clueless casino punter into a feared advantage player in this entertaining collection of trip reports. Originally posted online on Henry Tamburin's Blackjack Insider Newsletter, these twenty-six articles have been compiled in chronological order so as to follow the author's early efforts as part of several blackjack teams, and his later solo efforts in building his bankroll steadily over time using tried and true card counting advantage techniques.
Along his journey from chump to sharpie, Barfarkel discovers an entire underground advantage player community online, as he makes new friends with the "smart money" professional gamblers while earning a steady income gambling and gaining free vacations - in short, living out the American Dream.
According to Eliot Jacobson, a college computer science and math professor and part time card counter who runs a Web-community for counters at
www.CardCounter.com: "If you have ever wondered what card counting is really like, You've Got Heat is the best book yet on the curious, frustrating, exhilarating and misanthropic world of the blackjack card counter."
Other experts have weighed in on the book too: "When historians in the distant future want to know what advantage play was like circa 2000, they will start with a careful study of Barfarkel's You've Got Heat-The Vegas Card Counting Adventures of LV Pro. This book is nonfiction; Barfarkel describes real people, real places, and real incidents with amazing attention to detail," says gambling authority Stanford Wong, author of Professional Blackjack and the proprietor of
www.BJ21.com, an online community of advantage players and card counters.
Even though card counting is legal and a perfectly legitimate advantage technique, the casino personnel hate card counters and constantly try to identify and stop them from playing blackjack. This cat-and-mouse game between casinos and card counters has been going on for over forty years, ever since Edward Thorpe wrote Beat the Dealer in 1962. The author uses his online handle Barfarkel, rather than his real name because he wants to be able to continue playing blackjack in Las Vegas.
Drawing upon his personal experiences, the author maps general principles for earning steady income at blackjack that anyone can follow. Card counting is a discipline, like karate, and requires hours of practice. Throughout this enlightening narrative, Barfy shows how any average guy or gal can become the odds-on favorite to win money and at the same time earn comped Vegas vacations with a modicum of math skills, perseverance and character.
In time, as his bankroll would rise and fall, and rise again, Barfarkel became a more astute advantage player, and his bankroll grew steadily. He established an overall objective to grow his relatively small $2,000 starting bankroll to $10,000, which he felt would allow him to conspicuously increase his stakes, and garner better comps and mail offers from casinos. He felt that his larger bankroll would grow exponentially from that point on.
I think what makes Barfarkel's reports so unique is his attention to detail, the accuracy of the technical information he presents about the game, the techniques he uses to gain the advantage over the house, and last, but not least, his unique writing style.
When I take a trip to Las Vegas I'm lucky if I can remember which casinos I played in. But Barfy has the uncanny ability to remember everything and put it in writing. You'll read the details of those momentous hands that suddenly and unexpectedly turn a winning session into a disastrous losing one; how he copes with the emotional roller coaster ride his bankroll often takes; how he understands risk of ruin to diligently protect his bankroll; his reliance and enjoyment in friendships he makes with other card counters; his experiences and reactions when he was 86'd from several casinos; and last, but not least, the unique lifestyle that he adopts in Las Vegas that includes taking full advantage of everything that Sin City has to offer - from comped rooms to comped meals to comped smokes to yes, even some encounters with the ladies of the evening.
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I believe average blackjack players will get great inspiration from his story because it shows how it's possible for a beginning red chip player to win amounts like $8,900 in a relatively short time by diligently using the principles and techniques of card counting. Barfy started his card counting journey in the spring of 1999 with $2,000. He became determined to increase his bankroll to $10,000. Did he achieve his goal? Was it easy to do? You'll just have to pick up a copy of You've Got Heat to find out.
"You've Got Heat is a fascinating, detailed tour of Nevada casinos, their 21 tables and a talented, obsessed counter who meets characters, sharpies, wise guys, geniuses, eccentrics, and hustlers along the way. This book is a grand tour, financially and intellectually, allowing you to ride along with a most talented counter who uses camouflage and disguise techniques to quadruple his bankroll at the tables. Super insight into what playing with a team is like, plus countering what the House has to offer and what it's like to service a sometimes bumpy (four year) ride as a semi-professional player."
- Howard Schwartz , manager Gambler's Book Club
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So don't be a chump. Learn to play blackjack with an edge and build a bankroll. You've Got Heat is now available online at
www.CardCounter.com,
www.Youvegotheat.com,
www.BJInsider.com,
www.BJ21.com,
www.CardCounter.com,
www.Smartgaming.com, and
www.Advantageplayer.com, as well as the Gambler's Book Store, the Gambler's General Store and Huntington Press - all located in Las Vegas.
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Nicholas 'Little Nicky' Bernstein is the new occasional Las Vegas Tribune 'Special Gaming Correspondent' and he may be reached at
[email protected]
