Bad trip

[Bodarc]

Kid playing on the floor in a restaurant find 3 nickles and swallows them. Everyone is in a tizzy except one calm lady sitting at a table eating. She wipes her mouth walks over to the kid and grabs him by the gonads and squeezes gently and he coughs up one nickle. She squeezes harder and lives a little twist and he coughs up another nickle. Then she bears down squeezes with all her might and almost twists them off and he coughs up the last nickle. She casually walks back over to the table, picks up her fork and begins eating like nothing had happened. The mother runs over and cries out " Oh, thank God you were here! How did you know what to do to get him to cough up that money?". The lady looks at her and says " Ah, it was nothing, I do it every day....I'm a pit boss!"

Lady at the next table pipes up and says "I didn't think she was going to get that last nickle and I was going to have to step in and show her how it's done. I'm an IRS agent!"

[SiMi]

LOL!!! Thanks!

[Skull]

I suppose the kid doesn't have a wife, does he? She would be the best for the task...

[Skull]

Skull

It seems like a lifetime ago... I was interested in Roulette since age 14 because of a toy wheel I had gotten on my birthday. I studied French and, as a senior in college in 1978, I had a French book that mentioned, in passing, the Labouchere System for roulette. Interest piqued, I went to the library and got all the books on gambling I could find. Being over 21, a friend and I went to Reno/Tahoe with my Reverse Labouchere System and got our a$$es kicked promptly. Wiped completely out!

Back to the books and I find "Beat the Dealer" by some guy named Thorp. I liked math so I ate it up. I thought it was for real so my pal and I headed to Vegas. While he drove, I practiced and vice versa. We got pretty good and it was, as I recall, mostly SD games so it was easier to count accurately. I kept Aces on my feet. We managed to get BO'd/pref. shuffled in 3 places on our 1st night so I knew we needed to be more discreet. We split up, backed off the spreads and made a decent chunk of change (for us!) on lucky variance over the next few days. Much better than roulette systems! We went back a lot in those days...

I kept it up through law school and my early private practice on a part time basis for quite a while. I just enjoy "gambling." Personal Computers came out and I got into programming in my spare time and eventually got "Blackjack 678" for sims and practice. Eventually, kids, new jobs, illnesses, family crap, etc. caught up and I stepped out for a long time. I recently retired and got back into it in again because I missed it.

It's been a blast. I wouldn't trade it...

Best of luck to ya, Skull!
SiMi

Thanks for sharing your story SiMi, I appreciated it! I envy your BJ experience... in a good way, of course.
I also began my interest in BJ because of "Beat the Dealer", but with no casinos around the interest faded.

While it is absolutely fantastic to use the Internet nowadays to be able to immerse oneself in blackjack and learn so much in just a few months, I can't help phantasizing about the thrill you must have felt while driving to Vegas, reading that crazy and stimulating book and dreaming to "beat the dealer".
Nowadays, everything has been done, everybody knows about everything; much of the romance is gone...

You have been there and done it once; now you are doing it again and are still very enthusiastic about it. I praise that!
I, in turn, want to do it for the first time ever for no rational reason whatsoever; I don't really think it is possible for an ordinary guy like me to do it; and I can't see a real profitability in it through the numbers.

Nevertheless, I must admit: I feel the lure of it, and somehow it is growing....

I have no idea where it is leading me, but I am there, waking up one hour earlier everyday to count cards...

Who knows what life is reserving for us, huh?

At least, her face is the skull!

[mrw464]

I love hearing these stories, thanks Simi.

[bjarg]

Much better than roulette systems!

Haha.. I can think of a few people who would probably laugh to death after reading this.
Not sure if they still read this forum though.
Anyone from Germany or Croatia maybe who can appreciate the irony in this comment??

[Three]

- As long as you keep winning and TC >= +2, bet four units; then 2 hands of 4 units (2x4); then 2x6 units;

- Remeber that he never decreases the bets after a net win and never increases his bet after a net win.

The latter part of the last statement doesn't agree with how he presses his bet when winning. There are better ways to get cover that arise whenever you don't bet like a robot with the count.

[SiMi]

Hey, Skull

Wow, Thanks for the bet ramp notes! Very helpful!! You wrote: "never decreases the bets after a net win and never increases his bet after a net win."

Is that correct? Was it supposed to be: "never decreases after a win and never increases after a LOSS." ???

This is gonna be tricky... (But fun!)

SiMi

[SiMi]

mrw464

Sure thing, man! Glad you liked it and Thanks for reading it!!! Telling it prompted me to call my 'pal' from those trips and we had a great 1 hour phone call this afternoon. I haven't seen him/her for a while. We're going to meet at a Casino next week for dinner and gambling all night (!all on me!) for this person's birthday present. Can't wait...

Take care,
SiMi

[mrw464]

I wish my friends were as interested in gambling as I am. Enjoy Simi!

[Skull]

Is that correct? Was it supposed to be: "never decreases after a win and never increases after a LOSS." ???

SiMi / Tthree,

Oops, my bad! Of course, he never increases after a LOSS. Silly mistake!

And yes, Tthree, I am learning with you about these "better ways": keeping the same bet after consecutive wins while the count is dropping and then decreasing your bet when the count finally goes up; raising your bets when the count drops after you had failed to accompany an increase in count; leaving room to adjust down from your off the top bet, etc....

Keep teaching Tthree and I promisse I will keep learning!

Best of luck to y'all!

[Jabberwocky]

I see a plethora of APs missing the dynamics of today's modern blackjack games. You've simply got to go where the bigger edges reside in the game. For instance, betting the bonus side bet after you have accurately shuffle tracked Spanish 21.