STREETWISE Blackjack

Casino Verite

As I have noted in this space before, Gamblerıs Book Shop is the recipient of many phone calls in the course of any given day, looking for information. Most people are involved in either personal or commercial research and come to us for guidance, utilizing the experiences and intelligence of the diverse collection of people who work here as well as the numerous resources gathered over our almost 40 years in business.

By far, the most frequent callers and visitors have been from the commercial enterprise collectively known as The Discovery Channel. Consisting of five separate cable channels grouped together under one heading, there is the History Channel, the Learning Channel, the Travel Channel, and Arts & Entertainment as well as Discovery Channels 1 and 2. They started coming around more than three years ago and have not let up since. In the interim, ESPN, HBO, and others have stumbled on us as well.

Resulting from these calls, we have been involved in numerous productions, in roles ranging from a few minutes of answering queries to a long series of responses to full-blown consultants and on-screen appearances. Some of the experiences have been satisfying to all concerned, others less benign, but I can honestly sate I have learned something from each one. As Howard Schwartz (casinogaming.com book reviewer and columnist) has been associated with the store more than twenty years, his role has customarily been to relate the shopıs history and offer stories of some of the famed Las Vegas characters and authors who have been part of the storeıs family.

As the resident casino expert and historian, I am usually called on to discuss gambling matters and research involving gamblingıs evolution. To this end, the latest Discovery Channel crew came to town several weeks ago to begin production. Two 1-hour specials are in the works. The first is called "The Stickmen of Las Vegas" focusing on casino dealers from as many different aspects as they can reasonably cover. One might think with so many crews shooting so many different Las Vegas shows over the last few years, there has been little escaping the lens. Possibly the only subject left uncovered is "The Mensa Mormon Stripper Scientist Blackjack Counting Team Members."

Fact is, with great confidence, television people will advise you Las Vegas shows continue to receive the highest national cable ratings despite the almost nightly assault of varied shows. With that in mind, the second creation of this latest group, Burrad Productions, Inc. of Los Angeles, is entitled "The Vegas Challenge." It will pit four players against each other in four separate table games. Each player will start with a bankroll of $10,000 in non-negotiable "tournament" cheques or chips. He/She will then attempt to run the money up as high as possible, thus winning the playoff.

Each Discovery Channel show is an entire original production written, directed, shot and edited by an independent crew signed for that purpose. We have had the pleasure of working with different staffs and this latest company is one of the top-notch groups. Burrad is the group responsible for "Shark Week" and the Aussie running around disrupting the lives of all those venomous snakes. One of the cameramen is the guy in the shark cage who has lived so far to talk about it. I told him heıd be right at home in Las Vegas as we have our form of indigenous sharks and poisonous beasts.

I was originally chosen to be Vegas Challengeıs casino expert but Burrad made an executive decision to cast me instead as their blackjack player. To that end, they decided to film me in the latest Ballyıs thrice-annual invitational BJ tournament as a way of setting up my character. With about 300 entrants, the preliminary round of the tournament runs all day Monday, a different session every two hours from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Five thousand dollars in non-negotiable tournament cheques are distributed to all 6 players at each table with a minimum bet of $100 and max of $5,000 per hand. There are 30 hands for each round with a countdown of surviving players at the 25th hand.

Dan Josephson was the producer for this segment and he and the cameraman set the lights and camera facing me as the other players signed commercial releases acknowledging they were aware of the filming, granting use of their faces for TV. A late-fiftyish platinum blonde swam over to me and attempted to sit down to my right. She failed. She had just lost $9,000 gambling and was clearly intoxicated. It was 2 p.m. I guess this added to the production values of the film, although I wasnıt sure how. It didnıt help matters that she insisted on toying with my hair after she got situated. In terms of sizing up my opponents, I believed I had a free ride here. The others looked more difficult.

I was in seat six or third base to the dealerıs immediate right. For a card counter, this is generally the most advantageous position as it allows you to see the greatest number of cards distributed to the others. In most tournaments, this advantage is negated as the dealer moves a chip around the table designating a different player to bet first that hand‹a type of immobile musical chairs. This was the case at Ballyıs.

Randy, the dealer ran the cards until an ace popped in front of my space ­this was to determine who made the first bet‹it would prove costly much later. My philosophy in these tournaments is to bet as little as possible--$100‹and survive to the end, while putting myself in a position to win. This can change in the course of the event if there are players who are betting big and running away with the lead, forcing my hand. In this case, we had just the opposite situation. Randy was hot. So hot, it was rare for him not to have a face card "up" or showing. This usually meant a total of twenty when he flipped the ten from the hole.

The other possibilities ranged from him having a blackjack to some nifty five and six card twenty-ones. This didnıt help the sodden blonde next to me. She bet $1,000 off the top, followed by bets of $2,000 and $2,000 until she had nothing remaining. Three hands, one down. As for myself I was a teenager--living on a nauseating parade of 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. Once I made it to 17! At number twenty into the round I had yet to receive a pat hand. The only solace I had was no one else was doing well either. The seventy-something man with snow white hair and a sly look kept putting $500 into play, drawing three blackjacks for his efforts. But with such a hot dealer, I knew this would catch up. It did. He was soon reduced to a few spare chips by the countdown after hand 25, essentially out of the running. Two down.

With four of us left, no one far ahead or behind, it was anyoneıs game. Dan the producer smiled and asked me to win a few more hands. I assured him Iıd try harder. The next three hands continued the teenaged theme. I had to make a move as two of the other players, first base and center field were holding steady while I was dropping lower. The young man to my right was in the same spot. At hand 29, I was forced to go all in and to my utter shock, received a stunning blackjack! I was back in the hunt, the chip leader with $6,300 at the buzzer.

Well, almost. It was hand 30, the last, and the way things worked out, with me betting first and two dropping out, I had the problem of being on the button, betting first. This is the worst position. First base was only $1,000 behind me, center field was less than that and the young man to my right had lost that crucial hand prior to drop out of the hunt with only $400 remaining. Three of us were vying for the right to move on.

Thereıs two ways to go in this spot. If I bet the $100 minimum I leave myself open to the two others betting more. If I bet the maximum, I make them follow me, but with the dealer so hot, and the fact that Iıd gotten a total of one (1) good hand out of the previous 29 made me reluctant to take that path. There was no point in betting a portion as they could merely take my total and throw in just a bit more. This was crunch time.

As the Discovery Channelıs BJ expert, I wanted to do the right thing, while keeping my chances for winning alive. The count stood at a minus three, the dealer having a distinct advantage. After much consideration, I opted for safe mode and put $100 in the betting circle then sat back to watch the inevitable measuring.

Sure enough, first base put $1,500 out, center field placed $750 and the man to my right placed a $100 in the betting circle. In essence, I was gambling on the dealer winning so I would sacrifice the least amount. At the minus count and as he had only busted a spare few times, it seemed to be a reasonable strategy. When I drew a pair of threes against an 8, I wasnıt shocked. But first base was solid with a pair of faces and centerfield a hopeful hard 18. I went first and hit my hand‹what else but a 6 appeared for a total of 12. I was back in familiar territory again. Hit it again and I got an ace. One more time for a four. I had to stop at 17. I was in trouble.

The other players waved off their hits and we all held our breaths as the dealer pulled a five out from the 8 and followed with a face to bust. One of the fine tournament supervisors, Lori Harrington came by to count the money, Discoveryıs cameras bearing down. First base won and centerfield beat me by $50. As Iıve noted before, I have a better chance of getting hit by a locomotive in bed than winning one of these things, and I donıt live anywhere near the tracks.