Chapter Plus Six

Cover

Continuing the story from Chapter Minus Two:

My first casino trip was over. I had won, but I had been barred from further play in three casinos, including my favorite. It doesn’t take a calculator to realize that at that rate, I would quickly run out of Blackjack tables. Janice Galloway wrote, “The trick is to keep breathing.” You can’t win if you can’t play. I brought two things back besides the loot — a realization that I had a lot to learn, and Lawrence Revere’s Playing Blackjack as a Business. I devoured the book on the return flight. Reaching home, I called Revere for a chat and explained my problem. One week later, I was on another plane making the pilgrimage to Revere’s house.

 Revere was an interesting character. He originally worked on the casino side. Then, he taught players how to beat the casinos. Then he taught casinos how to catch counters. Then he taught counters how not to get caught. Then …you get the picture.

This was a third of a century ago, and I can’t remember what I ate for dinner last night. I do remember that Revere reminded me of an old prospector. And, I do remember we spent a substantial amount of time in the living room talking about camouflage (cover). We then moved into the kitchen for “kitchen table lessons.” I was later to learn that, allegedly, he would surreptitiously remove a card from the deck to ensure that your count was off, indicating that you needed more training. But what mattered to me the most out of this experience were the discussions on not looking like a counter. And, in fact, I played for a few months before losing another spot to play.

 © 2009 Norman Wattenberger