Chapter Plus Eleven
Fleshing out the Hollywood Story
I received an e-mail from a user of my software asking if a story in Hollywood Dave’s book (Hollywood Blackjack) was about me. I asked for the page number and he responded page 117. Well I am rather lazy and read only the even numbered pages in books, so I had to look it up. The story was about a Craps game filled with Blackjack pros and includes, “One of the more well-known players in the Blackjack community, known for writing computer training software, seemed to roll nothing but sevens and elevens on the come out, throwing like eight or nine of them in a row.” I thought I’d fill out the story here.
It starts out at an annual party put on by Max Rubin with a rather eclectic collection of people, primarily Blackjack players. I believe I was chatting with Sam Case when Rick Blaine and Hollywood Dave walked by and asked if I wanted to play some Craps. Why not? On the way out, we passed a long-time BJ player who had recently written a book on Craps. Rick yelled out that we were going to play Craps — would he like to join in. He turned down the offer saying that he didn’t play that well at night. Ever since then, we have called this the Craps system that doesn’t work at night. (And in the city with no clocks.)
Anyhow, we hit one of the large casinos on the Strip and joined a crowded table. I was chatting with a friend when the dice arrived at my spot and waved them off — then quickly changed my mind and thought “why not?” I put a couple greens on the line and yelled “whirl bet” and threw a quarter to the dealer. Whirl bet is a ridiculous wager that is so unusual there is no spot for it on the table. You are betting the next roll is 2, 3, 7, 11, or 12 with various payoffs. The house edge is too
© 2009 Norman Wattenberger
