Chapter 2

I was sitting at another Pai Gow table, just recently. This time I was over at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino. This is my favorite casino on the Las Vegas strip. I was in the third day of a four day visit. Up to this point in my trip, the gambling had been about break even. I'd started out by losing nine hundred dollars on the first day, then had gotten nearly four hundred of it back during the following day's morning session. During the afternoon and evening sessions, I'd made an additional six hundred dollars. Each session had been short, more than an hour, but less than two hours.

With my miscellaneous expenses though, I was about even for the trip. My play had earned me enough in comp points to pay for the two times the family and I had gone over to the buffet at Harrah's, and then for whatever else my wife had purchased out by the pool for herself, my daughter, and our three grand kids who were with us this trip.

I had just started play for my morning session. It was eight o'clock, and the rest of my family were still up in their rooms, trying to fit in another hour or two of sleep before they'd all be coming down together wanting breakfast.

I liked to play shorter sessions, now that I was getting up there in age. Two or three hours at a time was plenty for me. I could take a break for an hour or two though, and be right back at the tables, ready for another short session.

I'd only been sitting at the table for about ten minutes when I heard a loud noise behind me. I turned my head to see what was causing all the ruckus, and couldn't believe what I was seeing there. Not ten feet away from me, those two lesbian ladies I'd met over at the Primm Valley Resort were having a big argument about something. I recognized Cindy right away, but it took me another few seconds to remember that the other one's name was Debbie.

Just about the time I was remembering Debbie's name, I realized that they were arguing about me. As soon as I realized this, I also remembered why they might be doing that. I remembered that short story I'd written and published, right after the first time I'd seen them. I'd been a bit angry when I wrote that little story about them. I guess I was still pretty upset over having spent so much money when I was getting the engine on my big Lincoln replaced.

I didn't want to be a part of any big scene in a casino where I was pretty well known, and, hopefully, well thought of. I had been a diamond card player in Harrah's casinos Total Rewards program for a number of years, and considered the Harrah's chain of casinos all to be my homes away from home.

I usually came to Las Vegas at least fifteen times a year. I mostly stayed from two to four nights on each of my visits. Mostly, these visits took place sandwiched over weekends. This way, we usually only had the grand kids missing one day of school. We nearly always got some free show tickets on these visits, in addition to the free rooms we got. The way my play was being rated, I always seemed to earn more than enough comp dollars to pay for whatever food all my family members and I might be consuming during the period of our stay.

The year before, I'd earned about fifty five thousand tier level points from my casino play. This put me right in the middle, between a diamond player and a seven star player. That was right where I wanted to stay too. It was enough to earn me the upgraded rooms my wife liked for us to stay in, and was usually sufficient to earn me whatever help I might need from my casino host. It was a comfortable situation for me to be in.

The girls stood there, having by now lowered their voices enough to where they weren't creating such a disturbance. It was easy to see that Cindy was the one who was really upset, and Debbie was doing her best to calm her down.

After another minute, Cindy came over to the table where I was sitting and sat herself down. I was sitting in the third seat from the right, the place on the table I generally liked to sit, for the extra leg room it offered me. Cindy took the seat all the way over on the left, the one that would keep her the maximum distance away from me at the small Pai Gow table it looked like we'd both be sharing.

She kept glaring over at me as she waited for the hand the dealer and I had been playing to be finished, so that she could get chips for her money and start playing too. I ended up winning the hand, beating both the dealer's front and back hands in order to do so.

Pai Gow Poker is a card game. Each player and the dealer are dealt a hand consisting of seven cards. You set your cards to try to make the two best poker hands you can manage. The back hand, consisting of five cards, is required to be a stronger poker hand than the front one, which only contains two cards. I had been betting fifty dollars that hand, so I was paid forty seven dollars and fifty cents. The house keeps five percent of all winning bets. That's how they make the money they need to pay for their overhead, and to turn a nice operating profit.

I was betting a six step negative progression, with a maximum exposure that was four levels deep. What this means in plain English, was that I would double all losing wagers until I either won one, or until I ended up losing six times in a row. If I lost six in a row on my first level, it would cost me fifteen hundred and seventy five dollars. This figure was minus whatever I'd managed to win from my play before losing the six times in a row.

Once I lost the first level, I'd go immediately to playing on the second level. This was another six step progression, but for double the stakes of the first level. In the first, I was betting 25, 50, 100, 200, 400, and 800. which totaled out to be $1,575.00 when you added all of the six bets up.

The Second level started with fifty dollars being bet, and ended with a final bet of sixteen hundred dollars. If I lost the second level too, I'd move up to the third level, which began at one hundred dollars and ended with a final bet of thirty two hundred dollars. To play at the third and fourth level, I'd have to change tables, doing all my playing over in the high limit section of the casino.

Right then, I was playing on the second level, although I was slightly ahead of even at the time. I would remain at the second level until I either doubled my money, to $6,300.00, or else lost six bets in a row again. If that happened, then I had to go up to the third level.

My betting progression could end up costing me $23,625.00, if I wound up losing all four levels, but I didn't think that doing it like that was possible. Not without me winning quite a few other bets before losing six in a row four separate times.

It hadn't happened to me yet, and I'd been playing this way for an awfully long time. I had ended a trip before being down as much as six thousand dollars for the duration of it, but had simply returned to Las Vegas a few weeks later, still playing on the fourth level I'd been on when I went home that time.

On that second visit, after losing all that money the time before, I'd won on the fourth level where I'd started playing, and had gotten all the money I lost on the first trip back, plus quite a bit of new profits besides.

On this second visit, I'd brought enough money with me to take things through the fourth, fifth, six and seventh levels if I'd needed to. I'd been prepared to suffer through some catastrophic losses on that second visit, in the event my results were unfavorable this time as well. I'd have gone all the way to losing six bets on the seventh level if I'd lost to the point where I needed to do it. With my preferred method of betting though, four levels was all I'd ever put at risk during a single visit to the casinos.

Over the years, I've accumulated a substantial sum of money to employ as a gambling bankroll. This money had come from my having won several good sized No Limit Hold 'Em and Lowball poker tournaments, going back to the mid and late 1990's. I'd somehow managed to hold on to all that money, and had been adding steadily to it from the winnings I'd managed to accrue with my ongoing Pai Gow poker play.

In spite of my winning ways over the past decade and more, I was still a lifetime net loser when it came to all my years of gambling. I'd gotten off to a very poor start for the first thirty years or so of my gambling. By the time I'd wizened up, and started showing much better game selection skills, I was already stuck a lot of money. Many tens of thousands of dollars. I'd managed, over the past decade, to slowly climb up to the point where I might hope to someday get to where I'd be able to claim to be even again.

Because of the level of play I was able to bring on my casino visits, I pretty much got all these trips to any of the Harrah's properties to be fully comped. This was only true though for as long as I was being reasonable in what I asked for. It certainly didn't mean I could make any outlandish demands, like insisting on having one of the high roller's suites, instead of getting the free upgraded hotel room that my level of play made a reasonable proposition for them. If I was bringing in another four or five guests those times when I chose to dine in any of the more expensive restaurants the casinos featured, I had to pay for this with the comp dollars my casino play had earned me. I tried very hard to stay well within the perks that my level of play had made reasonable for me to be given.

When Cindy had purchased her chips, the dealer started dealing us both a new hand. I could see Debbie lurking in the background, ready to calm Cindy further, in case something else happened, or if she got herself all excited about something again.

"That was a very mean trick you pulled on us, writing that story and putting us in it like that. When it came up and we both read it, you caused both of us to get in a big fight about some of the things you wrote."

When Cindy spoke to me, I thought about trying to ignore her words. I didn't want to get involved in anything while playing at my favorite casino. It took me only a few seconds to realize I couldn't just sit there and not respond to her.

"Hello, Cindy. I didn't expect to see you and Debbie over here in Las Vegas. I thought you told me that you both preferred to stay over at stateline, because the minimum limits were lower, and the deals for rooms and food were better."

"They have new owners over there now. It isn't like it used to be. Not as friendly, and they don't treat us as good as they once did. We like it better over here now. The rooms are nicer, and there's a lot more to do at night here. Don't try to change the subject, Mr. Book. Tell me why you wrote what you did. We could sue you for writing about us that way. I'm sure I don't weigh any twenty pounds more than my ideal weight like you wrote in your story. It wasn't nice the way you described Debbie either. She and I are almost exactly the same age."

"Well, if you would have read the story better, you'd see that I said ten to fifteen pounds, not twenty. I also placed Debbie's age at somewhere in her late thirties. I seem to remember my saying that you both were attractive too. What part of any of that did I get wrong?"

"You said she looked older than me."

"I should have said you looked younger than her. I was giving descriptions based on what I was seeing, and how I was interpreting what I saw. If Debbie's any younger than about thirty seven or thirty eight though, I could understand then how she might be upset by what I wrote about her. Is she?"

Our conversation went on for another twenty minutes. For this whole time, both of us were winning nearly every hand. The cards run like that, in cycles. I was beginning to get nervous, because I'm superstitious about things like that. I figure if you win six or seven hands in a row, there is probably a string of losses waiting for you soon. One that will be every bit as long, if not longer, than the winning streak has been.

"Well, this has been fun, but I think I'm going over to Bally's for awhile. I don't want to still be here when that big losing streak shows up."

"What big losing streak? We've both been beating the dealer's socks off of her. You should stay right here with me. You shouldn't change casinos when the cards are running lucky for both of us."

I explained my superstition as the dealer was coloring my chips up for me. I'd managed to make a little more than five hundred dollars while I'd played, all in less than an hour. My leaving was mostly due to my superstitions, but it was also in part because Cindy continued talking, at the table, about other stories I had written and published online.

Like I said earlier, the Flamingo is my favorite Las Vegas casino. I was well known there, all my children stayed and played at this casino, so I didn't want anyone telling things about me that could cause me or my family members any embarrassment. I was sorry that I'd even mentioned my internet writing, and also sorry for writing that damn story about Cindy in the first place. Not many people even read the story. It had fewer than a thousand downloads from the time I first posted it, over a year and a half before.

After I went to the cashier's cage and had gotten my chips turned back into money, I called up to our room and told my wife I was going over to Bally's to play some more Pai Gow. I told her to bring herself and the rest of the family over there when they were ready to eat, and we'd have the buffet breakfast over at Bally's when they came there to get me.

I was seated at Bally's an hour later when both Debbie and Cindy came walking over to the table where I was playing.

"We both should have listened to you about the losing streak you said might be coming. Debbie and I both lost a lot of money right after you left. Debbie says we should ask you about the way you bet. You said something about it in your story, but neither of us paid too much attention to what you wrote about how you play. You seem to win when you play though, and we usually don't win. If we ever do win, then we just lose it right back the very next time we go somewhere to play."

"We all end up losing, Cindy. That's why they build all these nice hotels and casinos out here in the middle of nowhere. They want you to gamble, because that's how they make their money. I lose just like you do. I'm no luckier than anyone else. The only difference is, I usually don't run out of money to gamble with. When I do, I just go home, then come back later, with a lot more money, and try to win whatever money I lost on the last trip back from them. They like me for doing that, because they know, sooner or later, they are going to be able to win long enough to win all of my gambling money. They just haven't been able to manage that feat lately, not for a real long time. They have patience though, lots of it, and they know their turn is coming."

"Can you show us both how your system works?

"I can tell you in five minutes or less. It isn't complicated. I start out betting the minimum amount I picked out to play for this trip to Las Vegas. That level started out being twenty five dollars. I'm playing right now at the second level I'm supposed to be playing at so right now, my first bet in the sequence is $50.00. If I lose that, then I'll bet twice as much for the next time I place a bet. I keep playing like this, until I either win one of the bets, or lose six bets in a row. When I do win, I drop back down to my minimum bet again. If I lose six times in a row, I go to the next level, where all six bets are twice as much as they were on the level before. I'm prepared to bet and lose up to four levels on any one visit. If I win enough at any level I'm playing to double the money I've started with, I'll drop back down to my first level, which for this trip is going to be $25.00."

I looked at both of them, smiling. Waiting for them to ask me their questions. I'd spoken to other gambler's about my playing strategy. All of them I'd spoken with had lost interest as soon as they discovered how much money they might lose if the system ever got to the fourth level and then they lost that one too.

"You're risking almost $25,000.00 to try to win $25.00?" Debbie asked the question. As she did so, I could tell she thought I had to be crazy to be willing to do that. I laughed, nodding my head that this was, in truth, exactly what I was doing. "You're crazy, you know that, don't you?"

"It gets even better, or worse, depending on your point of view. If I did manage to lose the first, second, third, and fourth levels, I would come back again with the fifth, sixth, and seventh level bankrolls to continue playing. Added together, levels one through seven comes to $200,025.00. If you wanted to, you could say I was risking that much to try to win $25.00. With the five percent commission, I'm really risking all that money to try to make $23.75."

"You do know it's insane to be doing this, right?" Cindy seemed horrified as soon as she heard me confirming the sums of money that are involved with employing my gambling strategy. For the first time since I'd met her, she seemed genuinely concerned about my welfare. We might have had our differences in the past, but, now that she knew and understood how truly troubled I was, she was becoming sympathetic to my plight. I could see she was sincere about wanting to help me, or with aiding me in finding someone who might be able to help me.

"I don't think you have the right idea about what it is I'm really doing, Cindy. These properties that Harrah's owns or operates around the country are all part of this time share I now own. I can come to any of their Casinos and enjoy free use of their rooms, restaurants and recreational facilities. If my wife wants to get a massage or a pedicure, she gets it, and charges the cost of it to our room. Whatever is charged to the room is more than covered by all the comp dollars I'm earning with my play. At the end of the year, they invite us here to their big Holiday gift giveaway, where they give us all kinds of things that make wonderful Christmas presents for us to give away. Last year, both my sons and I got a nice pair of diamond earrings for my wife, designer purses for my daughters and daughter in law, big brand name golf equipment for my sons and me, a nice plasma television, and some other small electrical appliances. This year we're saving our points to get three different laptops to give to our three oldest grand children. All of this is on top of the free rooms, the free shows, and all the free dining we do here. I call this my timeshare, because I get to use all of this whenever I want to. I've brought as many as fifteen people here to Las Vegas at one time, and we ended up having everything we did comped, plus making a net profit on the gambling for the trip. My two sons have diamond cards also, so they get their own free rooms and show tickets too. Both of them spend about four hours a day gambling with me while they're here, using my money to wager with. I keep their winnings, and I absorb all their losses. All they need to contribute is four hours a day of their time, doing something they both seem to enjoy doing."