Chapter 177: Bet One

Tuesday, May 3, 2005 (Continued)

Binion's Horseshoe Casino is certainly at a different scale than Spirit Mountain. Overwhelmingly larger, with a far greater number of self-deluded idiots/customers.

I got asked for ID soon after I walked into the gambling area. I had a struggle digging my wallet out of my tight pocket, so I told the security guard, "Sorry, my girlfriend insists I wear tight pants. Apparently I've got a cute ass. And don't you dare look at it, or I'll call Security on your ass."

He chuckled, quickly checked my card, passed it back, and wished me, "Good luck."

I didn't tell him I had something better.

#1: <We might have overdone the "relax" command. It's amazing how well it works, isn't it?>

#3: <Yeah. We were almost cool there, for a second or two.>

While I was making my way through all the slot machines I had the idea of using NP to push the wheels of one of them into winning positions. The wheels were behind glass, and I hadn't tested NP through glass. It'd failed through a telephoto camera lens, but I guessed NP would work through optically neutral glass. Nor did I know whether physically pushing the wheels might set off all sorts of alarms. I could easily conduct an experiment by trying it on someone else's machine so if any alarms went off I wouldn't be involved. Right now probably wasn't the best time to get involved in something other than what I'd come here for, and this casino probably wasn't the best one to experiment in either. It was an idea for another day though, as some of the slot machine jackpots were well worth winning.

I found the table games area and located the roulette table closest to the front door. With great trepidation, and a prayer to a God I don't believe in - which I hoped He wouldn't hold against me right now - I looked to see how the wheel was physically constructed...

The wheel and ball looked IDENTICAL to the one used at Spirit Mountain, other than some irrelevant decorative differences, which was a HUGE relief. The first potential obstacle didn't seem to exist.

I was very eager to test my NP, but Prof had requested that I wander around enough to know where all the various roulette tables were in case I had to quickly find Prof on another one. At Spirit Mountain that could have been done while standing in one spot, but it was a very different situation here. I wandered around quickly, because it was a big place and I'd hate to not be ready for Prof if he turned up at the short end of his time estimate.

There were an impressive number of roulette tables, quite a few of which were closed. Presumably because Tuesday afternoon wasn't their busy period. After my quick scout I hurried back to our target table.

There were several non-bettors hanging around it, so I chose not to buy any chips immediately. I waited until I could do my first test, which was to 'weigh' the ball, to avoid the risk of sending it flying across the room like last time I'd gotten its weight wrong. I weighed it the same way I'd done it at Spirit Mountain: I waited until it was in a slot with the wheel virtually stationary, then I used an NP-fingertip to VERY lightly start to push it out of the slot. A little tricky, because the wheel was still rotating slowly, but there was no hurry because the dealers take a while to make all the payouts.

I slowly increased my push, until the point when I felt the ball wobble. It weighed about the same as the ball at Spirit Mountain. The weight of the ball had been my biggest remaining concern, so I was now feeling very good. As best I could tell, we had exactly the same situation as at Spirit Mountain, where I'd been 100% accurate. I was still worried about the unforeseen, but everything I could see looked fantastic.

Now to start testing my accuracy at hitting a target. I looked at my watch's second hand, to get a random target: 44 seconds. Subtracting 38 gave 6 as my target.

On the next spin I tried to hit 6. I took it very carefully initially, getting my timing perfect and deliberately under-nudging the ball to make sure nothing peculiar happened. It seemed to respond properly, so I reduced the amount by which I "pulled my punches" (or "nudges"). My highest priority was to avoid doing anything that would look suspicious, especially when the casino management replayed the videotapes. Prof had warned me that they'd be certain to review the recent spins, to see if anything untoward had happened.

As a result of my caution the ball was not perfectly positioned when the wheel slowed down. I didn't try to force it into number 6, so it missed by a couple of slots. I was EXTREMELY happy with the situation, because the ball had reacted to my NP-pushes exactly as it should've. I was confident that the only reason I'd missed was because I'd been overly cautious on my first test (actually, I'd been "correctly cautious", but you know what I mean).

The second test was aimed at number 16. I was still extremely careful to get my timing correct as I didn't want the ball to appear to bounce off a bumper when it wasn't anywhere near one, but was no longer overly cautious with the amount of force I used. I did my best to steer the ball to where I wanted it. It moved well, and the ball was well placed as the wheel slowed.

By the time the ball was starting to roll/bounce over the pockets, it was very close to number 16. The easiest way to get it in the right pocket - the method with the highest accuracy and realism - is not to keep nudging it, but to grasp it with several fingertips and carry it there, while pretending to make it bounce around a little. Now that the wheel and ball were slow enough, it was with considerable satisfaction that I gasped the ball, moved it so it looked like it bounced a couple of slots back and forth, and then dropped it neatly into number 16. There I let it go, so it could rattle around naturally, just using a fingertip to block the exit to the pocket so it wouldn't roll out again. After a couple of seconds it stopped trying, settling down in its temporary home.

#2: <That's good.>

#1: <Yeah, I was quite pleased too. It's exactly the same as Spirit Mountain, except we need to be ultra-careful with our timings. Shall we try for best two out of three?>

#3: <Seems like a good idea to me.>

Notice from the above internal conversation that #4 was on duty. We'd been worried that he'd get distracted by all the sexy girls we thought we'd encounter. The Vegas casino scenes that we'd seen in movies had been full of very glamorous and sexy girls, and this was a "Strip Casino" after all. It turned out that our worries (and hopes) had been largely unnecessary. There were, for example, no strippers. Apparently you can't trust Hollywood in at least the four w-dimensions that my minds had experience of, and I suspected probably a few others as well.

We nailed the next two spins too, making three out of three (I wasn't counting the first, overly cautious test).

#2: <How about we do a couple more, and if we nail those, we drop back to only affecting every second or third spin? We shouldn't just stand here and stare at the wheel so intently every spin, especially as we could have an hour or more to kill yet.>

#1: <Agreed. It also reduces the chance of us making a timing mistake with one of our nudges. I'm starting to think that's a bigger danger than our accuracy needing confirmation or practice.>

#3: <You could be right. Let's keep on our toes with the timings, and I agree with using NP every third game. Even better, let's randomize which games we test. I'm not sure why' it just seems safer to be irregular. Prof's paranoia is infectious.>

#1: <There's no reason not to randomize it.>

The next two tests were successful, which made it five out of five real tests. Also important was my feeling of confidence that I could do easily this. I definitely had to concentrate very intently on what I was doing, but only for a period of about thirty seconds. Most of the other patrons stared at the wheel at the same time, so I didn't even have to worry about my standing out then. Other than the concentration required, it really was fairly easy. The ball bounces a LOT, so it's easy to bounce it around until it's in the target area, and then to make sure that the bounces mostly go back and forth around the target. It's done on a rotating inclined plane, but toward the end the ball is moving - on average - in the same direction and with the same speed as the wheel, so there's no relative motion.

As per our discussion, we decided to miss the next couple of spins. While I was sitting out, one of the dealers - a female - asked me, "Are you waiting for someone?"

"Why do you say that?"

"You keep looking at your watch, and looking around like you're waiting for someone to come."

#1: <Don't tell her we're waiting for an old man. Say our girlfriend.>

"You're observant. Yeah, I'm waiting for my girlfriend. She arranged to meet me here. It's not like her to be late; in fact, she usually gives me a hard time when I'm late, so I'm a bit worried I've got the wrong meeting spot. I'll give her another ten minutes, then see."

#3: <What are you going to do after ten minutes? We can hardly go looking for her.>

#2: <Then I'll just ask the dealer to confirm this is the closest roulette table to the front door. We know it is, but it'll give us an excuse to keep looking at our watch. Not that we need to, because we could always pick random numbers off the top of our head, but waiting for our girlfriend is a nice, simple, believable story. It even explains why we're not betting, although I didn't think of that until just now.>

The dealer went back to her work.

I waited until I'd missed a couple of spins, then did my thing on the next one. Again successfully.

"Do you want some chips?" the dealer asked me.

"Yes, I think I might as well. Give me $50 in five dollar cash chips please." Prof had explained that cash chips were better to get than color chips, because color chips would have to be converted to cash chips before I could leave the table. When it came time for me to leave, I didn't want anything to slow me down.

It took her far less time to get out the ten chips than it did for me to extract my wallet from my pocket. When I got it out and looked up, she was waiting. "Sorry, tight pants."

"So I see."

I dug out one of Prof's $100 bills, and place it on the table.

The dealer looked at it, then at me, saying, "We can't give change, sir."

"What? Oh, yeah. Stupid me. My mind's elsewhere. Make it twenty chips then, thanks."

#2: <That's more than I wanted to waste, but I guess we can save them for our second visit. It looks like we are going to have a second visit, doesn't it? We're going to win the $1.75 million first bet, unless something goes horribly wrong.>

#3: <Don't go prematurely crossing any bridges. I've got this horrible fear about the casino cheating. Other than someone tripping us up at the critical moment, cheating is the only real thing that could go wrong, and it's scary that you see that sort of stuff in movies sometimes.>

#2: <Yeah, but it's hard to believe they could get away with it these days. We'll do what we thought of before. Magnets don't seem likely though, because the ball's obviously not metallic.>

#1: <No, but it could have a tiny magnet or piece of steel in the middle of it. We've discussed all this before. We'll just have to wait and see. Changing the subject, I was impressed by #2's stupid mistake with the $100 note. The dealer certainly thinks we're too ignorant and stupid to be involved in some elaborate scam now, haha.>

#2: <I'd like to take credit for that, but unfortunately it was accidental. Too many other things to worry about, and it's not as if we've had much experience buying chips in casinos. It'd be amusing if that made them ignore us when they would have been suspicious without it, not that we'd ever know.>

We'd internally discussed casino cheating before. With magnets, we thought repulsion was more likely than attraction, but in either event it'd likely be pretty weak as the ball was so light it wouldn't need much, and the less magnetic force they used, the more inconspicuous its effect and the equipment would be. Near the end, when I was carrying the ball, I'd feel the ball trying to move unnaturally if it was subject to any force like that, in which case our 10.5 pounds of NP-push would surely be sufficient to overcome whatever force they'd be using. So if they tried to repulse the ball out of our target pocket, I'd damned well push it in and hold it there. Likewise if they tried to attract it into the wrong pocket, I'd make sure it appeared to bounce out, even if it took me a hell of a lot of NP to do it. They could hardly complain about their cheating equipment failing. The other cheating method that seemed plausible was a needle sticking up to block access to the pocket we were betting on. I'd use an NP-fingertip to check the pocket was clear at the appropriate time. If a needle did appear, it'd have to be a very thin one to avoid being seen, so it should be easy to bend flat or break off. There could be other cheating methods, but I'd just have to stay alert and be quick to respond, as I would only have seconds at the end of a spin. Trying to win $10 million was a BIG worry!

I deliberately didn't influence the next spin. When the one after that was about to start, with my having already chosen its result, the dealer asked, "Are you going to bet?"

#2: <She's getting annoying.>

#1: <Yeah, but it's not as if we can move away, is it?>

We have to stand close to the wheel so we can see it very clearly, which also has the advantage of making our head tilt down when we're looking at it, hiding our eyeballs. When we're doing our thing, one eyeball is tracking the ball, and the other is tracking the target number. One smoothly rotating eyeball, while the other eyeball 'bounces' back and forth wildly, wouldn't be a good thing to have anyone notice. I had sunglasses with me, but preferred not to wear them in case they made me look suspicious.

I answered, "I'm thinking about it, but I'm not really much of a gambler. That's more my girlfriend's thing, which is probably why she's late."

#1: <If we have to wait another hour or so, the dealer is probably going to force us to bet. Otherwise we'll start to look suspicious. We can wander a few feet away if we need to, then come back in a few minutes as if bored.>

#2: <The Spirit Mountain dealers got rotated off the tables quite often, so hopefully here too. For all we know this dealer's got a rest break in a few minutes.>

#1: <True. We might be able to out-wait her.>

#3: <HERE COMES PROF!>

#2: <I don't think you needed to shout. We're not very far away.>

Prof - looking silly in his floppy hat and dark sunglasses - was heading our way, with a couple of guys in suits and a couple of security guards. They were still some distance away, but they were heading in the right direction. It was hard to tell whether Prof had seen me already (he didn't wave!), but he'd certainly see me soon if he hadn't.

#3: <All of a sudden my right shoulder is feeling itchy. It was the RIGHT shoulder for 100% accuracy, wasn't it? I'd hate to make that mistake.>

#1, #2: <Yeah.>

#2: <Wait until Prof is closer before giving the signal. He's arrived much sooner than I thought he would. We've only been here for about twenty minutes in total, maybe twenty five. This casino must be much more efficient than the banks we visited. I wonder how long it takes to count $100,000? That's got to take several minutes.>

#1: <Let's not stare at Prof. While we're waiting, let's tease the dealer a little to build up our cover story.>

#2: <What've you got in mind?>

#1: <It's simple. I'll just do it.>

"Olivia, if I start playing could you keep your eyes open for a blonde girl, tall and very thin, wearing a red dress? She's probably coming from over in that direction somewhere." I nodded over my shoulder in the direction of Prof.

The dealer looked, then inhaled. She instantly moved over to her nearest co-worker, telling him, "Brian's coming." They suddenly looked very efficient: standing straight, moving quickly, etc.

I'd been expecting Ted Binion. I didn't know who Brian was, although by the staffs' reaction he was obviously a big boss. I'd been vaguely intending to flirt with Olivia while Ted (or whomever) was coming, but she was now working far too industriously to be flirted with.

I was in no hurry to react to Prof. He could arrive at the table and soak up the 'vibe' for as long as he wanted before deciding whether to play it or not. I noticed that the situation was actually fairly well placed to help him a little. There was a game in progress, meaning the bets were all placed and we were waiting for the ball to decide where to land. I looked at all the bets, and located the square with the highest stack of chips on it. It took me a second or two to work out what pocket number that was, because there were so many chips all over the betting area that the numbers were obscured. Prof and I hadn't discussed this, but I couldn't see anything wrong with making that number win, which would create a happy table atmosphere and an excuse for Prof to choose to play on this table.

On second thought, it might be a little safer to choose the second most heavily bet-on number. That'd still make a lot of players happy, and wouldn't stand out as such an unusual event. Then I reconsidered yet again. I didn't want the number with the most chips on it, but the number with the most different colored chips, so as many players as possible would win something. That was an entirely different number because the most valuable numbers had big stacks of chips of one color. To appear less unusual, I chose the second most popular number (thus my fourth opinion of what number to have win!). Side bets (red/black, high/low, the dozens, etc.) complicated my choice. I didn't bother to count all of those meticulously, just making a rough estimate of what seemed to be the second most popular target number. Having made my choice, I turned to the wheel. It wasn't too late, because three active minds can do jobs like that very quickly.

A few seconds later Prof arrived at the far end of the table. We'd agreed he'd play from the far end, well away from the wheel. We thought it made him appear more innocent and less connected to me.

I ignored him. I would have anyway, but I had to because I was concentrating on doing my thing to the ball. Several seconds later the ball came to rest, and the number was announced. Quite a few people declared their satisfaction at the result.

Because I was standing by the wheel, I could naturally look at the betting area and easily see Prof and his little entourage. I saw Prof looking in my direction, so I started rubbing my right shoulder as I turned back to the dealer.

"That was a popular spin, Olivia," she'd been the one to spin it. "Well done."

She ignored me, being far too busy impressing Brian with how good she was at her job. To be fair to her, there were more than the usual number of players who had to be paid.

From what I could see from my casual glances, Prof appeared to have told them that he'd chosen this table. They were well out of my earshot at the far end of the noisy crowd, but his decision became obvious when I saw Prof's entourage clearing room for him at the end of the table. That caused a little unhappiness from the patrons who were urged sideways, until one of the security guards put a rack of chips down in front of Prof. Shooting off a gun couldn't have gotten a more instant reaction than placing what I guessed was $100,000 worth of chips on the table. I didn't have a clue what colors different denomination chips were, other than the very small chips I'd seen while playing here, but everyone else around the table seemed to be fully aware of the color codes.

"Wow!" | "Christ, look at that!" | Sudden inhalations of breath. | And many similar reactions all around the table.

Everyone was now looking at Prof, so I did so too. Prof was flanked by the two guys in suits, with the two guards standing behind and to either side of Prof, so he was well circled.

One of the suits was talking to Prof, who was looking around while he was listening. I scratched my right shoulder again. I'm sure Prof saw it, but he made no sign of it, looking right past me. Of course he had to do that, but I wished I was REALLY sure he'd seen it. I was getting nervous again, so it was time for yet another "Relax" command.

Everybody was looking at Prof, what they could see of him anyway. Almost no one was betting, waiting to see what would happen.

Prof pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. [He'd already told me about it. It was a long list of numbers for him to bet on, derived from his family's birthdays, the date he married Vanessa, and many other 'lucky numbers'. In other words, a total load of crap.]

Some more conversation between Prof and Suit#1 (presumably Brian), then Prof put his piece of paper down to start pulling out chips from his rack. Unfortunately his hands were shaking and he couldn't pile them up properly. After messing it up twice he gave up, spoke to Suit#1, who spoke to Suit#2, who took over the job (which pretty much confirmed that Suit#1 was Big Boss Brian). Very quickly about a dozen chips of one of the colors Prof had were piled up in front of him. I didn't have to wonder how much that represented, because players all around the table were saying "$50,000", "Fifty grand", or if they were particularly cool, "Fifty big ones."

#1: <Presumably ten $5,000 chips. There are five more of that color left in the rack, and I guess twenty five of the others, which would have to be $1,000 each.>

Prof picked up his piece of paper in his shaking hand. Even from my distance I could see the shake. Whether acting or real I couldn't tell, but if he was acting he was doing a damned good job. He looked at it, then told Suit#2 something.

Suit#2 pushed the stack of ten chips forward, calling out to the nearest dealer, "All on 21."

The audience all went "Fuck!" or "Christ!" (If the terms are interchangeable, why is the Church so anti-sex?)

The dealer moved Prof's chips the rest of the way to that square.

#1: <It's just as well Prof bet on 21, because I've got a good feeling that's coming up next. I hope! Time for another Relax command.>

There was a flurry of betting from the other patrons, with every man and his dog also wanting to bet on 21. The roulette staff (a couple more seemed to have appeared out of nowhere) managed it well, making sure that things were orderly, secure, and that none of Prof's chips mysteriously disappeared as other patrons placed bets on the same square.

It took several times as long as normal to get all the bets placed, then Suit#2 (who was standing next to the ball-spinning dealer), gave her the nod.

"No more bets!" was called by one of the other dealers, then Olivia did her wheel and ball spinning thing.

I was wedged up against the table, as there was now a much-expanded crowd of excited people gathered around, all craning for a look at the wheel. I was being pushed and jostled, but thank God NP doesn't work like real fingers. Real fingers are connected to the body (by hands and arms, in case you're not good at biology), so jostling the body would effectively jostle the fingers, ruining their ability to do any precise work. NP-fingertips weren't positioned relative to my body, but at an absolute point in space determined by my concentrating on that point. Provided I kept watching the ball and wheel carefully, I could maintain my precision even if my body was being moved roughly, PROVIDED I didn't lose my concentration! Being jostled made concentration harder, but - BELIEVE ME - I was trying VERY hard!

For the first two-thirds of the total spinning time, I don't care what's happening. The ball is still on the outer rim, traveling too fast to come down enough to hit any projections. Even when it first starts bouncing around, it's doing far too much of it and the wheel is going too fast to make influencing the ball of any use. The last thirty seconds or so is when I have to do my thing. So I was able to spend the first minute making sure that the people pushing on me gave me some respect. I glared at them, demanded, "Stop pushing me" in a menacing way, jostled them right back even harder, etc. After a minute of that, my neighbors got the idea that I was a rude person and that they really shouldn't jostle me. They were trying their best not to, although not with full success because people behind them were pushing them too. Nonetheless, I'd reduced the nuisance value helpfully.

I'd also taken a solid stance and had braced myself against the table. Then I did a serious "RELAX" command (actually several Go-Away-Various-Specific-Nervousness-Symptoms commands. I've just collectively called it "Relax" as a shorthand name).

The wheel was going slow enough for me to locate pocket number 21, so I checked it using NP, and there was no needle or other obstruction in it or immediately in front of its mouth. The mind watching that pocket would maintain a fingertip inside the pocket as a continuous check for monkey business, until it was time for the ball to fall in. The wall of the pocket would push the fingertip around, keeping it in place without the owning mind having to concentrate on moving it.

#3: <I just realized that we should thank God that NP-fingertips are invisible. We're so used to that we forgot to appreciate that fact.>

#1: <You can say that again! But preferably not out loud.>

It was time to start flicking the ball.

My first flick didn't work nearly as effectively as it should have, the ball flicking away much slower than I'd expected. The next flick confirmed it: the ball was roughly twice as heavy as before. At the very least, that made the casino people sneaky bastards, but the ball being the same size immediately made me worry about their intending to do a magnetism cheat. It was too early to detect or do anything about that yet, so I concentrated on doing my normal job. I could easily adapt my flicking to the ball's being heavier, and I had plenty of time to get it right. I typically flick the ball fifteen to twenty five times during one spin, so the first two being weak flicks was so easily corrected that it was virtually irrelevant. More than half the time I let the ball bounce naturally, and a couple of weak flicks did far less 'damage' to my achieving my goal than a single bad bounce would've, and there are many bad bounces during one game.

#2: <#3, you'll need to hold it in the pocket much longer at the end, in case a magnet repulses it.>

#3: <Agreed. Don't worry, I'll be paying VERY close attention for things like that.>

#2: <If it's all the same to you, I'm going to carry on worrying anyway.>

I needed to "Relax" myself a couple more times, to firmly hold my stance against the crowd's pressure, and to concentrate intently, but those were incidentals. Even concentration wasn't that critical. Not that I did, but had I looked away I could've immediately looked back, reformed the NP-points, located the ball and target pocket, and carried on from there, probably with no decreased accuracy if it wasn't in the critical last couple of seconds. Those seconds were going to be a worry though, because they were going to require intense concentration against the crowd's going crazy, and I also had to be extremely quick and careful - two things it's hard to combine - in how I responded to any cheating from the casino.

The wheel and ball were still moving very quickly, so I had the luxury of several seconds to think about the consequences of the ball's change in weight. Even at double the previous weight, it was still easily light enough to need only one mind to flick it, so that important aspect was fine. Although, on second thought and after having watched for a few more seconds, I realized that the heavier ball naturally didn't bounce around as much as the lighter one had, so I would use the same strength flicks as I'd used on the lighter ball. I would have to change some of the directions of my flicks as the new ball's changes in direction shouldn't be as extreme as the lighter ball's had been, and I will probably have to flick more often since each flick will achieve less. Thinking about it, the new weight didn't make it any harder or easier for me to make my flicks look realistic - the balls bounce around so much normally that damned near any flicks seem natural provided I time them properly, which is nothing to do with the ball's weight. What the new weight did do was affect my accuracy. That wasn't an issue mid-game because I could just do some more flicks to get the ball back where I wanted it, but it was an issue end-game, because there are so few bounces that a poorly aimed flick could cause real problems. I could think of two solutions to that: practice flicking during the mid-game so my flicks would be more accurate in the end-game, and do as few flicks as possible in the end-game, by grabbing the ball earlier than I would have otherwise.