Chapter 178: Bet Two

Tuesday, May 3, 2005 (Continued)

I couldn't pretended to answer it while it was still ringing because it would still be making the ringing sound and I didn't know whether the casino's video cameras picked up sound as well. If they did, my making that mistake would be far too suspicious. I looked at the display until I saw the disconnect. I pretended to thumb the "Answer" button and then I said, "Hello, sweetie. Are you held up somewhere?"

"In the casino. Where?" I turned and started quickly walking farther into the casino, looking around for my mythical girlfriend, while asking her for directions on the phone.

#1: <Oh boy. Here we go again! $10 million here we come!>

#2: <We need to find Prof quickly. For all we know he might be having trouble stalling them long enough.>

#3: <I shouldn't think so. Remember Prof telling us about the young guy who waited for an hour before he placed his bet.>

#2: <And maybe the casino has changed its rules in the years since that happened, whenever that was. I won't feel comfortable until we find Prof. If he's got $750,000 on the table, and we're not there to help, chances are we're going to lose it. 35-in-38 chances of losing is VERY bad!>

I hurried, saying, "I'm hurrying, sweetie," to my phone.

I was about two-thirds of the way into the casino before I spotted them. The group was walking my way: Prof, the Biggest Boss (Ted Binion), Suit#1 (Brian Whomever), half a dozen security guys and half a dozen other staff (suits and dealers).

"Hey, sweetie, I see a really big bettor. I'll call you back."

#1: <We shouldn't hang up immediately after spotting Prof. The timing is too obvious. Keep talking. Tell 'Sweetie' the story of his first bet.>

#3: <Looks like they're heading straight for us too. What do we do?>

I was standing in a walkway between the roped off groups of tables (think "hallway", but without the walls, the sides being gaming tables), so unless Prof's group turned off very soon, they were going to walk right into me.

#1: <We want to follow them back to the table and stand by the wheel during the next spin, so we should recognize him. Let's gape at him like a yokel would. Try to look amazed and impressed. Don't congratulate him or anything; that's pushing it too far. Just move to the side to let them pass us, then follow out of curiosity.>

"I got to go, sweetie. I'll call you later, bye."

I pretended to hang up, put my phone away, then moved to the side of the walkway. I did my best to look impressed as they walked past me. Prof ignored me, although some of the other staff glanced at me. Not with any intensity though, thank God (the one I don't believe in, who's been doing such a great job so far today, and who I pray continues to do so for just a little longer).

After they were all past me, I followed them, doing my best to look impressed and curious.

I soon found out why Prof buzzed me twice; they didn't go back to the original table. Instead Ted Binion suddenly indicated one of the closed tables. The group turned toward it. The dealers removed the plastic cover from the wheel (closed roulette tables have big, plastic covers over the wheel, the color chips, and whatever else is stored in that area). The security guards did their security checking stuff, including crawling under the table, examining the ball, and the wheel.

I most definitely didn't want to be the only spectator, like I would be if I approached closer. Fortunately there were a couple of other people who'd been walking down the walkway who'd slowed down to look at what was happening. Probably curious at the unusual sight of the security guys crawling around on their hands and knees under a table.

When they reached me, I said, "Hey, that short guy, in the funny hat. I saw him bet fifty grand on a single number half an hour ago, and he WON! I think he's going to do it again! Can you imagine that! Winning nearly two million in a single spin. Isn't that incredible?"

They certainly thought so, and drifted over to have a closer look. There were other people coming down the walkway, but they weren't up to me yet, so while waiting for them I watched my first two 'helpers' approach the table. They were intercepted by a security guard.

#1: <Uh oh! That doesn't look good.>

Several more people reached me, and I repeated my story while watching the first couple. From what I could see they were allowed to watch, but from a distance. My story caught on with the people I was talking to, and started being repeated farther down the walkway as other people arrived. It'd be reasonable to say it caught on like a brushfire, because I could hear the excitement building already.

I thought the crowd-gathering was probably self-sustaining now, I didn't want to look too obviously like I was deliberately gathering a crowd, and it was very important that I got a good observation location, so I put on my impressed, curious and excited expression, and wandered over.

I headed to the wheel end of the table, of course. Prof was at the opposite end, so there was no risk of my getting suspiciously close to him.

I was intercepted by one of the security guards, who told me to keep my distance. Shortly after that a few of the other guards arrived carrying several of those little crowd-control poles with ropes between them (bollards or stanchions). They set them out so as to keep the spectators beyond arms-reach of the table. The casino was taking steps to prevent any possible interference, unfortunately making it harder for me to interfere! By keeping me four or five feet farther away than normal, it was going to be far harder for me to see the wheel and ball well enough.

If I couldn't do it, the correct signal to Prof would be for me to walk away, but I wasn't sure whether the situation was that bad. I had beaten the crowd to the best position for what I had to do, so I couldn't improve my position at all. Although maybe in the excitement of the last thirty seconds, I'd be able to slide the post forward with my foot, and reduce the distance. That'd be a perfectly natural thing for someone to do, and I'd look innocent if I kept my hands in the open the whole time.

That was to be hoped for, but not relied upon. The question was whether I see the ball, the pockets and the little obstructions the ball bounces off, well enough to make the ball act normally and know what to aim for?

Thinking about it, the obstructions were the biggest issue. The ball going into the pocket occurs at low speed, so that's relatively easy. But my ball flicking occurs at much higher speeds and up to a couple dozen times per game. If I timed even one of my flicks wrong, it could look totally unnatural on the security video. We'd doubtless forfeit all our profits from both games, and they'd be EXTREMELY interested in finding out how Prof had done it.

After several seconds of hard thinking, I thought of a solution. Not perfect, but probably good enough. Before I was due to flick the ball, I could position a fingertip on the side of the obstacle that the ball was soon to bounce off, letting my fingertip 'ride' around in contact with the obstacle. As soon as I feel the ball contact the fingertip, I'd flick.

There was an issue with reaction times, but I didn't think it was a serious problem. A normal finger would take something like a quarter of a second from being contacted to starting its flick, which would be far too long, but there were no nerves or muscles involved in my process. I believe I get the sensory feedback from my NP-fingertips instantly, and when I mentally order them to move, they move instantly. My total reaction time is, I hoped, purely the time for me to think about what to do. Given that I was expecting the ball's contact, and already knew what flick I wanted to give it, I should be able to react very quickly.

I'd better test that. I located someone moving about ten yards away from me, and I positioned an NP-fingertip in their path, directly in line with a visual reference on the far wall so I would know the precise instant the person contacted it. He walked into it, and as far as I could tell, I felt his forehead hitting my fingertip instantly. He scratched his forehead, but by then my attention was moving elsewhere. I repeated the experiment several more times, with various moving things (not always people's foreheads), at various distances, from very close to far away, and I always seemed to get the tactile feedback instantly.

I then experimented on flicking things, such as the hem of a skirt, watching carefully to see if there was any delay. I was pretty sure there wouldn't be, because I would have noticed it already when flying things around my bedroom. Looking very closely now confirmed another instant response. However the fingertip was getting its command from my brain, the message wasn't traveling down a long, slow nerve-wire. Likewise for the tactile feedback coming back to me. God knows how that was getting to me, but it was very fast. [[I did find out, but not for quite a while.]]

I turned my attention back to the wheel again. The first thing I noticed was the ball sitting in one of the pockets, so I 'weighed' it. It was a light one. I thought the same weight as I'd been playing with before Prof arrived at the other table. So long as it didn't weigh more than about three pounds I'd be fine. It weighed far less than that, so that was perfect, as it'd only need the usual flicks. My only real problem was my distance from the wheel. I couldn't decide whether I could do this or not. A quick glance at Prof showed me that he was looking worried too.

From where I was standing I couldn't read the numbers on the far side of the wheel. That meant keeping track of the target number when the wheel was rotating quickly was going to be harder, because half the time I'd only roughly know where it was. This was quite annoying, because as the wheel slowed down it'd be out of sight for steadily increasing times. It'd also mean I'd have to reacquire the target every time it came back into sight. I really needed three eyeballs: for the ball, for roughly where I thought the target pocket was, and a third eye to be watching the spot where each number became visible, to reacquire the target because I'd hate to miss it.

I realized that my weird eyeball movements might get spotted, because my head wouldn't be pointing down. A good solution was to use my hands to shield them, as if I had a spotlight in my eyes. It might look a bit strange, but not as strange as my eyeballs would, and it had the advantage of showing the casino that I wasn't using my hands to operate any cheating device.

Another fear occurred to me: what would I do if a security guard stood between me and the wheel? Moving sideways might be tricky if there was a big crowd, and early indications were that there was going to be a BIG crowd! Some idiot had started the story about the old guy's last win, and I could hear people around me talking about it excitedly. Some of them had even told me (I can split my attention to look natural while I'm busy thinking).

To reduce the chance of a guard blocking my sight, the only thing I could think of was that after I'd finished working out how to do this (if I could), then I'd turn my back on the table and behave casually, chatting to my neighbors, etc. In other words, look non-threatening and not like someone who needed to be singled out for having their view blocked.

If I was blocked, I might be able to get the guard to move by using NP in some way, such as by NP-'kicking' his ankle in a way that made it seem that someone next to me had done it. There were eight security guards here, and I thought some of them were bound to guard the wheel closely during the game, so this could be a problem. Eight guards would make a hell of a wall, especially because most of them were damned big! Hopefully several of them would stay with Prof, so the remaining guards would be spread out and be less likely to block my view.

When I do my thing normally, one eye follows the ball, one the target pocket, and they communicate their subject's positions to the third mind using clock positions, just like pilots in movies do. The coordinating mind works out what flicks to give the ball, to get the two items in the same position at about the time that the ball should have slowed down enough to start contacting the pockets. Needing an eyeball to ensure I reacquired the target pocket when it came back into sight was going to complicate that process. We could guess the target's position when it was going out of sight at 9 o'clock through to 3 o'clock (or if I could edge a little closer, from 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock - those times relative to my position, standing below 6 o'clock and looking 'north'), but that introduced the risk of having my accuracy reduced.

One of the suits checked the wheel again, rotating it back and forth, to make sure it moved freely, I guess. He left it spinning slowly, which gave me an idea. I formed an NP-fingertip, and put it in one of the pockets nearest me, letting the pocket wall push it around. After it'd rotated farther, I couldn't read the number as that written on the floor of the pocket, but my NP-fingertip protruded higher than that. Its being invisible meant I couldn't see it, but I always know where my ki-effects are, and I could see where it was. That meant I didn't have to worry about it self-canceling, and I had a perfect sense of where the pocket was while it was traveling around the far side of the wheel. I lost sight of it momentarily as it went behind the spindle (the wheel's thin axle, which stuck up in the air and was decorated with metallic knobs), but NP-fingertips survive loss of line of sight for half a second, which was easily long enough for it to revolve back into sight.

Tracking the target pocket by putting an NP-fingertip in it worked perfectly. It also meant that I could hold the ball in the pocket all the way around the wheel if it was still spinning a little too fast, although I'd prefer to delay the ball entering the pocket until the wheel was nice and slow. Using a fingertip position tracker was possibly even better than what we'd been doing before. I probably didn't even need to do my counter-rotating eyeball thing, but if we bet again, I'll retain it because I wanted to minimize the changes to my successful system.

What about the last few seconds? I would have to make sure they started occurring at the 3 o'clock position, and were all over with by 9 o'clock. That was actually a lot easier than it might seem. If I was ready to do the last few seconds but the target pocket was at 12 o'clock say, I'd just make the ball do one extra LITTLE bounce outward (say toward 1 o'clock). By the time the ball fell back toward the pocket, the target pocket would be around to 3 o'clock or so.

I mentally thought through the whole spin, trying to find any problems. I couldn't think of anything I couldn't handle. I wasn't 100% sure, but 90% felt about right. I'd still love to be able to edge closer if I could. Another foot or two would be a HUGE help (reducing the failure rate from 10% to 1% is a HUGE help when there's nearly $9 million at stake).

What other risks were there? Having my sight blocked by a guard was one I'd already thought of. If that happened I could probably either force myself sideways, at the risk of pissing off the person next to me. Hopefully I'd be able to do it early on in the spin, while the ball was still moving too fast. If nothing else I could give the guys whose space I pushed into my $100 chip to calm him down. With my possibly being able to trick the guard into moving, two possible solutions existed.

The casino might suddenly decide to move all the spectators ten yards farther away, which would destroy my chances, but that'd take a while to accomplish, so probably wouldn't be done while the game was on. If it was done in advance, Prof should have a chance to refuse to bet. The casino surely couldn't force him to bet, so if things suddenly looked impossible, he always had the option of walking away with his $1.75 million win.

I couldn't brace my stance as well as I could last time, as I had nothing to hold on to. My hands would be covering my eyes, so I had nothing to hold on with either. So jostling could be a problem. Maybe I shouldn't have created the crowd, but too late for that concern now. I didn't think asking them all to leave would work or be a good idea.

I glanced at Prof, and he was looking in my direction. I got the impression he needed me to tell him whether I could do this.

#2: <Yes/No time guys. What do you think?>

#1: <I think we go for it. If we lose this spin we're still $1 million up. In some respects a failure wouldn't be the end of the world, because Binion's would probably be happy to let Prof come back and try again another day.>

#2, #3: <Good point!>

#3: <I also say we go for it. Let's hope the other spectators crowd closer, so we've got an excuse to get closer ourselves. I would MUCH rather get closer. It's actually quite easy if we're as close as possible.>

#2: <The crowd is bound to try to get closer to see easier. The question is whether the casino stations enough guards at this end to stop everyone. But I agree it's worth a shot. Shall I give Prof a signal for about 80-90% accuracy? That's about what we honestly think it is, with all the various risks included.

#1, #3: <Agreed.>

I rubbed my shoulder causally, a couple of inches in from the outside of my right shoulder.

Prof saw the signal and turned away casually.

#3: <The game is going to happen. Oh boy!>

I turned to my neighbors and joined in with their conversation, inane as it was. I even moved a few inches back from the rope, to let the guards know that they didn't have to worry about me trying to force my way as close as possible to the table.

#1: <Let's remember to be careful with our first few flicks. Do them softly, in case the casino swaps in an even lighter ball. And let's do the first couple when the ball is at 6 o'clock, so we can see as clearly as possible how well the new idea works?>

#3: <Both good ideas. I'll do them.>

We didn't have any other ideas of significance, spending the next few minutes in casual conversation with my neighbors, and less-than-casual conversation with myself.

I REALLY appreciated the "Relax" command! It may not be as useful as go-soft, but ten million dollars' worth of useful is still quite a lot. I MIGHT have been able to do my job without "Relax", but I wouldn't want to have bet on it.

I was making frequent glances at Prof and the suits around him. So was everyone else, so my looking was fine. I saw Ted Binion say something to Suit#1, who pulled a small pad out of his pocket, handing it to his boss. Ted wrote on it for a few seconds, then passed the pad and pen to Prof.

Prof casually looked up. At me obviously ("obvious" from our points of view; hopefully not from the casino's. He was looking down the length of the table, so they should believe he was merely looking at the game, which was not unreasonable).

I didn't want to repeat my shoulder scratching as the repetition might look suspicious on the video replays, so I quickly looked down, adjusted my belt, then quickly looked up again. I hoped that looked like a nod.

#1: <We should have set up a signaling system for Prof using NP. One tap on his nose for 'No', two taps on his forehead for 'Yes'. We could try pushing his head into a nod now, but it might startle him too much.>

#2: <Yeah, good idea. We'll do that the next time we try to win $10 million.>

#3: <We should tell Carol and Julia the same thing too, just in case we ever need to tell them yes or no secretly.>

#1: <Good idea.> [We subsequently taught them that one tap on the top of the head meant "No", and two meant "Yes"; although doing that wasn't exactly our first priority when we finally got home.]

I saw Prof sign the pad then pass it back. Ted took the pad, but refused the pen, laughingly saying something to Prof. Prof tried to laugh back, but clearly wasn't in the mood for humor. He stuck the pen in his jacket's top pocket though. I guessed Ted had said something like, "Keep it as a souvenir." [Prof confirmed my guess later. He also told me he dumped the pen at the first opportunity, having seen too many spy movies.]

Ted tore off the pad's front sheet, kept the page but gave the pad back to the guy who'd given it to him. Ted stood and loudly called for quiet.

#1: <I just noticed that they're sitting. They've got a seat for Prof already, so he doesn't flake out on them like he nearly did last time.>

#2: <Haha. Yeah, you're right. So where's the medical woman? Ahh, there she is, over in the other closed area. Watching from the distance. But do you see the two largish looking suits standing near her. They look like security guys.>

#3: <I agree. Plainclothes security. I wonder if there are any more around?>

#1: <DON'T look! The other patrons aren't checking out the security. If we happen to be looking in other directions for good reason, we can have a glance, but let's not check the room out deliberately. We're not going to change our behavior anyway, so who cares whether there are any more or not.>

Ted quieted the crowd quickly, then started a little speech, "Ladies and gentlemen. I am Ted Binion, manager of Binion's Horseshoe Casino. Welcome to you all, and thank you for playing in my casino. You're about to witness an extraordinary event. Earlier today Mr. Roberts," Ted pointed to Prof, "came to Binion's with $100,000. He needed $1 million, and came here to get it - knowing our international reputation for taking bets of any size on our tables."

"Mr. Roberts had a betting system which had him betting half of his remaining money on a sequence of pre-chosen single numbers. He came with $100,000, so his first bet was $50,000, ALL on a single number, number 21! Binion's happily accepted his wager, and the dealer spun up. One minute later the ball came to rest on," Ted paused to build tension, "TWENTY ONE! Winning Mr. Roberts $1.75 MILLION!"

Yells and yahoos from the crowd. Me too. I had no problem at all acting enthusiastic.

Several seconds later, when Ted was able to continue, "Mr. Roberts is feeling LUCKY! HAHA. He wants ONE more bet before he leaves. He is betting this marker," Ted waved the piece of paper (apparently a "marker", whatever that is), "on a street - on three numbers - on the spin you're about to witness. The marker is for EIGHT HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS!" (For those of you who have lived sinless lives, a "marker" is similar to a bank check, drawn against Prof's account at the casino. A "street" is a bet on a row of three sequential numbers, 1, 2 and 3; or 4, 5 and 6; up to 34, 35 and 36.)

The crowd went wild. I went confused.

#1: <EIGHT hundred and fifty thousand! What happened to SEVEN hundred and fifty?>

#3: <No idea. A "street" is when they bet on a row, isn't it? Like "1, 2 and 3", or "19, 20, 21". I thought he was placing three individual bets of $250,000, not one bet of $850,000. What does that do to the odds? And what number do we make the target?>

#2: <I'd forgotten that we were going to have three targets this game. We agreed to use a fingertip to track the target pocket, but none of us mentioned that there'd be three target pockets. What do we do about that?>

#1: <I forgot we had three targets too. I've got used to only having one. I don't think it matters which one we choose, because they'll all pay the same. I wouldn't swear to that, but I think that's the case.>

#2: <Tell you what, seeing as how we've got nearly ten million dollars at stake, let's ask someone!>

I turned to the neighbor I considered the most sensible. That he was waving his arms around and screaming was not encouraging.

I got his attention, then asked, "Betting on a street is three consecutive numbers, right? Like 1, 2, 3."

"Yeah."

"Do they all pay the same? Does it matter which one the ball lands on?"

Looking at me like I was stupid, he answered, "Of course not."

#1: <WHY did you ask him two contradictory questions! Which question does his answer apply to?>

I asked him, "What does it pay?"

But he'd lost interest in talking to an ignorant non-gambler.

#3: <I can tell you that. Remember that Prof made an issue that there's no skill in roulette. So EVERY bet HAS to pay the same. Betting on one number pays 35 times, plus the bet back, so 36. Three numbers will return a third of that, so 12, less the bet, means 11-to-1 payoff. $850,000 at 11-to-1 is a profit of $8.5 million plus 10%, or $9.35 million.>

#1: <That sounds about right. If we bet three lots of $250,000 we were going to win $8.75 million, less the two bets that lost, so the net would've been $8.25 million. With the $1.75 million from before, that'd be $10 mil' even. For some reason Prof is betting $100,000 more than planned, presumably because Julia asked him for an increase in her clothing allowance. A $100,000 bet at 11-to-1 odds wins an extra $1.1 million. The original plan was to win 8.25, so 1.1 more makes 9.35. The numbers agree.>

#2: <And Julia will be happy. All we have to do is win it now. Just to play safe, let's ask someone else that all three numbers pay the same. I'd hate to find out later than the middle number paid more, or less, or whatever.>

I turned to my neighbor on the other side, got her attention, and asked, "A street is when you bet on three numbers, and they each pay 11-to-1, right?"

"Yeah. About $9 million if it hits. I wish I had that money."

"Yeah, me too. So he gets $9 million regardless of which of the three numbers the ball lands on?"

She frowned at me, so I quickly added, "I'm sorry. I don't know much about roulette."

"That's okay. Yeah, all the numbers are the same. I wonder why he didn't bet an even mil'; that would've been REALLY cool to see."

"It sure would've. Thanks."

#1: <What do we do about there being three targets? Do we just pick one and treat it like a one target game, or do we try to put it in whichever of the three is easiest?>

#3: <There's no way I can coordinate the ball flicks to aim at three different targets. The three numbers are sequential, but the numbers on the wheel are laid out so sequential numbers are separated, so I can't aim for more than one of them. I think we treat it as a single number game. Pick one of the three and go for it.>

#2: <I agree, with one possible exception. Right at the end, when we're trying to get the ball to the 3 o'clock position at the same time as the target, let's keep an eye open for the other two targets. When the ball's at 3 o'clock, it might be easier to go for one of the other targets if happens to be in position.>

#3: <Possibly. I'd have to play catch-up though, because I won't see the new target until it comes past 3 o'clock, so the ball will be behind it. I'd have to bounce it forward.>

#1: <Sure, but that's easy. I suggest we still treat this as a one-target game though, if we can. Let's PLEASE not try to get clever and mess something up at the end.>

#3: <Unless I see one of the other targets almost begging for the ball at the end, I'd prefer to only think about the original target.>

#2: <Which number of the three will we go for? Let's look at our watch's second hand. If it's 1-20 seconds, the first number; 21-40 seconds the second number, etc. Okay?>

#3: <Sure.>

We looked. Seventeen seconds past the minute, so we'll be going for the first number of the three.

#1: <An extra $1.1 million. Cool!>

#2: <Before tax! Roughly $700,000 after tax. Julia won't be dressing as well as she hoped.>

Ted was calling for silence again. When he got the ruckus to still, he said, "$850,000 pays $9.35 MILLION if it hits."

Ruckus erupted again.

#1: <Nice to know our number is correct. And he didn't say "Hits the middle number," or "the first number", anything like that, so it does sound like all three are the same.>

#3: <Yeah. I'm sure they are. If they weren't you might be able to skillfully combine different bets to maximize your odds, and Prof told us that skill is not possible at Roulette.>

#1: <Yeah, I agree.>

"You are witnessing casino HISTORY ladies and gentlemen. Only at BINION'S HORSESHOE CASINO could you see this! Let's applaud Mr. Roberts for choosing Binion's!"

Ted started the clapping for his own business, and all the patrons unhesitatingly joined in, including me. Prof was looking too nervous, and didn't join in.

After Ted had quieted everyone down again, no small feat because the crowd had swollen substantially by now, he announced, "Dealer! SPIN UP!"

The security guards suddenly stood more attentively, watching the crowd very carefully. The VERY good news was that the guards did it from where they already were, which was perfect for me because none of them were obscuring my view. If you think of the wheel end of the roulette table as a square, then the guards were at all four corners. I was standing in the middle of the bottom side, so I was in the clear. There were two more guards down the length of the table, both on the side open to the public (the other side was roped off, as is common in all the casinos I've visited so far), and two guards were down by Prof. The plainclothes guards scattered around the outside of the crowd didn't matter to me.