Chapter 3

"We are descending in preparation to landing at McLaren airport. All seat to an upright position and please buckle your seat belts. I hope you enjoyed you flight with us at Frontier Airlines." As the voice stopped the stewardess began their last minute check of the passengers. Removing the trash, checking seat belts and all those last minutes details needed before landing.

I moved my seat upright and look out the window. All I saw was grey ground, rocky hills and every so often a spot of bright green.

Here I was about to try my luck or really my mind skills to make a lot of money. I had over 2,500 in travel check to use. Luke had been generous; he had paid the $2,500 plus another $500 for decent clothes. It was nice to make some friend. He had even offered a job.

Yeah, that gave him a couple of personal references if he needed them Luke Ferguson and Joe Johnson. It was later after that incident that he figured it all out. When he threw that tire iron his mind had acted making sure that the bar end went into the nozzle. He laughed to himself. If he had tried to do that consciously it would never worked.

He had practice and practice before leaving Parker County. He could make those dice bounce so that nobody could see them hesitating before falling and a steel ball bearing would just roll to a natural appearing stop. He thought he had it figured out so nobody would think he was cheating.

The mind reading would be hard to use to make a good sum unless he could get in a tournament. Telekinesis would be much simpler and less likely to be thought of as cheating.

The plane came to a stop and people started getting up and gathering there things to get off. I waited I saw no reason to rush there was plenty of time.

"Lady Luck downtown pleases." I told the driver as I toss my sport bag into the passenger's seat. The driver was just the way I liked, quiet.

The Hotel had a modest entrance. I gave the driver of the taxi $5 tip. It had been a quick trip. I stood there for a minute listening all around me. The place bubble with energy; mostly positive though there were some negative. But that could be expected winners and losers.

After checking in the bellmen took my small bag and lead me to my room. We had to walk completely through the casino portion to get to the elevator. The doors to the elevator faced the line into the buffet dinner.

"That buffet any good or should I catch the restaurant?"

"It pretty good one of the best in town. Great variety and inexpensive." He answered me. "If you get any comps, just go to the front of the line show the hostess. She'll get you seated and the meal would be free." He looked at me then grinned. "You gamble for 4 hours with minimal bets for that table. Ask the pit boss for a comp."

He used the door car to open up my room. I looked around as he sits the bag on the dresser. Not bad I thought. Stepping to the bathroom, nice; I handed the bellman a $5.

"Have a nice stay, and good luck."

I took as shower and changed underwear and my shirt. Patted myself down and then headed to the casino.

I cash $500 worth of travelers check at the cashier then began to browse the casino. Most of the machines were long on one side with the card games around the crap and roulette tables. Slowly I near the crap tables. I was looking for a minimum table stake. All I knew was what I had read in books. So I stood in an empty spot at one of the crap tables and watched.

"Leaning over the edge I told the man with the stick I needed some chips." I motion to the table.

"Put your money on the table with you casino card."

I pulled my money out my pocket then reached into my shirt pocket and pulled out a plastic card with my name on it. Laying both of them together on center green area I stood back up straight.

I watched as the man sitting down across from the stick man reached to pick up my money.

"Money coming in!" he stated. Another man who was standing with his back to the table behind him turns and reached for my card."$500" the sitting down said out loud. The sitting down man shove a bunch of different color chips across the table to me, "Ask for your card back before leaving."

I picked up my chips and began to spread them into the trough on the table before me. I had already seen that the whites were $1, the reds $5, the greens were $25, the black were $100. The way they broke them down I had only 2 black chips in front of me.

The person throw the dice had just thrown a seven and all the chips better were mostly being racked in. Make your bets was being repeatedly said. I placed a $5 bet the minimum on the pass line. The man at the end threw the dice and I reached out gently trying to catch them. Whoa this was harder than I thought it would be since I was not throwing them.

It took me a while to get use to this. But then I slowly got use to the noise, the excitement and to not throwing the dice myself. A nearby better watching me soon began to suggest that I make my odds bet after a number was placed. I saw what he was suggesting. The odds bet paid the true odds if that number was hit while the pass line bet only paid 1 for 1. I lost a little and won a little as I was doing nothing to improve my chances.

I began to do what any new comer would do Increased my bets, I made place bets and then come bets when I had over $200 bets in total scattered all over the board I began to protect the dice. The shooter threw and threw the table went crazy. As each of my bet paid off I increase my bets, when a come bet hit I left the place bets. If it hit again I increase the odds. I moved half of the black chips to my pockets. My pass line and come bets were now $25 chips my odds were in the hundreds. The shooter continues to throw.

The house had switched the dice three times to an uproar from the betters. "Same dice" was the screams. The people were 3-4 deep around the table as late comers tried to push into place. I had nowhere to store any more chips in front of me. So I was stacking them on the green felt just below me on the table. One of the dealers pushes me a couple of chip trays to put them in. After filling up one of the try with all one color the dealer told the setting down man. "Chips coming in!" and took the try handing to that man. Who then looked at me and point I nodded my head and point at the chips then to me. The color was all green.

"$2,500" he stated after counting the tray and he shoved me 25 black chips. I put them into my pocket. I kept throwing $25 chips into the come field and onto the pass line as the numbers were hit.

As my winning kept coming I was again filling up trays, I empty one set of trough in front of me. A tray of reds brought me 5 black chips and 1 tray of white was a stack of red. I saw a group of security guard escorting a cart to our table. They stopped the game while they loaded chips to the dealer. The dealer on my side of the table lean over to me, "Thanks for turning in those chips we been out a long time ago if had you had not done that.

I asked him, "How do you tip you guys?"

With a big grin, "On this table right now just make a bet and state for the dealers." He looked around then said,"Any bet but 7"

I checked my bets on the table, then dropped a stack of $100, "Up all my bets one chip each, 100 on all the hard ways for the dealers!"

It got quiet for a second then everybody started tossing chips toward the hard way field say "For the dealers."

The dealer was moving like he was dealing cards, chips stacked on the hard ways. Then the shooter picked up the dice. He was shaking and actually dropped one of them. Finally he threw, the number we were looking for was a six. The dice hit and rolled bounced and there they were a double three, six the hard way.

The screams shook the building. The dealers were jumping along with all the betters, there was like 700 on the hard six at 8:1. A pit boss was standing behind the box man. Two other suits were behind him. I read as the pit boss told the box man "Slow this fucking game down, try to cool it!" the other two were talking together, "can we get a cooler to the table?" his answer was "Look at the crowd it would take an hour just to shove through there."

Another hour I had two trays of black sitting in front of me and half of try of pinks, with my pockets I had may be 100 thousand. And all my bets were like $500 each. I began to reduce my bets till I had like $100 on each bet on the table. I let the dice go. It was pretty amazing the 7 did not come up for another 15 minutes. I kept right on wining and I had to keep making bets so not to look strange when the 7 did hit.

The groans of disappointment only lasted a second when the 7 did hit. But the roar of appreciation and back slapping the shooter got was very appreciated. Everybody started calling "Chips in" the dealers had to become like traffic cops directing traffic. The pit boss step forward and stated in a loud voice "This table is closed till all chips are in. We have two other tables now open for our players."

I had stop putting black chips in my pocket hours ago. In fact I had been moving them back onto the table replacing them with the pink $1,000 chips. I made stack up of all my loose chips waiting my turn. "Chips in." the dealer near me said as he moved my chips to the center of the table. The box man looked at him and he pointed to me. "All of them?" he asked the dealer who nodded. The box man just moved the tray with pink to one side and as he counted the black he added a stack pink in front of him. When all was over he stated loudly, "$75,000 going out" The Pit boss counted the stack then he enter something in his computer all those pinks chips were then handed to me in one tray.