Split Double Destroy – The Crying Pit Boss - Blackjack Apprenticeship

Split Double Destroy – The Crying Pit Boss

 

The Casinos are big.

But they are built on the power of people, who can be much more flexible, personable, and even fragile.

I found a small casino that offered a good double deck game.

 I hit it time and again for months. The rules started to change in an attempt to limit my play. I always managed to find a way to continue making the game beatable. In the meantime, because it was a small casino, I generally always saw the same female pit boss. I probably came off as standoffish to her at first, but over time we began to talk about all kinds of things—weather, kids, life. We even talked about my advantaged play, in not so many words. When my backoff came from the casino owner one night, the pit boss who had become my friend began to cry. She thought that they had treated me unfairly with all the rule changes and finally the backoff.

For as cold as casino employees can be, remember that there is a real person in there somewhere. Connecting with people on a human level where possible might positively impact your play, but it has potential to positively impact the universe at large, much more valuable than whatever gains you scrape together from being rude and callous….a casino unto yourself. All of us card counters have the predatory instinct, but my favorite blackjack memories are not directly proportional to my biggest wins, but my encounters with people that impacted me positively, just as the measure of my life is not found in my work. I won’t soon forget the crying pit boss.

—Loudon Ofton

card counting mini-course iphone screencap

Start the FREE card counting mini-course