Friday, March 4, 2016

Musings of a pro blackjack player

Excerpt:

"If you are immune to gambling’s allure – its sensory seductions, its hokey promises of a win – you start to see through the hidden numbers and spinning dials and flashing lights to the machinery beneath. When I see people with holes in their shoes buying lottery tickets they can ill afford, I can think only of Karl Marx’s ‘opium of the people’. Observing the grey-rinse brigade playing one-armed bandits in Vegas’s teeming slot-machine alleys, I marvel at how these women (and it is overwhelmingly women) have managed in retirement to find a pastime that so precisely mimics the piecework of the production line.
Surely it is a mark of late capitalism’s descent into decadence when, for sheer entertainment, we simply throw money away? When our play trumpets itself as a parody of the means of mass production?"

17 comments:

ricpic said...

A good point about the female addiction to the repetitive rhythm of the slots but ruined by the standard slur on capitalism.

Dad Bones said...

Many years ago I planned to be a Blackjack card counter, drawing on my powers of self deception that had previously enabled me to believe I could sell Kirby vacuum cleaners. I couldn't count any better than I could sell and eventually ended up working for a living.

deborah said...

Ricpic, she did not say 'female addiction to repetitive rhythm.' But she did jump to the conclusion that all these elderly women worked the production line, which is stupid, and very unlikely. My one sis likes the slots, my other adores Texas Hold 'em.

But is she onto something with LATE capitalism and throwing money away for fun? I think the state lotteries and state-owned casinos are an indication that late capitalism is in trouble.

deborah said...

DB, I couldn't count cards to save my life!

bagoh20 said...

I assume we as a species, and especially women, have evolved with an affinity to this kind of keeping your hands busy thing. We no longer have a need for it as a survival activity, but we still need to express it because we're hard wired for it. We live way longer and with far less required of us than what we were designed for. It just is what it is. I think people should find more productive ways to satisfy that need, but it's not a problem if it satisfies some need and isn't hurting you. Much of what we do to satisfy needs in our DNA is unproductive, and it's likely to get to where most of what we do is unnecessary. We might be there already.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

We often go to Reno and other than buying some Keno tickets we don't gamble. We often win in Keno or break even. Buy 100 games at $1 a game and then go off to do something else. You don't have to sit around in a Casino. Just go outside!! Visit a museum, go antique shopping, look at the cars at Hot August Nites, buy BBQ at the events, drive around the area and sight see, visit Tahoe....take naps in our room, go to dinner. Gambling is just NOT an attraction for us.

Playing the slots is just stupid, and especially so now that they are computerized. You might as well throw your money into a fountain and make a wish. Playing cards does require some skill and you might have a chance to win a bit or get lucky. Maybe.

I don't understand why counting cards is frowned on or illegal. How can you possibly play any card game without counting the cards. Being aware of how many of each suit has been played, what suits are trump, what cards are left unplayed and what the odds (in general) are for the remaining cards to come up. Granted it is much much harder when there are multiple decks, but really....how can it be illegal to pay attention to the cards and count how many and what kind have been played. It is impossible to play hearts, spades or bridge without counting the cards.

Chip Ahoy said...

What a great way to describe it.

At age 20 I puzzled over this. zap. I just transported. I'm in Reno about 10 floors up looking out a window below to sidewalks covered with indoor/outdoor green carpeting. And that whole thing is very odd. I say to a guy standing next to me named Gary West, "I'm disappointed." Gary asks why. I answer, "All these older people, and everyone is old, and not a single one I can look to for inspiration about how to be. Not a single role model for me." Looking back now that's an odd thing to have said, but that's what I was feeling then and I was feeling it really hard. Gary laughed. "Your role models are at Monte Carlo." I suppose that's a better gambling place where slot machines halls aren't clanging away noisily.

You don't count cards. You visualize other bizarre things associated with cards. Bizarre things are readily recalled because they are outrageous. Recall the outrageous sequence you contrive as the story unfolds and you know which cards have been played. Even with multiple decks.

It's a trick! I played this trick once at age 22, just a simple trick of recalling a list of 20 items contrived on the spot by my victim. I had to remind my victim a few days later that we did have the bet. To his astonishment I recalled the 20 items that he wrote down and told him go ahead and add forty more. It doesn't make a difference how many he add, I can always contrive a bizarre story from them. Take it however far that he likes. He added 20 more, not 40 as suggested, so now the list is 40 and not 60. A few days later recalled all 40, then trashed the whole effort after the second test. It's all useless information at that point. I could not recall the list today. But the trick impressed my friend so hard he never did stop talking about that. I felt bad because it's a trick. But I like the idea of freaking out the guy. People who are into cards do this memory trick. It's imaginative fast story telling and visualization, that's all. It works for all lists. The dude still thinks I have eidetic memory and he's in his 70's.



deborah said...

Agree, DBQ. Gambling holds no fascination for me. Whenever my poker sis asks if I'll go to Vegas with her, I say yes, if she'll schedule it to coincide with the August Star Trek convention.


deborah said...

Bags, I don't know how much 'junk DNA' we have, or if there really is such a thing. What if it is all needed like simple math is the basis of quantum physics? Or something.

deborah said...

Chip, cool tip. I've heard that technique being used to memorize a speech.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Re Chip's tip on memorizing. Good idea. I have a terrible time with people's names. SO I use this one weird trick. I dream up some sort of nickname or other name that associates that person with something else. An object, a character in a rhyme or story, some play on a physical characteristic. Sorry .....big nose Joe.

Often it isn't a flattering image or nickname, but it does help me to remember their names. That way I'm not caught flat footed in the grocery store having a conversation with...Miss whatsername or Mr. whosit.... and then about an hour later THEN remember their name. I feel like a fool when that happens.

TrooperYork said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Trooper York said...

In my single days I used to gamble. A lot. I learned a lot. The house always wins. So you are in it for the action. The rush you get is like drugs. People don't admit but that is what it is. The action you get the more chance you have to lose. The reason why the casinos pile up the dough is that people can't sit still. They have to gamble. Pull that handle. Double down at the blackjack table.

As I got a little older and wiser I realized that the action was not the thing. The chance to win and walk away was the thing. So I would make a couple of big bets and then I would walk away. As DBQ says there is a lot to do in the casino environment. In fact casinos are geared now to entertain the people who aren't gambling. There are shows, restaurants, bars and all kinds of stuff to do. You don't have to sit at the tables. You just want to. That's the sickness.

bagoh20 said...

When in Vegas, visit the Erotic Heritage Museum, but don't say you got the idea from me.

Trooper York said...

Yeah I have been to Crazy Girls too. Great exhibits.

William said...

Roulette is the most time efficient way of losing money in the casino. If slots are like piece work on a factory line, isn't card counting a bit like being a CPA but for less money........I used to like poker with friends, and for friendly stakes. If you have a good night, you can attribute it to skill, and the bad nights to bad luck which truly does exist.

ndspinelli said...

I became a much better craps and blackjack player when I quit drinking. I NEVER play machines. The thing casinos hate the most are people who get got early, bet big and win, and then walk away. Over time, they win. In the short run a gambler can win.