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Playing 4 Keeps™ Gaming Newsletter for Winners Celebrating Eleven Years!
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™ A Gaming News Letter For Winners November 2006 Volume 8 Issue 11 Copyright ©2006 Michael Vernon
"Luck Has Nothing To Do With It When You Are Playing 4 Keeps!"
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On The Coat Tales of a Gambler... ***************************************************************
I’m just back from Las Vegas completing the last Dice Busters program for the year and a corporate “Dice Night” at the Wynn Hotel/Casino. The four days seemed like a week, which took me completely by surprise. On the other hand, I had about eighteen hours sleep all up. I managed a few sessions of dice and Texas Hold’em in between the events.
My Las Vegas trip started out with a business meeting straight from the airport. The Dice Coach met my plane and together we drove to Red Rocks Casino for the meeting. After our meeting, Dice Coach asked if I was up for a game of cards. “Why not?” I said. “I am fresh off my flight, I have had a couple of drinks and no dinner, and my watch says that it is 11:00pm in Colorado.” So, we headed off to the poker room for about three hours of no-limit poker. Dice Coach told me we could call it a night whenever I was ready to leave. He followed that up with, “I know that you are tired from your flight and I don’t want to keep you up late, we have a job tomorrow.” Well, I tapped out financially and physically after playing for two hours and was ready for the barn. I went over to the game where the Dice Coach was playing. He asked me, “You ready to go?” “Yeah, the sandman just drove up with his truck. I am ready.” I replied. The Dice Coach said, “Fine, I will just play to the button and we’ll go…. Unless I win a hand.” Laughter ensued with that comment, and sure enough, he caught a hand and then another. An hour later we were finally heading home.
Friday evening, following the private dice program for twenty corporate executives, we ended up in the Wynn poker room. The no limit game was very aggressive and I wondered what I had just got myself into. As it turned out, I was in the “hot seat”. With my first hand I drew pocket Aces and had two callers. One of my opponents figured to bully me out of the hand by putting me all-in after the flop. (The first three cards on the table common to all players) At first, I put my opponent on a pair of Kings, but then I felt deception in his energy. It felt like he was not genuine in his action. It felt like he was trying to run me out of the hand with his aggressive betting. He was trying to intimidate me using a large enough bet to cause me to play all my money on the first hand. He was hoping that I would cower and not call his bet.
Well, I almost went for his plan but I didn’t in the end. That “fake” feeling caused me to pause and slow down with my decision process. I watched my opponent and he did two things that confirmed my intuition about his bluff. I decided to trust my perception and I called the bet. The two tells were the way he asked me how much money I had left and then the way he bet with his stack of chips. There was weakness coming from him and I could feel it. His bet to intimidate me was $25 short of what I had left. In knew then that I had him. Adding insult to his embarrassment, he had to toss in the difference reluctantly and then show his pair of nines. I won the pot doubling up on the first hand.
A few hands later I drew Ace/King of Spades. There was the same kind of betting, lots of action before the flop. First a large bet, then a raise before me and I re-raised keeping two callers in the game. The flop came Ace/King/Eight. I was last to act and the other players checked to me. I slow played the hand, making a medium bet, hoping that both players would call, and they did. On the Turn card, it was checked to me again. “Enough”, I said and I pushed in two stacks and it ended there with the others folding. “Finally some respect,” I said to myself.
The button went around the table and a bit later I picked up pocket Aces in the big blind. To my surprise the small blind raised so I re-raised him. Everyone else dropped out. The flop came 3/8/8. I am holding two pair, Aces up. I figured, “now or never” and raised the small blind, all in. The small blind was holding pocket Queens, but chose to fold the hand. I told him he made a tough but smart lay-down. He confessed that my previous play had made a believer out of him and my pre-flop re-raise had his attention. The “all in”, call was ever so tempting, he said, but he admitted that he was afraid that I had over cards. In about thirty-five minutes of play, I doubled up on my first hand and then hit two more big pots doubling again. I colored up and said good night. Contrast that to my losing effort the night before when I could not pull a hand.
At the end of my trip, while waiting for my flight home in an airport bar, I had three fellows sit next to me one by one for a beer. How ironic that all three guys told me almost exactly the same story. It was that typical Las Vegas gambler’s story. First I lost a bunch so I went back to my room for more money…I lost again and then I went to the ATM and I lost even more. Well that is the way of it when you come to Las Vegas, no one wins, but I had a lot of fun and lots of free drinks. Yeah, right!
The stories and excuses for losing continue to be the same. Only the drama that falls in between is changed. You cannot expect to win if you are first expecting to lose. You cannot expect to win if everything you do is towards losing. I know this is an old lesson you all have heard before. But what does it take for us to soak it in?
For all of my experience and knowing better, I still played that first night when I arrived in Las Vegas. I know not to play when I am tired. I know not to play after drinking. I know not to play after traveling. All that experience, and I still ignored my own rules. At least I had enough discipline to hold to the stop loss of one buy in… no matter what game I played. There is no denying, only regretting, the ditch I started in by playing that night and losing. Even thought, I still ended in profit, over all for the trip, the weekend could have been more profitable had I played the way I teach. The lesson of change and staying with old ways has to do with how well any player is able to maintain their discipline.
My acquaintances at the bar all agreed how hard it was to have discipline when gambling. It was almost as though they agreed with me to shut me up, and at the same time, they hid an underlying notion that they knew things could have been different for them had they not chased their losses.
Where is that weakness in the chain’s link for each person’s game? Strive to change and improve the game and be aware of those things that are hidden in the closet, resisting change. The more we all are able to observe our game and be honest with ourselves, the more powerful we become as we master our game. Not playing eyes wide open, willing to learn, one can miss the opportunity of what I believe to be the spirituality of gaming.
Veteran members of P4K newsletter know this and, for all of you new readers, I believe a casino provides as good of an example of a spiritual experience as there is to be found… playing or watching. The life lessons are waiting to be plucked like fruit from a tree and added to your “Player’s Toolbox”. The challenge faced is being honest with oneself and one’s ability to endorse and enforce innovation for a positive change.
Yes, I know it is just a game we play for fun and enjoyment, however, if it is that much fun, wouldn’t you want to be able to continue to finance the fun. I want the enjoyment as long as possible, costing me as little as possible.
You can win them all! The way to winning them all is by keeping yourself out of the losing games or, at least, limit losses to a minimum.
On The Coat Tales Of A Gambler - Part 14
Sailor continues with his story...
I held a bunch of jobs in my early years, some only lasted three or four months, some lasted for a few years. I told you about my soda jerk/car hop job. I worked as a lifeguard, construction worker, a grocer, I did a tour of duty with the USMC. I sold hardware for Sears. I was a fireman. I sold insurance and I did outside sales. Maybe there were two or three other jobs that I forget. I probably had thirty different part-time occupations before the age of twenty-nine and a wife and kids.
I was twenty-nine when I went into the Navy. Often, I thank God for sending the Navy to me. I was offered my same rank, after my discharge from the Marines. The USMC only offered me PFC, (Private First Class) ranking to get me back. Had it not been for the Navy, I may still be switching jobs as often as I was doing back in those days. I do not think that it was luck, but the mighty hand of God that placed me where he did. I have to say that I was unhappy most of the time between the USMC and USN years. I could never find a job that I liked much. Oh, I did like most of the jobs for a short time, maybe two or three months. Then, it seemed like boredom would set in and I get antsy and move on.
In the Navy, I was on staff at COM 8 headquarters, stationed in New Orleans. I was a recruiting assistant/inspector/trainer. Man, it was the best job I ever had in my life. Little did I realize that the Navy would be the last job I would ever have where I was working for someone else. My job required me to travel a lot. I had to cover six states in my territory. Often I would have to travel alone as the direct representative of the 08 RADM. I was good at my job. Only once did someone call my big boss, a CDR 05, with a complaint about me. The 05 was from San Antonio. My boss called me to his office one day. After hearing my side of the story, he told me to forget it and not to worry about the complaint.
Anyway in June “76” we decided to have a recruiting training conference in Amarillo, Texas, at the Holiday Inn. The Captain said we could drive our own cars and take our families. That was a first for us to be able to take the family. I still remember that trip. We were able to make a deal with the hotel so that our rooms would not cost more if our families were with us. My boss approved the proposal and the families got to make the trip.
The reason I remember this trip so well is because I got to see Amarillo Slim playing in a Texas Hold’em tournament. It was just the beginning of what now has become the most popular form of gambling. Turns out there were lots of games going on in Amarillo and the law was greased, similar to the way it was in the South. I guess politics is politics and money is money. I nosed around and I made a few connections with guys who knew about the illegal games. While I was out there, on that Navy trip, I even got to play in a few of those games.
Later, when I got back to New Orleans, I sent a letter to Scarpone to inform him of the poker games that I had found in Amarillo. He mailed me back saying how he’d like to travel out to Texas the next time I had business there. He asked me if I would help him get introduced into a poker game. He wanted to get into a game with Amarillo Slim.
It was maybe three months before I had another trip back to Amarillo. Scarpone drove out. He stayed at the Holiday where I was also staying. We went to a place called the Big Beef Texas Bar-B-Q. The owner of the restaurant was one of my contacts for the poker games. His first name was Arnold and he had a nickname of “Smoky”, because he always smelled of smoke from the smoker out behind his restaurant.
Smoky agreed to take Scarpone to a poker game. We met him after the restaurant closed. We followed Smoky in Scarpone’s Lincoln to the place where the game was held. We did not have to drive too far. The game was going on in a big old barn on the outskirts of town. The barn reminded me of so many cockfights that I had attended with Scarpone. There were stairs up to the loft with two poker tables. One game was already in progress. Smoky told us to make ourselves at home until the other players showed up.
It was a different set up than in my days back in Badger and Greenville. There was food alright, but lemonade and coffee were the only beverages. If you wanted anything stronger, it was up to you to bring it. Scarpone was not one for drinking when he played, so it was not a big deal. We had a couple of cups of coffee. We chatted a bit. I remember Scarpone telling me how one the guys back home was getting out of jail soon. It helped me to appreciate that I got away from all that. Looking back on those days, I was so close to the edge at times… by the grace of God I never got into a scrape.
The game started up and the rest of the players looked like stand-ins for a part in a western movie. Scarpone looked so out of place wearing the suit coat, concealing the “38” in his shoulder holster. Meanwhile, some of the cowboys made no bones about hanging a gun from their hip. I’m telling you, the Wild West was still alive in Texas.
Scarpone was not even ready for the shock he was about to receive. He was also going to find out that he made a long drive from Alabama for nothing. The cowboys’ looks were deceiving. These country boys were pros and not the “Yee-haws” that Scarpone had figured them to be, back when he made plans for the trip. The cowboys were well acquainted and familiar with each other’s play. Scarpone was the odd man out. Only his cunning and years of experience kept him from total ruin. Scarpone use to say, “In every game there is a chump. Find the chump and you find the money. If you can’t find the chump, then you’re the chump.”
The game got started and in no time the other players put the “squeeze” on Scarpone. A “squeeze” was an old trick Scarpone knew well. Other players gang up on the “odd man out”, and play in such away as to squeeze him out of the game. It does not matter who is winning the money. The goal is to get the money away from the newcomer and into the hands of the good o’l boys. It is an unspoken conspiracy, known by members of a game that worked together, to take the new guy for all that he’s got. The goal is to get all the money possible from the new man. Then, once they take him down, it is up to those players still playing, to get what they can. Guess you could see it as wolves taking down a deer together. Afterwards the more dominate of the pack would get the best of the meat and so on.
Scarpone played great cards and held up well. At first, I could not tell what his strategy was. He folded several hands without seeing the other player’s hand. After about an hour, the game started to take a direction away from Scarpone. He started losing. He had one short rally and I thought that he was making his move. It did not hold up and he was getting chipped away. He was aware that he was being played. He got up from the table to excuse himself for a break, pretending to go out for a pee. Of course, I had to stay back at the game, it would not look right if I were to have followed Scarpone outside. He stayed away for a good twenty minutes. When he returned to the game, one of the fellows asked Scarpone if everything was all right? Scarpone replied, “no’. He said that he was not feeling well, “something he ate, maybe”, and thought he should leave. The other players seemed okay with Scarpone’s story and wished him better luck next time. We left the game together.
Once in the car, I could smell a sick sour smell. Scarpone tossed a white linen handkerchief out the window of the Lincoln. He took off his jacket and asked me to get out and put it in the trunk. When I got back in the car, Scarpone told me that he could see that he was in a set up. There was no way was he going to get out of the barn with any of the cowboys’ money. He knew that he had to come up with an exit plan that would allow him to return some other time and play in Amarillo. He hatched a scheme of his own to get him out of that losing game. When he left the game for the pee, he gagged himself, and threw up on his handkerchief. He put the handkerchief in his jacket pocket so that when he begged out of the game, he would smell the part of being sick. He went on to say that, with all those guns out on hips, he was not about to hint that he was on to their plan. Team play is a form of cheating. He figured the best way out was to pretend to be sick, tuck tail, and get the hell out of there.
Scarpone lost about $9,000 that night, but he was not about to try and chase the loss down, knowing full well that he was the mark. For a guy like Scarpone, to lose that kind of money, it was just a day in the life of a gambler. For me, hell it was damn near a year’s wages.
Scarpone had hoped to meet and play with Amarillo Slim. He got that close, but it never happened. The poker boys in Amarillo kind of had the same “club” going that Scarpone and his friends had, back in Alabama. Getting in on the inside would have taken more time and money than Scarpone was willing to invest.
Those trips to Amarillo laid the groundwork for me and I eventually move there. It was that move west that got me closer to Las Vegas, and it would eventually lead to my times of playing blackjack for a living in Las Vegas. Of course by then I had messed up the family life totally, and would be out and alone on my own.
To be continued...
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Playing 4 Keeps™ enriches a player's experience to become a consistent winner. My commitment to you is empowerment. Learning to employ discipline creates confidence and strengthens intention through metaphysical lessons. I empower students by showing them how to avoid losing sessions. Most importantly I create metaphors that link the knowledge of casino games to winning ways in "the game of life". Michael Vernon
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