I found this. It's a great story of the very beginnings of Mr. X's gambling career. Mr. X and I grew up together but lost touch over the years. Before we met again in person there was about two months worth of epic emailing. This was one of them. I thought you guys would like it (The Todd in the story is a different friend. He doesn't gamble for a living):
This was probably about two years after I quit that job in Boulder to play poker full time. My friend Todd had just graduated from CU (Boulder) and was hoping to become a professional poker player. I was very focused on my game at the time and had been studying and putting a lot of thought into the finer points, especially “”tells”" (those body language giveaways that get soooo much play in the movies, but actually represent a very small portion of the profit in real life).
Todd had friends in Phoenix and wanted to drive down there for New Year’s Eve. We hit the road, planning to ring in the new year and play cards at Fort McDowell, which at the time was renowned for good action. When we hit Albuquerque, NM, there were billboards for Sandia Casino. A casino in New Mexico? We had no idea. Naturally, we pulled off the highway to check it out. The casino was in a tent! It looked like a huge one of those indoor tennis courts. Or are those ice skating rinks? Whatever it looked like wasn’t a casino, at any rate. To our further amazement there was a poker room in the tent, er, casino. I decided to play 10-20 holdem which, at the time, was a step up in limit for me. Todd joined me. We were both doing well and I was feeling very focused. As the night dragged on, the game got smaller. Eventually it was just Todd, some random guy, and me. I was up about $500.
The fewer opponents you have in a poker game, the less mathematical, and the more mental the game becomes. Very shorthanded games are also a situation in which tells can be very valuable. I was feeling very ready for this situation. After several hands against this guy, I picked up a tell too good to be true. It was 100% reliable. As the cards turned, he would glance quickly away if he liked his hand, or stare at the board (the community cards) if he did not. It was pretty quick and subtle, but unmistakable once you were looking for it. I felt like I was in a gambling movie. I wasn’t even paying attention to my cards, but just watching the guy. There was no way he could win. When he went to the bathroom, I tipped Todd onto the tell. When they guy finally gave up, I was up over $2000 and Todd almost $1000. This was a whole lot of money to us at the time. In retrospect I feel pretty bad for the guy, but at the time I felt like a superstar. I was sure I would make a million dollars playing poker in no time.
To this day I’ve never picked up a tell even remotely as reliable as that one. It was fun while it lasted.
On to Phoenix. We stayed with his friend Ajay and celebrated New Year’s Eve downtown. I saw a really great 80s cover band called Boogie Nights. Things were going so well Todd and I decided to hop a flight to Vegas.
I can’t for the life of me remember why we decided to stay at the MGM Grand. In theory, it was way too expensive for us and the limits were too large for any hope of getting comped. We got in at 2am, but our rooms wouldn’t be ready till noon. We were too tired for poker so we decided to goof around at blackjack. $25 was the minimum bet to get rated for comps. This was way too big for us, but we decided to give it a try with a couple hundred anyway. Neither of us knew how to count cards at the time, We were just gambling. The dealer must have busted 90% of his hands. In no time we were up over $500 each. I had never played craps before, and decided to give it a go. It’s not a beatable game, but at this point we were just having fun. Another $1000 each in less than an hour! Cashing out I was approached by a prostitute for the first and only time in my life (and no, of course, I didn’t). This was feeling more like a movie all the time.
We stayed up the whole night, the next day, and the next night. Table after table after table. We never lost. Sometime after I guess around 36 hours of nonstop gambling, I had to sleep. Todd opted to continue. I slept for over twelve hours and awoke to find that Todd hadn’t even been to the room yet. Yikes!
I found him at a blackjack table. After over 48 hours of drinking and gambling Todd had such an odor surrounding him, I’m surprised they didn’t refuse to deal him cards. As I watched, Todd reached the goal he had set, $10,000 up. As he stood up he knocked his drink towards his lap. It teetered on edge, seemed to balance there for a few moments, and then settled back onto the felt. A tired looking old man, the only other occupant of the table, was watching everything. He shook his head and grumbled “When you’re running good, you’re running good.”
Over the next couple day we toned it down a bit but continued to win at a more modest pace. I had one more amazing session at a craps table. A tiny lady in horn rimmed glassed who may or may not have been the freaky woman from the Poltergeist movies was having a phenomenal roll. She had been rolling for over 30 minutes (this is very long, if you’re not familiar with craps) and everyone at the table was cleaning up. An enormous black man in a suit was next to me and making all the same bets that I was. At times we would exchange knowing glances. The Poltergeist lady threw the dice and one of them ricocheted off a stack of chips, out of the table and on to the floor. Twelve people yell “SAME DICE!” in unison, but the man in the suit looks at me and says, in an incredibly deep voice, “It’s all over now, baby.”
The next roll: Seven Out (This is a bad thing, if you’re not familiar with craps).
Twelve people cash out in unison.
What was most remarkable to me about this trip wasn’t the amount of luck I had, which was truly extraordinary, but how often it felt scripted. I kept expecting to see the cameras, or at least to wake up. This was the Las Vegas of Hollywood. I’ve been back many times, but I’ve never seen that Vegas again. Not even close.
Bucket Boy?
