Gambling With an Edge

Sid Wyman — Life is a Gamble

Guest: Sid Wyman — pool player, golf gambler, poker player, and what they used to call a rounder (or cross-roader).

Show Notes
00:00 Growing the show — please subscribe and review
02:45 Meet Sid Wyman: pool player, golf gambler, rounder
03:54 Fort Smith kid: the bookie umpire and the CB radio
05:24 Bought a new Cadillac the day he turned 16
08:56 Chauffeur for Big Eddie Glantz in Oklahoma City
12:44 Meeting Bobby Baldwin
14:33 The Vegas golf crew: Puggy Pearson and company
17:40 Fifty dollars to Vegas, hustling pool along the way
18:24 The daub: marked cards at the Lady Luck
21:30 Courtroom: the case thrown out, the pencil snaps
23:36 The bomb: beating the Barbary Coast for $600,000
30:38 Oklahoma tribal casino: five straight wins, banned for life
34:02 Mr. Casino Honesty
37:55 Corporate security asks him to corrupt two dealers
40:00 Wife of 35 years
41:17 Cheating in poker today: turn the Wi-Fi off
46:06 Strippers: how marked decks are made
49:43 Hustler Casino: she wasn't cheating
51:07 Billy Baxter, the smartest gambler he knows
54:50 Wrap-up
Life is a gamble explores those times in life where someone must take a big risk, or when life deals you am unexpected hand.  How do we decide how much risk is worth it?

This is a throwback episode that I cut from 2 episodes in 2019.

Vagabond has played in over 100 countries. A former Air Force interrogation analyst who spent five years at Fort Meade working for the NSA. He talks about how that training shapes the way he questions dealers, how he moves cash across borders.

Show Notes
00:00 Introduction — Vagabond, 100+ countries (and a bad mic)
00:45 How he got started — Deuces Wild in Finland, The Frugal Gambler
02:07 Moving to blackjack — overcoming shyness, talking to dealers
04:50 Intelligence background — NSA, Fort Meade, interrogation analyst
07:19 The Don Johnson inspiration
08:49 Avoiding backoffs — travel anywhere, leave when heat comes
10:06 Carrying cash and customs — Vietnam, the $100 ask
14:27 Currency traps — Colombia, Argentina pesos, Peru soles
16:34 Staying connected — SIM cards, Google Fi
17:34 Cambodia — tracking two eight-deck shoes, $40,000 win
20:30 Favorite and least favorite countries — Mexico, Vanuatu, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Trinidad
23:58 The 15% loss rebate game — triple-down, multi-card surrender, $100K swing
29:59 Madagascar — $70,000 declaration, tiny limits
33:29 Traveling with his wife — and her two passports
35:24 Cheating abroad — Mexico City, Cambodia second-dealing
37:09 Currency headaches — Peru, Chile, India
42:04 Taking notes — detailed casino notes, information broker
45:08 Backoffs abroad — Griffin/OSN, polite Korea tea ceremony
47:49 Coupon AP — Lowe's, Kellogg's, Starbucks, Walgreens
56:36 Staying safe traveling with cash
60:06 Wrap-up

Mark Billings — author of The Ultimate Edge — joins Bob Dancer and Richard Munchkin to talk about beating blackjack in the 1980s: shuffle tracking, hole-carding, and computers strapped to players' legs. Mark tells the stories behind the plays, from the "slicing and dicing" cut-card move to the shoe computer busted at the Desert Inn — including the gaming agent who went on TV and completely made up how they caught the team. Plus the time Richard's brother Jake had to stand up in a casino and swear he wasn't a card counter. Originally aired April 4, 2013.

Show Notes
[00:00]  Throwback episode context
[02:03]  News about a structuring charge
[04:31]  Munchkin’s brother, Jake, was asked if he was a card counter
[07:04]  Introduction of Mark Billings, advantage player, and author of The Ultimate Edge
[10:03]  Slicing and dicing hand cuts
[12:12]  Shuffle tracking with computers
[16:49]  The small world of card counting in Las Vegas and Atlantic City
[18:25]  Sharing advantage play secrets
[21:10]  Shuffle tracking computers in shoes
[25:13]  Casino eavesdropping on in-room phone calls
[27:45]  Building shoes for the computers
[30:00]  Richard’s shoe making story
[31:50]  The Ultimate Edge method, computers and video laws
[38:34]  Does Mark feel like his teams caused device laws to change?
[42:07]  How is blackjack different today?
GWAE Episodes Referenced:
https://youtu.be/Wj1DTHlkaIA
https://youtu.be/PrrFP3-XwB0

This week we sit down with Gina Fiore to discuss her new book, "Advantage Player: A Memoir of Blackjack, Backrooms, and Beginnings".

Get the book - https://amzn.to/3W7mZyL

Show Notes

Show Notes[00:00]  Introduction of Gina Fiore, professional gambler and author of Advantage Player
[01:05]  Dealing Blackjack in Nevada and California
[02:35]  What prompted Gina’s move into advantage play?
[03:22]  Learning about card counting
[05:21]  Hole carding and signaling
[11:08]  The All-Stars and edge sorting
[16:07]  Selecting team members and managing a team
[18:18]  Work ethic 
[21:49]  The benefits of having been a dealer
[23:14]  A bitter custody battle
[26:55]  Inspiration for writing Advantage Player, writing process 
[29:09]  Player banking strategies in California card rooms
[37:26]  Playing in the Party Pit
[40:39]  Advantage Player pre-order, release date (10/27), and related events
[46:54]  Recommended:  The Invite, Land Man, Lioness, and Risk Takers Podcast

Books Referenced:

Advantage Player by Gina Fiore - https://amzn.to/3W7mZyL
Blackjack for Blood by Bryce Carlson - https://amzn.to/4z16nrj
Million Dollar Blackjack by Ken Unston - https://amzn.to/4yrGkbr

Gina Fiore Links:
https://linktr.ee/ginafiore

This is an episode that originally aired in 2013. It has been reedited. 

They were Christians. They counted cards. And they took millions from casinos. Colin Jones co-founded the Church Team — the blackjack team featured in the documentary Holy Rollers — and went on to found BlackjackApprenticeship.com, where he's trained a generation of card counters. In this episode: the disguises (including Hollywood makeup tricks), how the team tested new players, card-counting training and apps, and what life looked like after the documentary.

Show Notes

[00:00]  Notes on editing
[00:45]  Playing in disguise
[08:38]  Introduction of Colin Jones from blackjackapprenticeship.com
[09:10]  More on playing in disguise, using makeup, accessories, mannerisms, etc
[14:14]  Blackjack apprenticeship.com content, training, and forum
[19:52]  Does Colin still play blackjack?
[21:20]  Can people make a living counting cards?
[23:55]  Casino 411, a Yelp for card counters
[29:53]  Developing a Google Glass app
[34:01]  Blackjack bootcamps

Links:
blackjackapprenticeship.com
lasvegasadvisor.com/gambling-with-an-edge