sometimes referred
to as “the million dollar bum.” These
interviews were done mere weeks after the events.
In a nutshell, here
is the most amazing blackjack streak of all time:
A smelly bum, whose wife has just kicked him out
of the house, cashes in his $400 Social Security
check and proceeds to win between 1.3 and 1.6 million
dollars in a week-long orgy of good luck at the
blackjack tables. The folks who deal to him and
the folks who serve him say he is the rudest, crudest,
but luckiest bastard they ever saw -- with the emphasis
on the “b” word. At the height of his
winning he alienates just about everyone he comes
into contact with at Treasure Island. When he finally
blows his incredible bundle (oh, yes, he loses just
about all of it back to the casino), then owner
Steve Wynn steps in and has him escorted out into
the neon night and into the dawn of a new Las Vegas
legend.
The “million dollar
bum” might have had the greatest sustained
rags-to-riches streak -- over a week of winning
-- by a player who did not play basic strategy but
did play the gods of chance for all they were worth,
that is, until they turned on him. However, a shorter
but also improbable streak took place at the Maxim
Casino in Las Vegas in July of 1995 (just weeks
after the bum’s rush), when a $5 player won
23 straight hands -- some with doubles, splits (wins
on both!), and splits with doubles (wins on them
all!) -- in blackjack playing heads up against a
dealer in a six-deck game. This player was playing
perfect basic strategy but, still, 23 straight hands
is an amazing run. On the fourth hand, he started
to increase his bets and he won several thousand
dollars in that streak.
But luck comes and
goes -- mostly goes since casino gaming for most
folks is a negative-expectation endeavor -- but
skill lasts. In the early and late 1970s the most
exciting blackjack player in history, Ken Uston,
beat the casinos in Vegas and Atlantic City out
of over five million (some say 10 million) dollars
utilizing a concept called “team play.”
Here is a sample of
how team play worked: Relatively small-stakes players
took seats at various blackjack tables throughout
the casino where they counted cards and used basic
strategy to play their hands. When the shoe became
positive for the player (many big cards were left),
a small-stakes player signaled a “big player”
(Uston) to enter the game, make large bets, sometimes
table maximum bets of $500 to $2,000, and depart
once the shoe went negative. It was a remarkably
effective system that some teams still utilize to
this day. It got Uston fame, fortune and the boot
from just about every casino he played in.
Good
Casinos Home
