I really like the church team.
I really especially like how we got the name "the church team".
One of our friends... Who does not have anything to do with church...Said...
"What are you guys... Like, the fucking church team?"
How it looked from outside
Must've been that it had more to do with church than blackjack.
So, uh, the label just kind of stuck.
The label "church team" is one of the reasons
That actually swayed me to join.
I knew that there were good, godly people
Who cared about jesus, who cared about integrity,
And cared about me.
That's one of the main reasons that i joined.
It's a blackjack team that is called "the church team".
Those two things going together never gets old.
**
The idea of blackjack, um... started with me,
With just the idea that you can beat the casino,
That you can learn a system that consistently works
Where you knew that you had the edge
And had the odds against this giant thing
That seemed so big and unconquerable.
My first real encounter with beating it...
Or how to beat it mathematically...
Was through a book called...
How to make $100,000 a year gambling.
And i read a chapter about how to beat blackjack.
It took me about five minutes to read,
And i said, "hey, i could do that."
Is this blackjack?
Blackjack. Let's do it.
There's two things with blackjack that make it interesting for me.
One is being self-Employed,
And the second is that it's blackjack.
I think naturally my personality is...
I don't mind getting in trouble,
And i love out-Of-The-Box thinking.
And card-Counting is exactly that.
You're getting in trouble, and it's out-Of-The-Box.
We just want to play some blackjack.
When i first started playing blackjack,
I had no dreams or thoughts
About it ever going big at all.
I thought it would just be me,
And i thought it would be a fun summer possibly.
I never, ever imagined blackjack becoming a business,
Or becoming a company,
Or me actually making money off of it.
He told me he'd been reading a book on it,
And, of course, i'd just graduated with a math degree,
So it sounded really cool
From an academic standpoint.
Ben was at a place where he was willing
To put his money together with me,
And we started our first bankroll together.
A guy that i had taught how to play blackjack previously
Came to us and said, "do you mind if i play for you?"
And we said, "sure."
I flew out to vegas one day.
He met me there,
And we drove back to the casino in a limousine,
And i was, like, "what the heck is going on?"
Before he knew it, he told another guy,
And those two guys each told another person.
We have friends that tell friends,
Friends that tell bosses, friends that tell their pastors.
I met colin jones through the worship pastor at my church.
The pastor said that i should meet his bassist...
Colin jones. I was stoked.
I couldn't believe that there was a team of blackjack players
That was all christians.
It just seemed like god at work.
There was actually a church planting conference in our town.
They told my husband and some of the other pastors
About what they were doing,
And my husband literally had to stop them
And call me on the phone because he knew this was something
That i would be super-Excited about.
We were at a community group from our church,
And he and his wife had to skip out early,
And i was, like, "where you guys going?"
And they both looked at each other, and finally he said,
"Well, we're kind of taking some blackjack lessons."
And i was just, like, "what?! What?!"
My friend mike foster...
Who i knew through church planting...
Told me that he was a professional blackjack player...
Which, of course, my initial reaction
Was that he was most likely on crack.
It's so far into left field
To think that someone would be a professional blackjack player,
Let alone have a whole team.
And the fact that everyone we knew
Was in ministry of some sort was just awesome.
If it hadn't been named "church team"
And it wasn't a bunch of christians
And people serving in their church, helping people
And caring about the community, i probably wouldn't have done it.
These people that play blackjack for us...
Before being our employees, they're our friends.
We have people on this team that are held together
By a much bigger thing than blackjack.
Welcome to the team meeting.
We're gonna eat, we're gonna talk. That's pretty much it.
All right, let's, uh... Let's pray.
God, thank you for the food.
Uh, lord, we thank you for the team, our people on it.
God, it's a good thing that you give us, uh,
Ways to provide for our families
And to, um, just meet these awesome people.
So, uh, amen.
The church team is amazing in a lot of ways.
I love the people on our team.
I love working with them,
I enjoy hanging out with them, living life with them
And talking about far deeper things than blackjack.
One of the crazy things is how many people on our team
Actually are pastors and church planters.
To be involved in ministry usually takes a large amount of time,
And if you have this opportunity
To fly to vegas for two or three days
And make as much as you need
To live off of for a month in three days,
Then you can spend the rest of the month
Shepherding the people that are a part of your church.
Computer voice: ameliorate. Ameliorate.
Ameliorate.
I have to say this word.
Ameliorate. Ameliorate.
"To make or become better."
This gospel ameliorates distressing symptoms.
Ameliorate.
I pastor a church called seven hills.
I'm trying to start a bunch of churches
Here in cincinnati, ohio.
The best way to tell people how big your church is...
If someone asks, you just tell them,
"We're running under 500 right now."
It happens to be true if you have 15 people.
I was in a transition, trying to find a way
To have enough time and enough income to start a church,
And looking for a job that would do that.
And i couldn't find anything.
Then my friend told me about this blackjack thing
And that, through his pastor,
They were gonna learn how to play blackjack professionally.
So, blackjack became an option suddenly.
People are attracted to controversy.
That's one reason i avoid talking about what i do or a living,
And i play on a blackjack team, as most of you know.
And, naturally, that raises a lot of questions.
First off, how could a christian play blackjack?
All the more, how could a pastor do that?
You shouldn't have secrets about what you do,
Especially as a pastor, but as a christian on the whole.
So, it's been hard to talk to people about
Because it's a long conversation.
You talk to someone for an hour,
You think they're with you, and they have a bunch of new ideas
That crop up in your head that you already deal with.
It's irritating to have to keep explaining the same thing over and over again.
So, my temptation to not talk about it is more for that reason
Than for someone looking down on me or whatever.
The reason the camera crew is here is they want to do a documentary
About our blackjack team.
One thing that makes our team very different
Is that we're mainly, almost entirely, made up of christians,
And our motivation for what we do
Is that we'd see the kingdom go forth.
And the way we try to work
Is in a way that glorifies god.
What i'm hoping will come of this
Is that people will see
That the gospel absolutely, positively
Changes everything,
And that redemption can creep
Into the most unexpected places.
Come on in, guys.
My name is ken reed. I'm director of table games
At fantasy springs in california.
Grew up in atlantic city... That's where i started.
And, uh, 28 years later, i'm still doing it,
So i do enjoy it,
And business has been good to me.
And i've met a lot of interesting people,
A lot of interesting customers.
Hey, sheldon. What's up? Smile.
The best part about you is,
You'll be here tomorrow, too.
I've been actually very fortunate.
From caesar's to golden nugget to foxwoods...
I've worked in three of the biggest places in the world at that time.
I think i've seen it all, but i say that,
And then next week i see something else and i say, "oh, my god."
So...
I don't even know if i should get into it.
To be a good card-Counter, you've got to be patient.
Let's just put it that way.
All it takes is a lot of practice.
You can't do it overnight.
It's definitely something we're on the alert for 24/7
In any casino.
And, of course, if i catch you counting cards
Or surveillance, we just ask you to leave.
I mean, hell, we've got a whole book of card-Counters in the office
From all over the country.
Bottom line is, cheaters are everywhere,
In any casino in the world.
It's the nature of our business. We got the money.
And if you got the money, somebody's going to try to take it.
Cool, guys.
Welcome to the, uh, meeting.
Two years ago, from basically this month,
We had our first meeting here.
And we sat here up front,
And there was nine people,
And we were, like, "holy crap.
That's a lot of people."
Just to let you know where we're coming from,
This is, like, really awesome
For us to be a part of this.
We've got firefighters, nurses,
People planting churches, pastoring churches,
Watching kids, mothers, fathers, whatever...
All people that are a part of this team.
Who'd ever think that's even possible?
And it's, like, i'm working my dream job,
And it's because of, like, you guys here.
It's been another good quarter.
Any guess on how much we took from casinos in 2007?
900,000.
900,000, 1.2, a million,
Something like that.
Boom!
$1.58 million taken out of casinos this year.
I'm excited, um, to take more money from casino next year.
For those of you that hate casinos, we're doing our part.
**
Mark: everybody hates casinos on our blackjack team,
But i hate casinos.
It's a black hole.
They just suck goodness out of the world.
I hate 'em.
*...on the loose *
* with some bait and a noose *
* to trap the rat who stole his loot... *
I've never played any type of cards or blackjack...
Gambling...I've never done anything like that before this.
Originally, i came from a very conservative christian background.
I was told, "don't cuss, don't have sex,
"Don't gamble, like, don't shoot somebody,
And, like, you'll be a good person."
I haven't shot anybody. Ha ha ha!
My first day of training is the first time
I ever stepped into a casino in my life.
I was painting houses at the time,
And wanted to shoot myself.
I was desperate. My old roommate ford...
He walked in one day into our apartment
And said, "mark, i'm gonna play blackjack."
And i said, "ford, you're an idiot."
And i turned around and walked out of the room.
And i was, like, "this guy's so stupid.
Like, what a dumb thing to do."
And now, a year later, here i am.
Probably the biggest misconceptions about what we do
Would be that you have to be a rocket scientist to do it
Or a math whiz.
This idea that you have to be a genius to be a card-Counter is foolish.
It has a lot to do with practice and repetition and mastering it
Than it has to do with just having an incredible ability
To understand these complex concepts.
So, the game of blackjack is actually pretty simple.
You have a dealer, and you have players,
And the player wins by beating the dealer, or the house.
So, the goal of the game is for the total sum of your cards
To be as close to 21 as possible
Without actually going over.
So, if your total is higher than the dealer's,
You win your bet.
But if your total is lower than the dealer's,
You lose your bet.
So, you play round after round,
And most people end up losing all their money
Out of their wallets,
And people can actually just go broke,
Losing their entire bank accounts
Because the house will always win...
Unless you can turn the house advantage into your advantage
By counting cards.
How you do that is really just use your brain.
While playing, you have to keep a running tally
Of the cards that have been played
By assigning them a value of +1, -1, or 0.
So, for every 10 or face card, you subtract one,
For every card numbered 2 through 6, you would add one,
And the middle cards... 7, 8 and 9...Are neutral,
So you don't have to do anything. And when the count is high,
You know there's more face cards that are left in the deck,
And that's when the odds are actually in your favor,
So you would bet high,
Because you're more likely to get a blackjack
Or two face cards than anything else.
And it's actually really that simple,
But there's kind of a lot of other smaller things
That i didn't really mention,
Like you have to memorize two or three different charts,
Determine the number of decks left in the discard tray,
You have to know exactly what to bet based on the count,
And you have to do all this kind of in your head
While not losing track of the count or making any other mistake.
I think what convinced me to join
Was really just my strong sense of adventure.
Like, i just want to do something different than the average person.
Hopefully, at some stage...
Like when my boys are all teenagers,
They'll look back and think it's cool,
Maybe listen to dad a little bit more
'Cause he's not just some dry, boring guy.
It really fulfills just my urge to get out there
And do something different from the norm.
I started playing earlier in the year,
And i played for about a four- Or five-Month period,
And then slowed down dramatically
So i could work on an online business.
We do a couple of other businesses.
Um, i actually sell a nutritional product called the feast.
I've picked up a lot of maternity jeans.
These have the brand-New tag on them that says $68. I got them for 12.
I decided to hop on the internet and look up "nose filters"
And see if there was such a thing.
And lo and behold, i found these.
The problem is, if you cut it, you'll lose them back in your nose,
And that's not a good thing.
We do a little bit of everything,
But i like it like that. We have flexible schedules,
We get to spend a lot of time with each other, with our kids.
Okay, come over here.
Put some money in there.
I am a pastor.
That's not to say i have a completely clear conscience about it.
There are times when i think, "i wonder if i really should be doing this."
But i feel like i'm okay with it,
And i feel like god's okay with it.
And if i ever felt like god wasn't okay with it, i'd stop.
I love this picture.
He has a lot of good pictures.
This is ben.
He's very persistent.
Whatever he does, he never gives up.
He goes 100%.
Here you go...It's him. Here. Oh, my goodness.
He wanted to go for possible medical field.
Nurse first, and then maybe doctor.
He majored in that.
And then this blackjack.
After that, i don't...
I've never heard anything anymore.
My mom...Hmm.
She doesn't understand it.
Well, he keep telling me that it's not...
What do you call those things?
Gambling? Gambling.
That's what he said.
And i tried to understand.
Maybe it's not gambling.
It's work?
I don't know exactly what words you would use.
I feel like, in the christian community,
And just the community at large, for the most part,
Gambling is not necessarily viewed as a positive thing.
Family members or friends just can't get over the hurdle
That it's casinos, and casinos are dirty places,
And christians should have no associations with casinos.
I've seen so many people wrestle and actually say,
Like, i am sending people to hell.
Christians like to make extra rules
To try to help us, to safeguard us.
But it ends up just being lots of rules
And looking like we're all uptight, which we are.
One of the first things my mom told me
When i told her what i was doing
Was that she'd rather have me sell cocaine for a living
Than play blackjack.
I just heard that he was playing blackjack,
And i thought, "oh, man."
My father-In-Law called asked what i did
On days that i wasn't substitute-Teaching,
And i said, "well, actually,
I've been doing some short-Term investing."
And i said, "what do you mean, investing?"
And that kind of got into it,
And finally he admitted to playing blackjack,
And he said, "it's not gambling, it's not gambling."
I said, "yes, it is."
I argued from, you know,
Just the laziness of it...
"You're just not, you know..."
Just...I argued from the spiritual...
I brought the bible into it.
The biggest misconception is people think
That you're walking down a route that is really dark
And really dangerous.
You think of gambling addiction,
You think of all the really bad stuff
That kind of goes with it,
From just being in a bad environment.
Explaining what we do to someone to the full extent
Can take anywhere from a couple of hours to weeks,
'Cause people come back with more questions.
"Aren't you worried that you'll be tempted to start gambling,
"And you'll just get addicted?
What about the sleeze factor?"
And i'll say, "75-Year-Old women
Never turn on to me."
And that's pretty much all i play with.
"So, isn't that illegal?"
Everybody, for some reason,
Thinks addition and division is illegal
When you go into a casino. I don't get it.
But it's just ignorance on their part.
I don't mean that in a bad way,
But they literally just don't understand
How the team is set up, who it's run by,
Who its members are, and how the math works.
Ben: so, how does it all work?
There's three different categories of people.
There's the players, the managers,
And then you have the investors.
And how it works is, the investors give all their money
To the managers.
At times, we've had amounts totaling up to $1.5 million,
And we call this the team bankroll.
And it's the managers' job... They take this money
And they distribute it to the blackjack players that they've trained.
Then the players take this money to the casinos,
And this is where they count the cards,
And hopefully they win lots of money.
But here's the deal... The players don't get to keep the money
Because the money belongs to the team,
And they get paid an hourly wage,
And it doesn't matter if they win or lose.
They get the same kind of pay rate.
Whenever the team wins a total of $100,000,
As far as profit,
We call it "closing a bankroll".
So, the main goal of the team
Is to close as many bankrolls as possible,
And when they do close one, the profits are split up
Among the managers, the players and the investors,
And everyone's happy.
So, in a lot of ways,
It's structured just like any other business,
But, then again, it's kind of not.
I believe in the team, i believe in the money that it makes,
I believe in the system, and, because of that,
We have virtually all of our liquid assets
Tied up in the blackjack team.
We've taken out a hefty sum
On a 0% interest credit card,
And, uh, popped it in the bankroll.
We cashed out all of our i.R.A.'S
And all of our 401k plans from old jobs,
And consolidated everything,
And, yeah, full-Tilt...
Get every cent in there you can.
In the end, i ended up taking out a home equity loan
Just to put more money into it.
I think it's such a sure thing.
Once you see the math and understand how everything works,
It's just... I think it's dumb to not invest.
At first, my thought of being lazy and...
And just having fun...
Realized that, hey, they're working hard.
And so, then, just kind of slowly,
Colin and ben both... Just their hard work
Kind of won us over over a period of time.
Initially, we invested, like, $5,000.
I had to win her over at that point.
I said, "hey, we're pretty strapped.
"We own this place here, and we don't have a lot of money
Left over at the end of the month."
So, we took out a home equity loan.
We invested, i think, 150 at one point.
We're up to 200,000.
It slowly grew on us, so we're...
She's still thinking that it's wrong.
And she's...You know, we've been married 31 years, so...
Hello?
Hey, man. It's me.
Hey, ben. What's up?
Ah, pretty good.
So, have you heard the news
About the bankroll ending?
Yeah.
Woman: whoooo!
Yeah, i suppose it kind of is, huh?
**
When we close a bankroll, it means we've reached our goal of $100,000.
When that happens, investors get paid out,
Managers get paid out, players get paid out.
We celebrate. We go out to dinner. It's the biggest event we have,
When we close a bankroll.
We all get paid,
We all enjoy kind of, like... Hey, high-Five.
We did this together.
It's just a huge rush. It's like winning the lottery.
Colin called me up, and he's, like, "so, where are you at?"
And i was, like, "uh, i'm up about 50 grand."
"What?! You're up 50 grand?" I was, like, "yeah."
"Oh, my gosh! I think we just closed two bankrolls in a week."
Hey, uh, i was calling with some good news for you.
Yeah, the bankroll closed.
It did.
It is the most exciting thing
When you close a bankroll
Because there's this energy and adrenaline
When you realize that you made all this extra money.
It's gonna be a nice, fat check.
I am serious.
Yep.
Thanks, everybody, for coming and for celebrating with us.
And go, bankroll 12 through 27 in 2008.
Right! Whoo!
Originally, i kept my cash in that bookshelf, behind the books.
I had my bibles and commentaries on a lower section
So that, uh, you know, it'd be behind the books that nobody ever read.
But, uh, yeah, not so secure.
I got a safe since then from my church.
So, uh, this is my inner sanctum.
This is where, uh, i keep my money.
Shh, don't tell anybody.
Whew!
Here's all my money.
Uh...yeah.
40, 60, 70, 80.
80 grand there.
That's 5.
And that's, um, 2.
It's pretty much just money.
Carrying large amounts of cash is just part of what we do.
I'll never forget the first time i went to a casino with $800,
And i thought the entire world was staring at me.
I knew that i had $800 in my pocket.
I thought everyone else knew it.
You walk through the parking lot, looking behind your back,
And it was a rush.
One year later, we're taking $80,000 in our pocket,
And you don't even notice.
At first, it's, like, "somebody's gonna mug me."
But then...
I look at, like, what i'm wearing.
My shoes have holes in them.
Nobody looks at me and says, "that guy's got money."
Nobody's gonna mug me, you know?
It's really weird having money in your freezer
Or, you know, tucked under your mattress.
This is a company completely built on trust.
They put thousands, hundreds of thousands...
Millions of dollars pass through my hands.
I could've stole a lot of money.
Maybe i did. Maybe i have, i don't know.
Maybe it's invested somewhere. They'll never know, though.
Transporting and carrying the money, though,
Is a very big issue that we deal with on our team.
It's difficult to carry. If you just think of pocket space,
It ends up being quite an issue... Just getting through airports.
You kind of have to sneak the money through.
I have these leg strap things.
They just kind of go around your calf,
And you can basically get whatever...
Something like 40,000 to 50,000...
If you've got baggy pants on... Strapped in there.
There's almost this impression that it's illegal.
I've been stopped three times at the airport
And told, "what's in your pockets? Empty your pockets."
The impression is if you have money, you're a drug dealer.
This is from the pennsylvania state police.
They stopped me because they think i deal drugs.
I don't.
I usually carry it in my bag when i leave home,
Check in to the ticket counter,
And then i make a stop in the bathroom
And transfer it all into my waistline.
Or, if it's summertime and i've got cargo shorts on, i'll load those up.
Then i just head through security there, and i don't get stopped.
We're dealing with betting hands
And winning or losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
You're thinking about the fact that you have, sitting in front of you,
Two or three times the amount that a normal person makes in an entire year.
You're putting that on the line kind of at the table.
The thought of losing $40,000 in an hour and a half...
It's, like, "oh, my gosh. That's my schoolteacher's salary."
You have to divorce yourself from what it really is, or else you'll go crazy.
I love that there is $111,000 in here...
And a bunch of sand.
It's crazy to say this, but i have lost all of my, like...
I stopped looking at that as money.
When i see $100 bills, sometimes i forget
That i could actually buy something with them.
I just look at a $100 bill,
And think, "oh, that's one of those blackjack things."
It's really weird, but it's like monopoly money.
I used to think about money differently.
Money was a big deal at one time.
And now money is just money.
Do me a favor. Put 119 on my screen, please.
Will do. Thank you.
The first time i went into a casino,
I won $500, and, boy, that sets the hook.
I swear i see that more often than not.
Sometimes stupidity is a beautiful thing,
'Cause i didn't know what i was doing, not at all.
They remember that first time all the time.
And i see that a lot. It's almost uncanny, like.
And then i see them ten times after that,
And they've got long faces sometimes.
**
I think all casinos are wrong
In the fact that they mislead people
And they give people the hope that they're gonna be able to win,
And, obviously, that's not the case.
The casino knows that they have the statistical advantage,
Which basically sounds to me like they're taking advantage of the disadvantage.
And what i love about blackjack is that we get to turn that on its head
And say, statistically, if i play long enough, i'm going to win.
I'm going to actually take from this casino's profits.
And i get a strange amount of pride out of being able to do that.
It doesn't seem like one of the most noble things a person can do in the world,
But at least we can liberate the money from the clutches
Of those who would use it for ill purposes.
I mean, that's a start.
I think what makes me angry about casinos is that they're hypocrites.
They give the impression through all of their advertising
That it's a place for fun and for winning.
But then you go inside,
And anyone that has a chance of winning
They'll remove from their property.
You get kicked out. It's their job to kick you out,
And they don't think twice about...That there's anything bankrupt about that.
They have all these signs, like, "come and win. Play blackjack.
Win big. Get rich instantly."
So, i'll show up and start getting rich instantly,
And they're, like, "you're not welcome here anymore.
If you come back, we'll arrest you."
It's, like, "why? I'm just getting rich instantly.
"You advertised to get rich instantly.
Why are you, like, kicking me out of here?"
Did you get the money back? Not yet.
Keep working at it.
I'm greg means. I'm the casino manager
For pj pockets casino.
You can do a lot of damage as a card-Counter
To a small card room like this,
And so we're actually very vigilant that...
You know, keeping an eye on those things.
If i get a new player that comes in,
And i've never seen this player before,
And they start playing, you know, decent money,
Or they buy in for a decent amount of money,
We're probably gonna take a look at 'em automatically.
Nothing happens here for very long
That we don't figure it out.
Whenever i go into a casino,
There's the anticipation.
I know i'm doing something that's frowned upon,
And they're gonna find out.
I just see the black domes on the ceiling.
It's, like, yeah, somebody can see me.
If they're not looking, they should be.
I'm totally certain there are people watching me,
And it's one of those things that i try to get used to,
And sometimes i just have to tell myself,
"No, there's no way they're onto me yet."
Surveillance.
Okay, thank you. Gotcha.
Card-Counters tend to play really big amounts of money
When the shoes are good,
And so you end up with someone who can win thousands of dollars,
And it makes it a lot harder to offset that money
With the smaller play in the room.
We've been really diligent at making sure
That we don't play games with those kind of people.
We tell them, "look, i don't want your blackjack action.
You can play whatever else you want to play."
We're polite about it and stuff like that,
But you're gonna get caught.
Getting kicked out of casinos is...
Just part of the job. You get used to it.
It can be friendly, it can be not so friendly.
I have been kicked out of a lot of casinos.
I think i've been backed off of every casino i've been to.
I don't know...Hundreds. I've been kicked out of the boyd casinos
Around 30 times.
The first time i got backed off, it was really easy.
I just walked in, and she walked up to me, smiling,
And said, "hi, mark." I was, like, "hi, whatever your name is."
She's, like, "you can't play blackjack."
And i was, like, "really?"
She's, like, "yeah. You're a card-Counter."
I was, like...
"Yes, i am. Okay. See you later."
I approach casinos with the thought in mind
Like i'm here to get kicked out.
And if they don't, then, hey, that's cool for me.
My philosophy when i got into blackjack
Was just playing till they kick you out.
I walk in and play as hard and as fast as i can
Until it's over.
I'm convinced. I've seen enough.
Yeah, he's gonna get backed off tonight.
Typically, getting thrown out of a casino
Is not like you see in the movies...
Unless you end up getting arrested and thrown in jail.
But that's only happened to me once.
Back-Offs are usually a lot more mild
Than most people think going into this whole thing.
I've been watching you play a little bit. Yeah?
Yeah. We decided we don't want to take your blackjack action anymore.
Oh, really? Yeah.
But, every once in a while, you'll get people
That are taking extra pride in their job,
At finding out that you're a card-Counter.
If we have concerns, then we'll either have surveillance watch,
Or do what we gotta do.
They'll threaten to back-Room you.
They'll try to intimidate you.
The better you are at it,
The word kind of gets out that...
Look, fantasy springs know what they're doing.
So, stay away.
They've got their own little network... Trust me on this.
We just say, "please leave."
And there's... They know. They know.
I've never had an argument with a card-Counter yet.
Not one.
I've never seen anybody go in the back room yet,
And i'm sure i never will.
**
There are all sorts of stories we have
Of dressing up in costumes and playing...
All to play in a casino without them figuring out who i really am.
I've dressed up as an indian with a turban,
A suit and a beard down to here,
And colin dressing up as a cowboy.
I was...As the ultimate mockery of all casinos...
Dressed up as an m.I.T. Professor,
Which is where card-Counting originated from.
And colin was dressed up as a gangster.
That's just part of the game.
So, we're heading to snoqualmie casino.
It's opening night, so there's gonna be tons of chaos.
So, we're gonna play some blackjack, meet up with some other team members,
And they'll have no idea what's going on tonight.
I think i realize the difference between ben and i...
When i dress up for a casino,
My goal is to blend in.
When ben dresses up for a casino, his goal is to stick out.
There's gonna be lots of people dressed like this...
I guarantee it.
Hey.
I think they've been the most creative team.
Um, before, we've had some teams in...
It's just been standard play. It's been no disguises.
It's just the team spreading apart on the casino floor
Where you put the pieces together and find out who all is there with them.
So, as far as the changing of appearance
And the extra effort, as far as the theatrics,
I think that's a ben-Exclusive trait.
He can pull off the drunk young rich kid.
He can pull off whatever you need to pull off.
And i think he can go undetected for a bit of time at most places.
I know they travel, so i don't know if they've hit every casino or not,
But once you hit a place, each time you hit it again,
You're more and more quickly identified because they're used to you.
And, even though you're changing appearance, there's still things about you.
If you look like the guy we think you are,
We start checking for tattoos, we'll watch the play,
And we're all over it.
**
I walked in and started looking for players.
It was just packed.
I saw david drury first. It was pretty funny.
He looks like he's 60 years old.
David had the full republican garb...
A sweater vest, a white hat
That had the republican elephant on it.
It explains why i have a lot of money,
And it explains why i'm really bad at tipping.
And people don't want to talk to me, either,
So it's kind of an added bonus.
Colin's was okay. I think he pulled it off.
One of the things with the costume is...
You want people to either just not recognize you
Or kind of write you off.
They don't even think of you as a card-Counter
'Cause they see you as a janitor
Or, you know, whatever i am.
I walked right past people
That had met me at other casinos,
And they had no idea.
So, i mean, i think my outfit did the job,
In that it was, like, so extreme.
Yeah, get this guy.
He's got the grime on the hands.
So, what are the results?
I won 1,000.
Good, you made up for my loss. Thanks.
You lost 1,000? Ha ha!
It was a good night. It was fun.
But, you know, not what we expected, that's for sure.
But that's the thing with casinos...You never know what to expect.
Like, they backed off and 86'd, like, three people,
Escorted them off the parking lot.
They spotted people from nowhere,
Then let me play the whole time.
They let colin play the whole time.
We run the team. They don't even know who we are.
It was worth it.
But it just...It could've been a lot better.
Most of the card-Counters...
They all think they can beat the casino.
But even the best card-Counter at days will get beat.
Losing at blackjack
Is something most players never, ever get used to.
You lose about 45% of the time that you walk into a casino,
And then you win the other 55% of the time.
You can walk in and have a string of wins or a string of losses,
And the important thing is, over time,
That averages out to be still a net positive.
Because there is so much variance in the game,
There's these huge fluctuations.
There was one time in minnesota...
I think i was up 100,000,
And gave most of it back before the end of the session.
The most i ever lost in a session
Was at hard rock hotel and casino in las vegas,
And i lost about $86,000 in three hours.
I'll never forget the sinking feeling you get
From doing what you know is the right thing to do mathematically,
And just not seeing it work.
When i start to lose, i'm, like, "ohh."
But i'm, like, math... I have to praise the champion math,
'Cause i know this is mathematics and not myself.
I'd never experienced a loss like that,
And i just kept having all this doubt about myself.
Like, am i doing something wrong?
Am i sure i'm on with my count?
I'll go review my strategy charts
To make sure i wasn't making any errors there.
When you lose at blackjack,
It shows you how emotional you are.
You question whether you're doing it right.
You question why you're not winning,
Uh, because you expect to win.
Obviously, you're an advantage player,
So you should have the advantage,
And sometimes it doesn't seem that way. So, it can be tough.
You've got to be confident in yourself
And confident in your playing abilities and the training you have.
Risk and playing well and playing right
Is going to involve losses,
And you just have to be able to calculate that risk
And be able to deal with it.
There is genuinely something, like...
Not up to par about the team.
That doesn't mean it's not a winning team,
And that doesn't mean that we think people are stealing.
It just means it's not up to par.
Maybe things got lax,
We grew too fast, whatever. I don't know.
Ben: as we started to realize this,
We realized there are people on this team
Who we cannot incentivize
Because they are not on this team for the purpose of this team.
Hence, there is a question that comes down to incentive...
"Are you doing what's best for the team?" That's the question.
And i think everyone can say that they're not 100%.
So, our goal is to make it a higher percentage in the future.
We want someone to want the team to win,
Not to do something that just incentivizes himself.
So, unfortunately, there's people that are on the team in this circle now,
And we're kind of making the circle smaller,
And hopefully everyone can shuffle in.
And we want to see everyone be able to make that transition.
That is, like, the best-Case scenario.
What happened was, our manager told me,
"You know what? You haven't played for a little bit now,
"And before we can let you play again,
You'll have to come out and retest."
That's what i've been preparing for
Over the last few weeks,
And this weekend, i'll be retesting
And be fully back on the team.
I'm planning on playing a whole lot.
Running count?
18. 19.
It was, uh, 22 when the round started,
And it went to 21, 20.
Then it went back to 21.
Jeez.
I never did feel really super-Comfortable
Through the process.
I always felt like, is there something i'm falling short on?
Is there something i don't have as well as i should?
But, i don't know... Sometimes i guess i question...
If i'm this anxious about it,
I wonder how other team members are.
They're either way smarter than i am,
You know, and therefore more calm about it,
Or they're just not letting on that they're making mistakes.
Uh, what count does 13 hit against a 3?
Oh.
Sorry.
So, what's the running count?
Ten.
9, 10, 11.
Yeah, should be... Should be 11.
Colin: it's frustrating because...
I've said the same thing to him probably six times
In the last three or four days,
And, uh...
It doesn't seem like there's any progress.
It's, like, the same mistakes.
Hey. Hey.
So, more of the same?
Oh, man. That's...annoying.
Do you know where he is now?
He's not here.
I can't really even imagine
Any news being good at this point.
I feel like it's game over, basically.
What do you think?
Oh. It's weird.
Yesterday i was more aggravated than i am today.
I think it's because yesterday i told colin...
I was, like, you know, "i talked to god about this."
And i'm, like, "all right...
Maybe you have something else planned for me."
But i know my stuff, i know the numbers,
I know the charts, i know the correct decisions
And how to figure everything.
But i keep having basic mess-Ups. And they are.
I just...Man, it's so confusing to me.
I don't know what to make of it, as far as...
I know you've put work into it,
And that's what's hard from our end.
It's, like, we'd love nothing more
Than to be able to pass you, but...
And for some reason, there's some basic...
Something that's just missing
Every time i sit down with you guys,
Which, apparently, means probably every time i'm in a casino,
I'm missing stuff.
I don't know what to tell you, as far as improvement.
I don't know what it would take for you
To test out at this point.
I think the best thing for us to do
Is, like, on the record, put you on inactive.
Off the record...
You're basically, like, done being a player.
My instinct right now is, i can't see it swinging back.
You know? How do you feel like it's gonna be
With, you know, the wife and stuff?
We've been married 121/2 years,
And we just know if something...
This isn't the first... Anything we've been through.
So, it might just very simply be something i'm not supposed to do.
I mean, it's not my thing.
Yeah, kind of a strange week,
And a strange way to end it, but...
I guess that's that, you know?
That's that.
Well, that's done with.
Why?
Jason's gone. What?
Jason left.
I don't think he's coming back.
Why?
I wish i could just say, "oh, well, we've been having bad luck."
But it's been discouraging for me
To come to the point and saying,
"No, we've kind of got ourselves into a hole
Because we've created kind of a poorly-Trained blackjack team."
They say, like, one of the most dangerous things
For a new business, or for a young business,
Is to grow too quickly.
From last january through may,
We won, like, $800,000 in five months,
And so we're, like, "oh, this team's awesome. It's unstoppable."
And then it took ten months of us just thinking,
"Oh, we're just having a bad run at things."
And now, ten months later, it's, like,
"No, it's definitely not a bad run of things."
If the team goes on this way for very long,
It's inevitable that we'll go bankrupt.
Well, the team's status has been pretty poor.
We've underperformed immensely.
I didn't think we were gonna make it through this bankroll.
I thought we were gonna shut the door.
And, for my own personal investment,
I wanted us to shut the door.
Man: you were scared for it?
Well, yeah.
That's all the money we have,
Is in this stupid blackjack team.
We can trust people's integrity.
I don't think people are stealing.
But something's not working,
'Cause our team isn't working.
The plan is belterra, grand vic,
Up to chicago.
I'm very eager to try to perfect this thing
As quickly as possible.
Ideally, i would like to get a minimum
Of ten hours in.
That's gonna be pretty tough.
Chicago's not a very card-Counter-Friendly city.
My mentality is, when i get into a casino,
I'm gonna burn it down.
I always have goal. Like, for an hour,
I want to make $10,000.
**
Ready for the next casino.
When i go to those casinos,
I expect to get no more than half an hour in.
It's not really worth a drive
Unless you're able to stick it out.
This could potentially be a disaster.
But i guess we'll find out.
We need some hours in here...
Um...pretty bad.
So, i'm getting a players' card made up for me
With somebody else's name on it.
I've never done that before.
This is kind of experimenting.
I've had an incredible winning streak.
We just need, like, another 380,000,
And we'll close up the bankroll.
If i could play till 3:00 in the morning,
That'd be awesome.
If i could play to 4:00 in the morning,
Even cooler.
Last time we came here, i got backed off pretty severely.
They wanted to back-Room me,
And i caused a big scene,
And i faked a phone call to my attorney.
Heh. And i was, like, "my attorney says
"To put my arm up in the air and wave at the camera
"And then put them straight by my side
And walk to the first exit."
Oh, man. That's my last place to go.
So, anyways, congratulations, guys,
For bankroll... Whatever number this was.
14. 14.
Two bankrolls, two months...Not bad.
As a team, in three weeks,
We took $140,800 from casinos.
Mr. Dusty wisniew made $3,076.
We got mr. Brad currah,
Who made $4,801.
We got mr. Drury,
Who made $5,893 in three weeks.
And we've got mr. Benjamin ady,
Who made $7,421 in the state of washington
In three weeks.
All right.
I think, after six months of losing,
Positive variance has kind of kicked back in.
Now that there's some serious player incentive...
Like, every time we come to one of these bankroll dinners,
We don't just get a free meal. I just got a check for two grand.
So, like, doubled my pay, effectively.
That's pretty sweet.
So, 4,800 bucks in three weeks...
I think i worked 20-Some hours,
Or maybe 30 hours.
Not even that much.
It's pretty weird. Whenever you're closing bankrolls,
It's hard to remember that there was a time when you weren't closing bankrolls.
When the bankroll closes fast,
And, like, it goes over,
It's nothing but, like, you know...
Ching! Ching! Ching!
We have money flowing out of our ears in those times.
Then, of course, when you're not closing bankrolls,
It's, like, totally lame.
I'm convinced we're gonna close more bankrolls.
It makes me feel better about...
The whole idea of the team.
I definitely feel like there's a huge mental shift that's happened.
There's a lot more incentive
To play efficiently and win.
It's just so good.
There's a potential of a greater chance
Of something going wrong because of it.
It's, like, it's too good.
I think that, like, on a communication level, it's healthier.
And, in a lot of ways, we have really quality people.
And, uh, that's really cool.
I think that it is a little bit odd...
Just a couple of new guys
That none of us really know.
Man, i'm paranoid now.
I really feel uncomfortable having an unbeliever on the team.
It's nothing against him at all.
I really like the guy a lot.
But i think that makes the whole, like, thing volatile to me.
It's just kind of freaky.
There's a sense of trust
That is almost impossible to have
With people in general that you know well.
But it's kind of easy to read people who are, like, believers.
Like, you kind of get a feel for who they are.
Um, i think it's tough with unbelievers.
It's really hard.
I wish it could just be, like...
The same old people all the time.
I just don't know if it's the smartest, like, move,
For, like...
Like, this is a good idea, let's do this.
You know?
You know, the whole church team thing...
Like, you guys are in our homes, you're around our kids,
We make intimate business decisions with you.
Our goal...Like, just so you guys know...
Like, isn't to just create, like,
A white, anglo-Saxon, christian team.
Like, that was never our purpose.
But those happen to be, in a lot of ways,
The types of people who we shared values with,
Who we shared, like, commonality and relationships with,
And who we trusted.
It is a huge part of our life
And, like, what we are about.
And the business... Like, there's no line for us.
It's not, like, here is christianity and here is business.
So, for us, it's kind of like one and the same.
So, for that matter, we've found that, like, the best partners for us
Have been people that share a lot of our values.
So, that was a lot of the people
That we decided to travel along this blackjack road with.
The primary thing that holds our team together
Is relationships, not blackjack.
The people that play for us
Plays for us because we know about them
And we're friends with them,
And we care about them and they care about us.
They've prayed over me, i've prayed over them
And their families and the things going on in their ministries.
That's life. Like, that's relationships to us...
It's, like, just seeing the ministries that these people are doing
And feeling like i have some part in it.
I know that, as a christian,
Like, people in the faith are considered family,
And i really take that seriously.
They challenge me in my faith,
And they challenge me in living life well
And not playing by the rules that somebody else set up.
Ben: we do have that kind of commonality
With other christians on the team.
We realize we have souls.
And, ultimately, we work.
And do what we do because of the state of our soul,
Not to build an empire
And not just buy more stuff.
Blackjack makes people reassess what christianity is,
And in a good way.
My wife and i always say that we want to live in the gray...
Because in the gray, you've got to question who you are
And what you're doing.
I hate the thought of being to a point
Where i just get slapped on this label...
"Oh, yeah, that's a christian.
"He's a good guy, he reads his bible
And, like, whatever... Goes to soup kitchens."
It's much deeper. It's about who you really are inside.
I've learned a lot from different people on the team,
Different perspectives that they have on things.
And i think that...
That makes us what we are.
I don't think that we would be able to do this
Without... Without who we have.
Running count. Nine.
So, tonight we're going to the emerald queen,
And that's where we're doing a retest
Of all the players on the team.
It'll be the same as always.
We'll request a count by giving a signal. You guys gotta pass it.
When the team was small, people used to come alongside of us,
They'd play with us, and we'd be able to watch their game,
See them improve.
After we got ten people,
We'd just teach them how to play,
Then send them off on their own...
Assume they know and learn things, but they don't.
So, we see these tests... The craziest things...
We're, like, "oh, my gosh. How did they not learn that?"
Well, they weren't hanging out with us, you know?
'Cause there's too many of them.
We can't just pay you a lot of money,
And you run around casinos like a high-Roller.
You need to understand every aspect of the game
And take your job as seriously as any other job.
The layout of emerald queen is, there's two main pits...
Which you guys can play both of those.
The more you guys pass the count,
The more we won't ask for it.
I don't think anyone will fail.
That would be really bad
If we saw people playing that bad.
Then there'd be a lot of problems.
**
Now people realize... Hey, first things first.
If this business is gonna work, people need to play perfect blackjack, period.
Or else the whole thing falls apart.
Holy crap. It's so weird how bad they played.
They must've been just freaking out or something.
I mean, what the heck?
Oh, man, this is gonna be fun.
Jeez, there's a lot of people here.
There was a lot of things we noticed that need improving.
And, for that matter, i think almost everyone...
What we realized universally is that we're not doing the big bet spread
Until we solve a lot of kinks in everyone's game.
I think people... They have the confidence of a card-Counter, of course,
And they're just used to being able to feel their way through things.
We came up with a lot of people who, if they were to actually do the math,
I think would've made different decisions.
But the worst-Case scenario is when you rush through it,
You don't do the math, and therefore you don't make the correct decision.
Really, like, the best thing would be to go home right now
And send us an email... Kind of, like, your action plan
For what you need to do to make whatever we observed disappear
And better for the next time.
The process we're going through now... There will be more test-Outs.
We're gonna be doing a monthly test-Out
Required for each person... Not in seattle.
But there is gonna be more accountability for that,
Which is much needed for us and way overdue.
So, these things... In the past,
We've been really bad at letting things slip through the cracks.
That is gonna be a thing of the past now.
There's good news and bad news about it.
The bad news is our team is so...
For the last year, has been so bad
That we're performing beyond what you could expect
From a blackjack team.
The good news is, if we fix it,
We should never have to worry about a year as bad as this last year.
I know you don't want to hear any data.
But, more importantly than the fact that we're still in the negative,
Is that, with that many hours,
It's statistically impossible
To have that happen
With legitimate card-Counting.
So, then the question is, like, how the hell did that happen?
So, i tried, like, running a sim
Of, like, ten bet mistakes per hour
And four playing mistakes per hour,
Um, and the team... Instead of playing 100 rounds an hour,
Like, 60...
And playing all the way to a true -5.
That brings it to, like...
You know, like, a 15% chance of such poor performance.
And it's, like, cost us, you know, $4 million,
Theoretically, in the last year and a half.
Those numbers are so crazy.
Based upon your calculations,
What happened is, like, literally impossible.
The fact that we can't explain the data still...
No, we can't. I feel like we can't explain it.
You changed everything to the most ridiculous proportions,
And, even then, it was, like, a 15% possibility.
It still doesn't make sense to me.
Like, something's off somewhere.
We're allowed to talk about anything we want, right? Ha!
I just know that, like, we were down.
You've probably already talked to ben and colin
About how far down we were.
But the last i heard, we were down 450,000.
And...
For the first time, i was really glad that they...
That my investment wasn't in the bankroll.
Holy cow.
It just seems a little crazy
To be down $450,000...
In a money-Making venture...
Where you play games.
Colin sent out this big, long email...
Like, "hey, we're gonna have to have some changes.
"There's some lack of health on the team.
"There's a 1-In-10,000 chance that we are where we are right now, what's going on.
We need to, like, figure out what's going down."
And i just emailed back, saying, "you think someone might be stealing?"
Why don't you go show them where your bed is?
Okay.
First of all, our team is getting killed.
One of the good things about it was it made us examine our business model
And think through... What are the weaknesses?
And, of course, the first thing we think through is...
You know, is someone stealing from the team?
The way our business is currently,
They actually could get away with it.
That's one of the flaws. But at the same time,
It is one of our strengths as well,
'Cause people know that we trust them.
And i think, for all of our players,
That's a powerful thing.
I realize that trust is a very big issue
When you're handling this kind of money.
And i've been through seasons of not trusting people on the team,
To be quite frank with you.
It just doesn't make sense.
How could people trust each other to that extent?
I recognized the gravity of...
Oh, my gosh. Anyone can fudge these numbers.
Anyone can make up the numbers.
They can say that they played for four hours
When they played for one,
That they lost ten grand when they lost nothing,
And just take money.
The way that the team grew...
Through close friendships...
I think it's about the only way that the team could've grown to this point
And really feel like it's secure.
Ben: there are times when me and colin sit around
And we say, "all right, who do you think
Is most likely to steal from us?"
It's easy to think, yeah, someone could be stealing.
But whenever i run down the individual players one at a time,
I have very little doubt.
If we were to find out someone was stealing,
I think the biggest factor that would come into play
Is not the fact that they stole money,
But it'd be the compromise in the relationship that took place.
Really, i have to trust other team members.
I suppose if i didn't, it would probably drive me kind of crazy.
I feel like trusting friends is just a part of life,
And i feel like, in a lot of ways, it's not that difficult.
We've put everything we have on the line in this game.
We've borrowed to invest in this team,
And i totally trust what they're doing.
Shirley: can something happen? Absolutely.
I mean, people sin. It's gonna happen.
But i trust the people on our team.
You want a strawberry.
Can i have a strawberry?
Hey, listen...You guys can have one strawberry each.
So, pretty much, what happens is...
Brad currah calls me up,
And he's, like, hemming and hawing.
He's, like, "there's a thing i feel i should tell you.
But i feel pretty stupid saying it."
I'm, like, "dude, just say it."
After he said it, i wish he wouldn't have said it.
So, uh, two different people came to me
And said, "benjamin is stealing."
They were certain that he was stealing money.
It's not really my idea. They just told me
Because they were concerned.
Man: and how did they know?
Um...i don't know if i should say.
Benjamin was saying that brad currah
Had accused him of, apparently,
Stealing money from the team,
And, when asked for an explanation
Or a justification for that view,
Brad currah replied, "i can't tell you."
So...i'd be interested to know...
From brad currah's point of view...
What justified that accusation.
I gotta think about this. Is it okay to say this?
I had two people come to me
And tell me that they were certain that he was stealing money.
And i said, "how do you know that?"
And they said, "the holy spirit told me.
Sometimes, when i pray, the holy spirit tells me things."
I've worked with brad a lot outside of the blackjack team,
And, at first, like, he weirded me out,
Because, you know, he'd say these things, like...
"Oh, um...god told me to play that slot machine.
So i did, and then i won, like, $5,000."
Brad has a spiritual relationship with god
That i don't have or understand.
Or he's crazy.
Um...
And, in this case, here's the thing...
Like, i wasn't willing to write him off.
I totally trust brad, and i have good reason to.
So, i believe that he believes whatever he says.
Man: do you have reason not to trust that he would be hearing from god?
Uh...i don't...
I don't really hear from god...in that way.
God has told me all kinds of things. You know what i mean?
He's told me a lot of things.
Um...he's had me do things that i would never do,
And, like, it turns out amazing.
If you ask somebody to go into the true essence of what we say...
I mean, yeah, i believe i hear from god.
I believe the lord speaks to me.
But if you put that on camera, people are, like...
It's just, like, tough how deep you go into that.
It was really weird. Not only is he not a christian,
He's, like, one of the most strongest opponents against it.
It's funny, because how do you tell somebody who doesn't believe in god
That god told you that they're stealing?
It makes it more difficult that he's not a christian
'Cause it makes it sound like we're singling him out 'cause he's not a christian.
Um...
If i had to, like, make a bet,
I would say yeah, probably.
So, yeah. I would say that he was.
You know, benjamin ady's an interesting guy, to say the least.
Obviously, his kind of, like, spiritual, um,
Mental, political... Um, just a lot of his stances...
And this is what i told him... Are very unique.
In a team atmosphere,
Where, like, a lot of unity and trust
And other things are, like, high values,
It can, like... And i think it did...
Really, like, compromise it.
It made it so that there was less trust,
There was less feelings of unity,
There was less pride in wanting the entire team to succeed.
I don't know if we made the right decision.
But the reason why benjamin ady was fired
Wasn't because he was stealing.
Um, ultimately, it was because...
He didn't fit the profile of our team.
I don't even... I don't even know if that's the right way of saying it.
Anytime that i've had to explain to somebody
How our team works...
Like, when i've been arrested...
Basically, law enforcement... The first thing they ask is,
"How does your employer know you're not stealing from him blind?
How do they know you report your wins and losses accurately?"
And i've always answered, "we're all christians."
And that can be really shallow.
But, at the same time, people always go...
"Oh, that makes sense."
The problem is, what happened with brad currah
And benjamin ady... It's not measurable.
We can't prove it. If we could prove it,
Then we would say what took place is true.
But we can't.
You know, we all want to be nice and love each other,
But the truth hurts sometimes, and that's just the way it is.
So, to some people, brad currah's, like, a lunatic.
He's a psycho-Christian fundamentalist
Who thinks he hears from god.
Uh, and he might be that.
At the same time, brad might...
He might be legit.
And even logically, in my mind...
Let alone theologically...
It makes sense that brad could hear from god,
And god could say, "hey, this thing... Which is of value..."
The church team, our team...
"It's being compromised by a person.
Here's who, and here's how."
That's, in short, what took place.
Are you...Are you good?
Yeah, i'm great. I'm excited.
**
Today we're gonna baptize lisa.
Everybody say, "hi, lisa."
Lisa will explain a little bit more about her story.
But in february, lisa decided to follow christ as lord of her life.
So, today we're following up with that via baptism.
In the family of god, that's what we do.
Is that cool. All: yeah.
Lisa, you've been baptized in christ.
And now you're raised in new life.
It started to weigh on me...
Like, different worlds, 'cause they're so far apart.
You know what i mean?
My life is spent with people i love
And people who i think care about something
That i believe is greater than ourselves.
And then i go to a casino, where it's, like...
The complete opposite.
Yeah, it just sucks.
That transition gets old.
Going to baptize someone, and then go gamble?
Poetic justice.
Flight attendant: it's our pleasure to welcome you to las vegas...
The biggest issue i ran into in the last year,
Regarding the nature of what blackjack is,
Is, as a christian, i think that whatever we put our hands to
Should bring out more value in the community.
It should be left better than when i found it.
And my problem with blackjack is...
It, in itself, doesn't actually do anything.
What i've wrestled is...
I have a conviction. I really believe that strongly.
So, there's two points of conflict.
One...Do i apply my conviction
To everybody else on the team?
And then two... Am i even right?
Maybe it's fine to help create a business
And sustain a business where guys can just go do whatever they feel like.
But i never came in here thinking this was the way i want to live.
I wouldn't say i've lived like that,
But i've endorsed a company
That affords that lifestyle to a lot of people.
It's been a point of wrestling
That i really can't come to grips with.
I don't really like las vegas very much.
It's too self-Aware.
Not quite kentucky.
I know for sure, for myself, i cannot live on blackjack
And say that what i'm doing is a worthy pursuit,
A righteous or a full pursuit.
I think man was meant to experience something way...
Way more tangible and simple
Than just robbing casinos and making a bunch of money
And getting awesome comps.
i thought i was gonna be...
Brushing off cobwebs, figuratively.
But there's cobwebs there.
We're gonna have to play blackjack
Because we haven't closed a bankroll in a while.
So, it's, uh, time to make some money to pay the bills.
So, this is kind of a new experience for us,
Even though we used to do it all the time.
But that's the way we earn our money...
Is, uh, at the blackjack table.
We just haven't gone in a while.
But we're gonna probably play a lot of blackjack
And not get much sleep.
I always try and bring these because i'm a new person.
You won't even recognize me. It's like i'm sophisticated.
**
50. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
All right, there it is... $50,000.
When i come out, i'll have a stack of envelopes that high.
We'll see what happens.
I lost $11,200.
I got backed off in just about an hour.
So, we're on to the next place.
I'm down about 24,000,
And i've only been able to play about two hours
Between the two casinos.
* and i wanted you to make it *
* the camera's standing by *
* so i could capture half the rapture *
* and i saved up all my money *
* with a grand engraving, silver plating *
* so that if you ever fear... *
Uh, we're down...
I don't even know... Like, 50,000.
* if the bottom ever drops *
* or your tied up with the cops *
* don't be scared, beware *
* the things that never mattered *
I might even cry if, uh, i walk in
And they back me off.
* and i wanted you to make it *
* with the camera standing by *
I'm not that surprised by tonight.
It definitely went bad.
I mean, not as bad as it can go,
But definitely on the worst side of things.
One of the worst-Case scenarios is you spend this whole weekend,
And you lose money.
It's, like, you know you're supposed to win, you should win.
If you make enough trips, you will.
But then a lot of you is wondering,
Well, what if i just wouldn't have gone on the trip?
Like...
Uh, maybe it would've been better if just stayed home.
I would've spent time with my family
And got a bunch of stuff done,
And had more fun.
Instead, i went on this trip, and i lost the team money.
So, i think your expectations going into this...
It's really important not to, like...
Just put all your hopes and dreams
On winning money or... everything working out.
There is definitely not a conflict
Between my faith and my occupation.
If anything, my occupation...
Serves as a tool of god to strengthen my faith.
I have nowhere else to turn but to god
When, you know, a trip is falling apart.
And that's a month's wages going down the tubes.
God knows all of my needs,
And he knows exactly what order the cards are in the shoe.
I mean, he's created order in the universe
So that card-Counting is even possible.
I believe every hand is determined by god,
In the same way that, if a sparrow falls,
He takes notice.
He knows every minute detail.
He knows when i'm gonna hit and when i'm gonna stand.
I actually wrote down a memory verse.
I was kind of freaking out in reno.
I was, like, "oh, no. What am i gonna do?
'Cause i'm not getting very many hours in."
And i wrote down a verse in my iphone.
Deuteronomy 8:17-18.
"You may say to yourself,
"My power and the strength of my hands
"Have produced this wealth for me.
"But remember the lord your god,
"For it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth
"And so confirms his covenant
Which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today."
Um, and i read that in a hotel room out of the gideon bible.
I was just kind of freaked out
About how my trip was going,
And, uh, came across that verse.
I was just, like, "god is so good."
He's provided this for me, and it's strengthened me.
There's definitely no conflict in my mind
Or my heart or my conscience.
I know for a fact
That this is what i was supposed to be doing right now.
This is, like, my calling.
**
In the big picture, blackjack has changed everything for me.
When i got into blackjack, i never thought it would last very long.
I was, like, "this is probably the last year."
And i've said that now for a long time...
"This is the last year, this is the last year."
And right now i feel like this is the last year.
I got to experience what the other blackjack players
Have been dealing with the last few years.
It's kind of crazy out there.
I guess it's just one of those things... We're getting old.
As far as professional blackjack players,
I guess we probably are old.
I think, for me, mentally,
I've been done with blackjack for a while.
When i first got into it, i was excited about it.
I loved the idea, i loved learning it.
For me, i think now, i'm coming to a place
Where i am less passionate about it.
I'm looking for something else. I always am.
It was an identity, you know? As much as we don't want it to be,
It's cool to be a blackjack player.
You talk to people, and people drop everything at a party to talk to you.
I think the network we've established with blackjack...
Like, blackjack, i think,
Will come and go for all of us.
The most valuable thing for me
Is, like, i hope the people that have come in
Leave better when they go out.
I just want to thank you guys for the ride.
I don't know if i'll have a better story in this life,
Of, like, that time period.
It's incredible. I look back,
And i tell people... Some people go to business school.
I ran a blackjack team.
**
So, this vegas trip is different,
Because the main reason why we came
Wasn't to play blackjack.
We came to actually train other players.
We offered boot camps so players can come to vegas
And pay us $1,000, and we'll hang out with them for one day.
I think this is a natural progression
Of where we've come from.
We started off just playing.
Then we kind of moved towards managing.
Now we're definitely looking for different ways of making money.
Some sort of blackjack training, or using our knowledge
And what we've learned to market a product... That's where we're headed.
Really, like, the most important thing...
I mean, counting.
Like, if you guys can't keep a count at a table,
You can't play.
In one sense, you're a superhero to these guys.
When i first learned, and i hung out with a guy who'd been doing this,
And you see they're on a team, and they have money,
And they've been kicked out of casinos,
And you're just, like, "oh, my god, this is crazy."
And it's weird that we're that now
To this, you know, small group of ten people.
Nice meeting you guys.
I don't know what's next.
We have a couple of internet business ideas.
I can do a lot, or i can do absolutely nothing.
I have, like, no college degree.
I have, like, no professional experience, you know?
I'm not really willing to work a 9-To-5 anymore.
So, i'm not too worried about it, in that sense.
A lot of times, i don't really know what's... What's around the corner.
And i don't really care.
**
Maybe christians shouldn't play blackjack.