City

James Grosjean has never been one for mincing words or suffering fools. Still, several years ago, when I bragged to him about having strong card counting skills, I couldn’t help but be taken aback by his response. He told me that he thinks of casino advantage players - that is, sharp people who deploy strategies to beat the games - as evolutionary. “Card counters are salamanders crawling out of the water,” one of the most brilliant, most lauded advantage players in history told me.

There are times craps shooters are cold, times they're hot, and times they're on fire. It's for those time shooters are burning through the points that the craps fire bet was devised.

Win the fire bet, and you could walk away with a 999-1 payoff, turning a $1 side bet into a cool $1,000. That's the kind of payoff not available on standard craps, where the pass line pays even money and long shots such as bets on 2 or 12 reach only 30-1.

What follows is the correct way to play any blackjack hand dealt to you when the dealer’s upcard is a 4. The strategy is not that difficult to remember since it is virtually the same regardless of the number of decks of cards being used and the mix of playing rules. In one instance, however, it also depends on the composition of the cards that comprise your hand and the number of decks of cards being used.

For nearly as long as there have been slot machines, there have been unsavory players who have tried to beat them using illegal means. But players have cheated with methods as low-tech as putting a coin on a string and yanking it back out after it tripped the coin-counting mechanism.

This is what I had envisioned: Members who joined this club would meet once per month and I’d be able to teach them the basics of how to play craps, roulette, baccarat, and how to play blackjack on gaming tables that I would bring to the meetings. After much thought on this concept, my wife and I (along with another couple, who were partners in this venture) launched the unique Winner’s Circle Casino Gaming Club.