ALL NOVEL 228 - City of Sin
Li Yun landed in Vagas. Per Rouxi's recommendation, he bought a sim card and called a cab. The checkpoint took a long time, but he made it through with all his luggage still intact. After picking up his luggage, the cab took him to the hotel on the famous strip. It was early afternoon, but the flashing signs and lights welcoming tourists to the casinos were dazzling. The cab driver slowed down for Li Yun to take pictures before stopping in front of the hotel. Li Yun walked out and saw a stream of people walking up and down the streets, some in unusual attires. There were several Spidiman and Alvis impersonators who approached him for a picture, but he declined. He had a meet-up with Bufu's friend in the casino's lobby.
“Yun Li?” Asked David Chan, a tall and sturdy man in his early thirties.
“Yes...” Li Yun wasn't used to his name being flipped.
"Mr. Li, welcome to the City of Sin."
Li Yun shook hands and greeted David Chan, the card counter coach Bufu had hired to run the operation in the States, “How is the operation going?”
“It’s going pretty well,” David replied. Card counting was difficult in Macao due to the automatic card shufflers, but there were many tables in the States that still dealt the cards by hand. David gave more updates as they moved inside the casino area and sat in the private lounge area. “As the players are more used to the gaming style, the percentage has been improving.”
David showed Li Yun the data from the past ten months since the operation began. Li Yun looked at the data from the twenty-six professional card counters. The typical winning odds in blackjack were 50/50, but a card counter could gain a one or two percent edge over the house.
“It’s unbelievable how well we are doing,” said David. Their winning percentage ranged from 51% to 56%, and gained an average of $70/hour. He had been counting cards for ten years, and he had never seen such a good run. “Fuzheng’s app is pretty amazing.”
Bufu’s app mainly kept track of the player’s winning odds and winnings, but it also had a training simulator for the players. David and many of the players contributed the results to the training simulator. Unbeknownst to the players and David, thirteen players had the charm embedded in their phones that they were required to carry, and the other thirteen were in the control group without the charm. The thirteen players with the charm could win 54% and the players without the charm could win 52%.
“I have more people emailing me about their interest to join the team,” said David.
“How many people can we hire if we expand?” Li Yun asked.
“There are around 300 casinos in the state, and we have to rotate the players out weekly to avoid getting caught, so we can have up to 150. If we expand to other states, we can add up to 250. The problem will be finding enough trainers and paying for the traveling expenses.”
“None of the current players want to stop?”
David shook his head. When the players first started, the newbies were afraid of the uncertainty of the job. Card counting wasn’t a regular stable career. There were ups and downs. However, the more they played, the more comfortable they were with the lifestyle.
Bufu wanted to expand the operation to cover more states, but Li Yun thought it was a bit of a hassle. Although they relied on David Chan for the business operation and a law firm to handle the legal and financial operations, they were both on the other side of the world and had little direct oversight of the operation.
“I’ll leave the business decision to Fu,” Li Yun stated. Bufu was the one that spearheaded the operation and Li Yun didn't want to interfere. He was simply curious about how effective the charm was.
“Is this your first time in Vagas? I’ll show you around,” David got up from his seat and walked Li Yun down the strip lined with casinos and hotels.
There were many tourists and performers walking around. Li Yun didn’t think it was that exciting, but maybe he expected more from the City of Sin. They entered the Vienese Room.
“I heard you are good at poker,” said David. “This is one of the biggest rooms in the area.”
"Just okay, I haven't been playing, so I might be at a disadvantage," Li Yun replied. "But I would like to make some money."
Li Yun thought it would be a good opportunity to raise money to buy a ring for Rouxi. Based on Xuxu’s guidelines, the ring should cost two months of his salary. From working as a surgeon two days a week, the Qinbei Hospital gave him 1 million yuan a year. From the card counting operation, he made 1.2 million yuan a year. As a researcher, he paid himself 3 million a year. As a TCM clinical doctor, he barely made a profit. Every time he generated money, he put it back into buying more medicinals.
LY corporation was recently making a profit due to the greenhouse farming operation, but Li Yun kept the fund in the research and development budget. Based on his salary, the ring should be valued at 815k yuan ($135k.) Li Yun looked into his personal bank account, which had a pitiful 685,556 yuan (100k) in the account.
“Are you going to join the poker table?” Li Yun asked.
David shook his head. “Guess what game is the easiest to win?”
“It’s not poker or blackjack?” Li Yun thought the answer was probably something else.
As a card counter, David was highly calculative. He had likely calculated the odds for the vast majority of games in the casino. He could even proudly say that he was banned from three different casinos. Fortunately, it wasn’t in Vagas. Although they used Vagas as the headquarter, none of the players played in the casinos within the city and focused on the smaller cities within the state.
“Dice games,” David replied. “There are players who can control the dice accurately, enough for casinos to deem them as more of a nuisance than card counters.”
Li Yun raised with eyebrow with skepticism but thought it made sense. Card counting played the odds in the long run through hundreds and thousands of games to bear fruit. Dice control and precision shooting could drastically change the dynamic of the game. However, it seemed like something that was extremely difficult to achieve.
“Do you play craps?” asked David.
“I don’t really gamble,” Li Yun replied. “How do you play?”
“It’s really simple.” David took Li Yun to the craps tables where a group of people was gathered. “See the woman rolling the dice? She’s called the shooter. The people playing around the table are spectators. They make a bet on what she would roll.”
Li Yun nodded. He understood that the odds of rolling seven were greater than the odds of a two or twelve since the payout was lower. There were rare bets with better payoffs.
“Have you been practicing long?” Li Yun asked.
“Just for three years,” said David. “I saw someone doing it in the casino, and then looked it up online.”
David was proficient, but he liked to try his luck at the table. Dice shooting was like any precision-type skill, it required a lot of patience and practice. Most dice shooters didn't have much advantage over regular shooters, but it gave them more confidence. Craps, for the most part, was about betting strategies and luck.
David approached the table first, “Do you want to give it a try?” asked David.
Li Yun was used to rolling the dice to begin a mahjong game, but he never needed to control the dice to get an advantage. The dealer’s dice were also a bit different, but he was curious how accurately he could control them.
“Do you have a spare set of dice?” Li Yun asked.
David took out a case in his pocket and revealed a pair of dice, similar to the dealer's. “How did you know I would have a spare?”
“I figured since you’re practicing dice shooting, you would have something similar to the dealer,” Li Yun took the dice and they walked to an empty table that looked like a large wooden bathtub. There were markings on the table that looked like numbers on a horse track. “Are we allowed to practice here?”
“I teach craps at this hotel part-time,” said David showing his work badge.
Li Yun didn’t know the casino allowed control dice.
“I don’t teach dice control here, just regular craps and other games for tourists,” said David. “And since I work for the hotel, I’m not allowed to play here.”
“Okay, do I just roll anywhere on the table?”
David nodded. “In order for the roll to count, it needs to hit the back wall. To minimize the randomness of the roll, it’s better to place yourself on the side of the table and use as little energy as possible. Once you pick a position, it’s important to stick to it.”
Li Yun followed David’s suggestion and stood in position to the right of the back wall.
“Okay, the first roll is called the come-out roll,” David continued to explain. “You place a bet either on the pass line or don’t pass bar. Typically, most players bet on the pass line, which means you win the bet if you roll a seven or eleven. You crap out if you roll a two, three, and twelve. The don’t pass line is if you think the roll is a two or three. Why don’t you place a bet on the pass line, and try to roll first.”
Li Yun threw the dice toward the back wall and they bounced off the wall lined with triangular-shaped reliefs, shooting out toward the opposite end of the table and revealing a six. David was surprised by how far the dice were shot out as Li Yun barely looked like he was throwing the dice.
“The dice are light,” Li Yun commented as he rolled them in his hand.