J.R.: What are you up to these days?
RxGamble: Well I have a baby, so I’m raising him. I’ve played two tournaments over the summer, and besides that... I’m playing blackjack every two months, and I’m writing my book. The book is taking up a lot of time.
J: So, with the blackjack - why every few months?
R: It’s hard to get away cause I can’t play anywhere in Vegas... that’s worth playing at least. So I have to travel, and it’s so hard to go away with the baby. I travel and I have to wear disguises sometimes and it’s just a lot of work and I kind of don’t - I’m not over it, but it’s not as fun as it used to be. It used to be a good time.
“...look at this dealer.” and I was like okay... so I was like 20 ft away, I could see pips on the card and I was like “Oh my god, I can’t believe this!”
J: Okay so you mostly do that when you’re traveling then. What happens when you walk into a property now?
R: If I was to walk into a **** property and they were to recognize me, they would arrest me right away. And, honestly, **** properties have never kicked me out but I have an inside guy and he’s like, “Yeah, they want to kick you out.” So I have my lawyer working on getting them to overturn that opinion, he’s in talks with them right now. If I get kicked out of a **** property, they communicate with other casinos, and then the other casinos are like “We don’t want you here, even if you didn’t do anything here.” That’s what **** properties are doing, “Oh, we know about you so...”
J: Huh...
R: And then even across the country I don’t want to go into **** properties because it’s kind of a grey area, like am I allowed in there or not? I think I am technically. But I just don’t want to deal with getting arrested and having a baby and being like, “Your mom’s in jail.” it’s just, I’m kind of over that. Do you play blackjack? Do you guys, do you count or hole-card?
J: Mostly ****. But the hole-carding thing is very very interesting. We’ve never been able to find a spot where that consistently works.
R: They’re a lot better these days, I mean there’s still a lot of games out there... but it used to be like Disneyland.
J: How do you even go about finding that?
R: Someone else showed me.. I was counting cards and I had heard about hole-carding -- this was like in 2000 or something -- and I didn’t know how to find one. I was walking around, like where do you even start? So this guy I know took me down to the **** and he was like, “Just stand here in the center of the table and look at this dealer.” and I was like okay... so I was like 20 ft away I could see pips on the card and I was like “Oh my god, I can’t believe this!” So once you see it you know what to look for and once you get better at it you don’t need to see that much of the card or it doesn’t have to be that sloppy: You get better at it.
J: Yeah, right.
R: So you walk. You walk a lot and you look at every dealer. Don’t miss a dealer, that’s basically it.
J: That’s crazy, and those were just, high limit, low limit?
R: Didn’t matter. I’ve played high limit rooms and 5 dollar tables, they’re [the dealers] all over. I wouldn’t even say there’s not as many. It’s just they’re on the East Coast mostly. Puerto Rico used to be really good for them.. I haven’t been to PR in a long time.
You think you have all these opportunities... you’re doing really well ... then suddenly you’re banned from all the **** properties.
J: Wow, so I guess, moving backwards though, what was your first introduction into this world of A.P. and just how did you get involved? What was the first time you remembered getting turned over into it?
R: My mom was a dealer and she thought I would be good at card counting. She dealt at the **** and uh, they would kick card counters out all the time and I was 18 and she said, “I think you’d be good at this.” and I was like... “Too hard, too hard...” I didn’t even think about it until I was dealing blackjack and this guy that I worked with was quitting his job. I asked him why he’s quitting and he said “I’m going to play poker and count cards in Laughlin.” And I was like, “Really, you can do that for a living?” So I went online and I found BJ21. I don’t know if you go to that forum. BJ21 is the largest black jack forum. I went on there and there was this community of card counters and hole-carders and I was just like wow this is awesome -- I went down to the gamblers book store and I got BlackJack for Blood. I learned my count and I was dealing in California and I was going to Vegas on the weekends to count cards and I’d go back to California to deal blackjack and when I was here one weekend that was when that guy was like, “Let me show you hole-carding...”
J: And that that kind of broke it off for you.
R: Yeah my life seriously changed and I quit my job and I just, that was it.
J: I mean at that point. The edge is so ridiculous.
R: Oh my god yes. And when I saw my first hole-card I didn’t even realize you could hole-card other games it was just like you can hole-card 3 card poker ultimate, like I didn’t even think about it and then here comes beyond counting and you’re like, wow you can hole-card anything!
J: Do you have any advice for those looking to get into this?
R: Your world as you get better and better -- it gets very small. The better you are the more know... Vegas is too small for me now so I have to travel a lot. You think you have all these opportunities, and you think you’re doing really well this year this year and this year and then suddenly you’re banned from all the **** properties. I’d say be careful with your money. It’s not always going to be the same and you should always be looking for the next move. Like I didn’t learn how to shuffle track and maybe I should have and now I think about it and I think I don’t want to deal with it. I went from counting to hole-carding to sorting so there’s always something new to do which is always good. And then there’s poker on top of that. Always look for the next move. Be very aware that it’s not always going to be great. You can have a great game but they could swap the dealer and now you don’t have a game. I wouldn’t suggest anyone do this for a living. I’ve been doing it for like 15 yrs now and I have no other skill that can get me a job. I can deal cards and I started gambling and now... I don’t have a “life” skill. So unless I open up a business I just have gambling that I can do. I don’t suggest anyone do it as a living, but it can be very worthwhile while you’re doing it. You can make a lot of money.
