31 october 2009

posted by josh

28 october 2009

posted by josh

28 october 2009

posted by josh

25 october 2009
in nevada. where loans extended by casinos for you to gamble with are structured as checks.

this frees your creditors from the messy question of collections and allows them to arrest your ass for passing bad checks when the debt instrument they knowingly handed to a drunk/deranged motherfucker in the throws of much [...]

24 october 2009
from the monessen valley independent:
Gambling caught their interest at the time Dr. Edward Thorpe released his book, “Beat the Dealer,” about a system designed to beat blackjack.
An MIT math professor, Thorpe persuaded a small group of students to help him cash in on a math-based card counting system he developed that routinely beat [...]

23 october 2009

“brooklyn still?”
“daily.”
“we’re making no progress.”
“you realize we’re not on a cruise,” paul says.
“this looks like a porthole.”
“i’m sorry.”
posted by josh

22 october 2009

this morning at 4.46 a.m. right before the alarm i had my world-premiere hillary clinton dream, where hillary (an analogue for my mother, i assume, hill known foremostly in my family as the valedictorian the year my mother was graduated from unspellable wellesely college) wanting a nap was immediately shown into a big [...]

21 october 2009

weather in montauk was savage. there was rain when we got off the train. ronald wasn’t hiding his dog. i saw a trainman in blue cap staring our way. you can’t bring a dog on the train. we were at the ramp’s end and obviously just stepping off and had smuggled the dog. [...]

20 october 2009
Jed: “Enlightenment, fulfillment, or presence, or being, or happiness: I associated all of these with genius, a quality I knew I couldn’t claim. I valorized the intellect completely. The Full Man, the really delivered human being whose experience of the world was absolute—had to be a genius. Life was attained (in the fullest [...]

18 october 2009

posted by josh

15 october 2009

card counter thomas p. donovan asked an indiana court of appeals yesterday to overturn his 2006 barring from the grand victoria rising sun. casinos in most states (with new jersey the major exception) are permitted to exclude skilled gamblers from their premises, but the legal situation in indiana has long been in doubt. [...]

12 october 2009

getting thrown out of a casino on the grounds you’re too good of a player is an honor, a joy, and it makes for good stories and for taut, atmospheric memoirs. it’s part of the attraction of learning to count. at least, it was for me. and whenever the subject of blackjack comes [...]

10 october 2009
i keep intending to sell my own heart as a ware needed by the americans but instead of pitching deftly, i go off on spiels like this.
posted by josh

10 october 2009

1. our bus pulls into the giants stadium lot. the activity stretches as far as we can see. temporary shelters have been pitched by tailgaters next to their cars. people are barbequeing and drinking beer. they’re throwing footballs to each other. l.b. invokes massive community spectacles like the romans used to have.
2. [...]

10 october 2009

i think they have nailed many things with this image. it’s a true representation of the dubious blessing of betting really big into a solid count. that’s an eight-g bet and the dealer is showing the ace you would have liked for yourself. the round overall is player-favorable in terms of the cards [...]

9 october 2009
i left my camera unattended for three hours. paul saw opportunity:

a welcome surprise on the memory card. kiss, kiss, amigo.
mom is in town and everyone drinking more than ever. the glenlivet is running out. she is an excellent wingman and lunged over to the table next to ours last night at [...]

7 october 2009

Reverend vince anderson plays union pool now where the drunks are younger but less pliable. he is physically in strong shape, has lost the extra pounds and talks and sings and bears down upon the keys in a state not totally pious. he is a genuine christian and preacher with a dark undertone [...]

7 october 2009

jeff and i were plus 10 k and the max in the place is $200 and the average bet is a dime and i saw a woman so drunk she fell off her stool and collapsed and security got her and walking her out said “mary, we’ll see you tomorrow,” mary being a [...]

6 october 2009
maybe this is wrong. i get outside the apartment for a saturday night. i would rather not leave the apartment. but garry has a birthday, etc.
the place we go is commonwealth in park slope and women look men in the eye in this dump. the frankness is galling or gratifying depending on [...]

5 october 2009

Paul and I robbed a wooden stool from the Barcade last month as a gesture of vengeance after having been denied service on the irrelevant (to us) grounds that it was past last call. This was wrong of us, I felt the next day. Paul agreed. It didn’t mean we have to return [...]

5 october 2009
Friday afternoon the buzzer goes off and when I open my door I have a hand-delivered gift from the office of my agent, undoubtedly because all there are shocked we have a manuscript and it is done. Not quite three years behind deadline. They’ve sent me some Scotch, wrapped in foil.
Finn was [...]