1974
Born in Los Angeles County.

1979
Relocated to Hays, Kansas.

1996
B.A. in Philosophy from Columbia College, New York City. GPA 3.6. Dean’s list or something. Forgotten by all my professors.

1996-1998
Drifting: Madrid, the Upper West Side, the Lower East Side. Temporary office worker. Reading Camus on the subway. Business Analyst, Global Trade Finance Division, Swiss Bank Corp. Stumped.

1998
Weekly blackjack practices with a friend who trained and played with MIT.

1999
MIT checkouts in Atlantic City and Vegas. I don’t pass. Through my mentor in New York I hear tell of a different blackjack team, “Mossad,” whose methods are a little more savage and heat-inviting, and whose checkouts are easier. And they’re recruiting. Hopeful, I give notice at my job.

2000-2004
Counting cards full-time with Mossad. My personal table win reaches $700,000 (my income for this period is lower than my win because we’re pooling results). Backed-off or 86′d at over 100 toilets casinos in 15 states. Earn an entry in the Griffin Book and Griffin GOLD (GOLD ID #4489). Flyered by Griffin and the SIN under multiple names (Josh Axelrad, Josh Berg, Jay Berg, James Axelrad, Joshua James). Backroomed in this dump and this dump. Shift manager, Hard Rock Las Vegas: “I catch you in here again and you’re not walking out.” Shift manager, Harrah’s Tunica: “If any of you boys come back, there’s gonna be some Real Trouble.” Cuffed by state troopers in Baton Rouge. Bullshit, we call that, and we spit, we get indignant, we’re vengeful and plotting new comebacks. Getting 86′d, 172′d, 258′d. “Let me tell you a story” the security man at the MGM Grand says cheerfully while he’s taking the card from his pocket to read the official trespass statement from. Sunrise in the valley in the desert, Fahrenheit three digits long. If you go for a run there’s no sweat. Your sweat evaporates in real time. Of course, it gets harder to play, but we recruit, we connive, we get re-86′d, we’re relentless. And outraged/indignant. How dare they? Casinos voluntarily offer this game, knowing it’s beatable, attracting players on the premise that it’s beatable, but then they bait-and-switch and they get really nasty in barring us. The Baton Rouge thing was too much. Our passion runs constantly higher. We’re angry motherfuckers and warlike. Good times.

2005
Online poker.

2006
Online poker.

2007
Scrabulous.

2008-2010
Writing. Paying off some debts. Reading Laurence Sterne on the subway.