As The Dice Rolls

I watched the new movie 21 in theatres today, and it was... electrifying to observe how real professionals gamble.

21's a movie about a maths genius who gets roped into a card-counting team by his professor, and the whole lot sets out to break the casinos in Vegas. They played Blackjack, which, as it turns out, is also the game I set out to conquer during my jaunt there.

The movie made my jaw drop. It made me realize just how arrogant and ignorant I was to think that my simple plans and sub-JC maths could ever be enough to defeat the casinos. Let me illustrate the differences between him and I.

First off, the hero in 21 (let's just call him Giftedboy for short) had grand plans and noble intentions - he was trying to raise $300k to support himself through Med School. I was trying to raise $11 to pay my share of a parking ticket. And maybe score a $30 buffet dinner.

Secondly, Giftedboy was so good at maths that he corrected his MIT maths prof frequently, programmed for a robotics competition and knew all sorts of complex formula gibberish. At the table I had problems adding numbers up to see if I broke 21, and often made thoughtful "hmm" sounds just so that the other players would think I was strategizing.

Thirdly, they had a complete system of secret signals meant to tell each other which table was good to play at. We had our own system too, of course. If we said "@#*&$(" we meant that we were not very happy, whilst "Oh my lordy lord I'm getting probed from behind" meant that we were losing money.

I can't speak for my Spring Break Buddies, but the first sign that I should have stopped gambling came when the dealer, an Asian lady herself, started giving me impromptu lessons at the table. Our conversation went something like this:

She: So you want to hit? Or stay?
Me: Oh, of course. I want to stay.
She: Stay? You sure?
Me: Definitely.
She: Stay? Even when I've got a face card? You should hit!
Me: Oh, really? When you have a face card I should hit?
She: ... You are fake Asian boy.

It didn't help that upon following her advice I hit 21. Still, curses to the stereotype that Asians are good at maths and therefore by extension probability games like Blackjack.

But seriously, gambling was far more addictive than I imagined it to be. Sure, you read about the dangers in the papers and all, but when you're seated at the table, and it's your money on the line, everything changes.

Chances are that once you savor the sweet taste of victory, no matter how small, you'll be lured back in to play for more. The longer you play, the more alcohol you consume, the worse your game gets too.

It took an incredible amount of willpower to pull myself away from the table - there was this niggling voice at the back of my head that kept telling me my luck would have to change, all I needed was one big win to make it all back.

(In this case though, the niggling voice(s) belonged to my Spring Break Buddies. We aren't very good when it comes to supporting each other in the pursuit of respectable goals.)

Perhaps it's a good thing that my parents don't gamble, beyond the yearly tradition of the $100 Bonfire, where they plop down that princely sum in a bid to win the $5 million Toto.

(My brother and I always tell them they're better off giving us that $100 since we would be that much more inclined to take care of them when they are old, but my parents apparently place a lot of stock in being independent. Time will tell.)

I guess I'll never have the kind of luck or brains to ever make a living by gambling, but I acknowledge that the lure of easy money is going to be a temptation I'll spend years staving off. It never helps when you hear of other people getting rich quick, because everyone thinks, what if it were me?

Hopefully there'll always be nice Asian dealers to remind me of the shame I'm bringing to my race - that'll keep me away for sure.