Game Changer

Charlie was almost to the exit when one of the Oil Company Security guys caught up to him.

"Mr. Masradi would still be interested in your jacket sir!"

Oh, Masradi. The head of that group from the Globex International Oil Company that had been haranguing him for the last five days.

They showed up on the second day of Charlie's run and they had become a constant thorn in his side.

Earlier that evening, after a particularly bad beat, Charlie had lost with Aces in the hole to Masradi's stupid, devil-may-care play style of betting with nothing and despite not caring if he won or lost, managed to luck out every time against Charlie, this time on the river with a 7. When he showed his hand, he'd been playing and betting a deuce, seven. The worst possible hand you can possibly be dealt in Texas Hold-Em, and with a 2 on the flop, had managed to catch 2 pair against Charlie's Aces.

"Oh, ho ho no such luck my friend Charles", Masradi had said while clapping Charlie on the back like they were friends. "Let me help you recoup some of your losses, eh? Such a nice, fine leather topcoat. I've not seen it's like! We have no such animals to make these things in my country, allow me to buy it. I'll pay more than it is worth, even double say.... a thousand US dollars?"

He was close. Charlie had paid $759.99 for this coat on sale 10 years ago, fresh out of high school with money had made tutoring college seniors in math. Charlie was incredibly good at math, but not good at much anything else. He was terrible at social interactions. His time playing poker online had simply not prepared him for the lights, and the dings and sounds and brevity of the casino. He thought it was all a numbers game.

Last week, Charlie had heard that the casino was offering a week of nightly tournaments with a $4,200 buy-in. Only making it to the final table got you onto the pay-out table, but the top 3 of those final tables were automatically entered into this year's World Series of Poker. Charlie wanted one of those spots! So, Charlie took stock, of everything he had and what he could liquefy. $37, 634. That was all Charlie had in the world, and he cashed it all in for a week in the casino. 7 entries into the tournaments, 7 nights, with a little over $9,000 left to play in cash games before and/or after he busted out of any of the tournaments.

He had busted out of the tournament on his first night and started playing in a cash game where he managed to do pretty decent and recoup a good portion of his buy-in. He had struck up a conversation with a regular who he learned made a living sitting there every night, just playing poker. Sometimes he would lose, but simply playing by the numbers he came out ahead far more. No huge pot takes downs really. No glamorous million-dollar showdowns. But a living, enough to go home and keep the lights on and the fridge stocked.

Charlie was thinking about that on the second day when Masradi and his company's board members sat down at his first table in that night's tournament.

Thinking of Masradi snapped Charlie out of his reverie, and the young private security officer was looking quizzically at Charlie. As Charlie focused on him, the young man smiled seeing recognition dawn on Charlie's face.

"Mr. Masradi told me to tell you that if you walked away with any of your bankroll for the evening, he would pay you double that for the jacket"

Charlie laughed and turned out his pockets. "Sorry, but double of nothing is nothing and that isn't a sale I want to make. I mean have you seen the snow out there? This isn't Las Vegas and the desert, we're in a casino in Pennsylvania in the wintertime, and I don't have a car anymore, so I have to walk home."

The boy looked scared, mentioning that "Mr. Masradi told me if you didn't have anything, to offer you the $1,000 he originally offered you. He REALLY likes that coat, sir."

Suddenly aware of the emptiness in his gut, Charlie had to concede that without ANY money, he did not know where his next meal would be coming from, and he handed over his jacket as the kid thumbed out of a gigantic stack 10 clean crisp fresh United States One Hundred Dollar Bills emblazoned with good old Ben Franklin's portrait. 

Charlie looked outside the big entrance doors, saw the snow blowing, and decided to have a drink, maybe buy a coat at the gift shop. He even briefly considered going back to the poker room. But, as he began walking back into the casino towards the bar, he heard a steady "woosh" sound, followed by a "click, click, click, clack" that seemed to go on and when it stopped, a man yelled "Twenty-Two, RED!" and people started cheering. He followed the sounds of celebration and discovered a small group of people huddled around a felt table with a wheel. The croupier, or casino "dealer", began spinning the wheel. After some time had passed, he spun a small ball in the opposite direction that the wheel spun inside a groove on the wheel. This produced the "whooshing" sound he had heard. As the wheel slowed, the ball fell and started bouncing on the wooden wheel between numbered slots. Click, clack, clack, click, click....it bounced until it finally came to rest, and the croupier yelled again.

"Seventeen, Black!" the croupier called out. And all bets that weren't on Black, or the number 17, or "Odd", or the middle column that 17 was included in, or lastly a space marked "2nd Twelve", were removed by the croupier. All others were winners and received payouts of different types depending on the bet. This was roulette.

*********

Roulette is a simple enough game. A wheel with slots numbered between zero and thirty-six. Alternating colors of red and black except for the zero which is colored green. Different betting types equate to different payouts. You can bet say, on red or black, even, or odd, or 1-18 or 19-36, and all of those are a 1:1 payout, an even bet. You can bet on one of the three columns on the table, or one of the blocks of twelve like 1-12, 13-24, and 25-36 for a 2:1 payout. If the zero hits, all bets on the table lose.

The real money is the individual numbers. You can place chips on the adjoining corners of four numbers, like 1, 2, 4, and 5 and if any of those numbers hit, the payout will be 8:1. Or the line straddling two numbers, such as 2 and 3, for 17:1. Or right in the middle of a number, and if that number is your lucky number, 35:1 payout. 

Charlie was simply amazed anyone would play such a game. It was almost pure luck. There were obvious betting strategies involved, but in the end, the roll of that wheel could be anything. Still, it held a certain appeal. And he found himself watching two or three spins.

Finally, without thinking about why he suddenly had to do this, he laid down $500, half of everything he owned in this world after his horrible week, onto the betting area marked "Black". As the Croupier took his five $100 bills and exchanged them for five green chips, Charlie watched bemused as others cheered and clapped as he looked around the lively casino floor. All the dings of the slot machines, and the cheers going up from the Craps table. He was almost disinterested in what was going in front of him when the ball and wheel began their spinning dance.

It was only when the sound of the ball bouncing from slot to slot with its "click, clack" sound that Charlie looked back, and it fell into the number two slot.

"Two, Black!" the Croupier said, and suddenly in the place where Charlie's 5 green chips had been, his chips were replaced with a single, green chip. On its face, it said $1K.

"Excuse me," Charlie said to the Croupier, " why are they green if it's $1,000?" The Croupier replied to him that unlike at a poker table, the color was representative of the player, not the amount. This is why the face value is stamped onto the chip.

"May I please exchange this out for 10 $100 chips please?"

With a deft hand and silent nod and smile, the Croupier dropped ten green chips in front of Charlie while taking the One Thousand Dollar chip in the same motion. Charlie held the chips, shuffling them like he was at the poker table when the wheel began to spin

As the ball also began its spin, Charlie started looking at the table. He was about to place a bet when the Croupier called "No more bets, no more bets" and the ball, seconds later began its bouncing final "clacking" into its slot.

"13, Black!" the Croupier called. Charlie started to think about, the odds of this game.

They really are in a lot of ways almost even when you take the 1 to 1 bets. The green Zero imparts a slight house edge of course, lowering the odds to around 47%. Even the 2-to-1 bets are just short of 33%. It's not a bad game, for one of luck.

Something took hold of him at that moment as he laid down his other $500 in cash on the table and received another 5 green chips. He put five of the chips down on the "Odd" bet and threw his other thousand on the betting line that said first column.

He felt a moment's trepidation until he realized he would be no worse off than he was 20 minutes ago if neither payout hit for him.

And suddenly the elation hit. The thrill of not knowing how it would end up. It was one thing on a bad beat in the poker room, because by the numbers those are flukes. If you play smart and are not crowded at a table with people who can play stupid and buy you out like Masradi, you can beat the odds. But here, you have no control. It is all up to the wheel.

"7, Red!", the Croupier called.

Suddenly, Charlie had another $500 in chips next to his original in the "Odd" area, and better yet, he had a total of $3,000 in chips where he originally only had $1,000 betting on the column. in just a few minutes, he had gone from $1,000 to $4,000.

Charlie grabbed his winnings. "My ma always taught me, to quit while I was ahead when gamblin'". And turned to walk towards the door when he saw a smiling Masradi, standing not two feet from him, holding his coat.

"It did not fit me, Charles."

*********

"Well, that's what I told ya the first time you tried to buy it off me at the poker table you fat son-of-a...." and trailed off while mumbling something about surely an amazing woman so as not to offend the foreigner.

Masradi laughed, his large booming voice overpowering the loud buzz and hum of the casino, and clapped Charlie on the back. "That is what I like so much about you Charles. You'll tell someone the truth, no matter what and you'll go to great lengths not to offend them, even if they are getting on the last fucking nerve eh?"

Charlie laughed at that and brightened a little. "Well Mr. Masradi, I'm not gonna be buying it back. This here is all I got left you know."

"No, Charles. I propose another game. You can have your coat after I make sure nothing of mine is left in it. But...if you throw down your winnings there, on a single number, I say, forget to look in my pockets, eh?"

Looking down, Charlie saw rolled stacks of hundreds in the pockets, but he couldn't tell how much was there.

Charlie did not believe in luck. He was always a numbers guy. But it seemed luck believed in him this night, so far anyway. He looked at the board that recorded the last ten spins of the roulette wheel.

He had only made two bets total. He had bet his first bet on black, and the wheel landed on Two, a black slot. He then bet on both "odd" and the first column, coming up Seven.

It was staring at him, as the Croupier spun the wheel, Charlie sat forty green chips stacked into 4 stacks of 10, square into the center of the space marked "27".

It seemed like everything moved in slow motion after that. It was an eternity before the ball was spun against the wheel. An agonizingly long 10 seconds later before the Croupier called "No more bets, No more bets!"

Charlie felt his jacket fall onto his shoulders, and Mr. Masradi whispered into his ear as he patted the inside breast pocket. "What's in here, Charles, is worth more than all of the money on this table right now. There is $2,000 in each pocket, so you lost no money no matter what happens, my friend."

The ball began its "clickity, clackity, click, click, click, click, clack" bounce from slot to slot, finally landing on a number Charlie was too far away to see clearly. He closed his eyes.

"27, Black!" shouted the Croupier, and switched out Charlies' chips for forty-five more. Forty $1,000 chips, and five $20,000 chips.

Charlie pulled his chips off of the betting area, hardly believing it. He had just won $144,000 on a single spin of the roulette wheel, plus he had $4,000 that Masradi had given him. Masradi was laughing his deep boisterous laugh, cheering at his friend "Charles'" good fortune.

Charlie remembered and looked in the pocket that Masradi had mentioned. He found a sealed envelope. Masradi smiled, knowingly and walked away.

As he opened the letter, he found paperwork that he soon realized would be new hire paperwork for Globex Oil. Masradi was offering him a job. A high-paying one it seemed, starting their North American import division.

There was a note as well. Handwritten. From Masradi. It read:

 "Charles, feel free to decline if you find this too forward. I want an honest man in this position. One who will tell me the truth, who will be able to see the bigger picture. I will have further details on your day-to-day duties should you accept. Know this, nothing will ever be illegal. In fact, you will be required to report any illegal activity you find first to the agency you deem first and foremost it should be reported to, only I ask that immediately, the next call you make must be to me, or to whoever is in my exact position in this company in the future. As a bonus, I have arranged to pay for your entry into this year's World Series of Poker, and if you accept, you will be entered every year you work for Globex as a hiring bonus. I hope to meet you at those tables again. Dare I say though if you continue to let me get under your skin, and get you on tilt Charles, you will always lose your chips to me!"

Charlie was dumbfounded. He didn't want to believe in luck, but after such a horrible run for the entire week, to have this miracle dropped before him. He just looked at the paperwork again and decided that instead of waiting until Monday to call, he was going to run and catch up with Masradi.

He looked at the Croupier. "So, do you mind switching out these 40 $1,000 chips for 2 $20,000 chips?"