World's Greatest Blackjack Player

by the Wizard2011-01-06 23:27:20 (edited 2011-01-27 19:05)

While I usually prefer to remain humble, I can't hold back in this blog post. It's time to set modesty aside and celebrate a personal achievement. I'm thrilled to share that I emerged as the champion of the World’s Greatest Blackjack Player tournament during the 2011 Blackjack Ball.

If you’re not familiar with the Blackjack Ball, it’s an annual event that brings together the most elite blackjack players and scholars of the game. Max Rubin, a renowned gambling author, has organized it for years at a confidential venue in Las Vegas. A shoutout to Barona casino in San Diego for graciously covering the expenses—a generous act indeed! Just receiving an invitation to this event is an honor. For an insightful read, I highly suggest checking out the article by Michael Konik that was featured in the September/October 1999 edition of Cigar Aficionado magazine. The Blackjack Ball The night begins with a fancy cocktail hour, followed by dinner and a voting session to welcome a new inductee into the Blackjack Hall of Fame. This year’s honoree was Zeljko Ranogajec, a lesser-known yet incredibly talented blackjack player. Afterward, the competition for the Grosjean Cup commenced to determine the 2011 World’s Greatest Blackjack Player. It kicked off with a Calcutta auction, where everyone had the chance to place bets on who they thought would win. Unfortunately, I didn't wager on myself.

As is tradition, the initial challenge involved narrowing down a pool of around 100 exceptional blackjack players to just six finalists. This was accomplished through a quiz featuring 21 questions about blackjack and casinos. Some queries were serious, while others felt a bit trivial. One question I shamefully missed pertained to 'Which Clark County casino offers the most 3-2 single-deck blackjack games?' I’ll reveal the answer later. However, I did get one about the city of Santa Ynez right, thanks to living in Santa Barbara for five years; it's a quaint town not far from Michael Jackson's famous Neverland Ranch.

My test score was 11, which I thought wouldn’t qualify me, but I ended up tying with six others who also scored 11, the highest. To determine who would be eliminated, we took turns naming any Harrah’s property (which I still struggle to call Caesars Entertainment) across the nation. If someone answered incorrectly or repeated a previous answer, they were out. We began with all the Las Vegas properties, and after a few more rounds, someone else faltered, allowing me to move forward. blackjack However, only five spots were available at the final table, but six of us had advanced. To decide who would sit out, we played a game of darts. Earlier that day, I had been practicing with a BB gun alongside my son, so I was feeling quite prepared! I’m proud to report not only did I not lose, but I actually won, securing the first base position at the table, which provided me with some strategic advantage—though I’m not certain how much it helped. Chumash casino Following that, we engaged in a series of blackjack skill challenges, some serious and others more relaxed. These included chip shuffling, estimating cut-card placements, a Blackjack Switch-style game, and a charades-like challenge where one person signaled essential information to their teammate that a card counter might need to communicate with hand gestures. My signal for my teammate was 'This game is terrible; let’s bail out.' Throughout the various challenges, players were eliminated for either holding the least chips or being chosen out by the leader in a Survivor-style elimination. I performed well in the shuffling and card placement estimation. Who would have thought that chip shuffling would prove to be useful?

To cut a long story short (I realize it might be too late for that), the final showdown consisted of three contenders: myself, Anthony Curtis, and a competitor I wasn't acquainted with. Anthony mentioned he runs lasvegasadvisor.com, so I believe he won’t mind my mention of him. As the chip leader, I had the power to eliminate someone. I suspected the final challenge would involve who could count down a deck of cards the fastest. I’m not particularly swift at counting, so my expectations were modest. I weighed my options carefully on who to bring with me to the final count. Given Anthony's background as a card counter, I figured I’d be at a disadvantage competing against him. The other person was a mystery to me. But since Anthony has been a publisher of my work and a dear friend for many years, I chose him as my final opponent because our friendship matters greatly to me, and if I couldn’t win, I would be glad to see him take home the trophy.

Max Rubin, our incredible host, provided each competitor with a single deck of cards. He then dealt four cards face down from the top of each deck. The goal became clear: the first person to count their cards, slap the table, and correctly announce the count based on the four cards remaining would emerge victorious. I hadn’t practiced counting cards in two decades, so my confidence was lacking. Yet, back in college at UCSB in the 1980s, I taught myself the art of counting from Revere’s Playing Blackjack as a Business. I spent considerable time each day honing my speed to the point where my hands couldn’t flip cards any faster. Fortunately, some of that muscle memory still lingered 25 years later—though it felt like just yesterday.

Once he outlined the rules, Max instructed us to pick up our decks and prepare for the signal to start. When he gave the command, I focused intensely on flipping the cards two at a time while mentally keeping a running count—just as I had done in college. I’ve never felt so anxious while executing this task. Thankfully, my deck remained fairly neutral during the counting process. I believe it’s more challenging when the counts fluctuate dramatically, which fortunately didn’t happen in my case.

Eventually, after what must have felt like a torturously slow performance to the audience, I dropped my cards, slapped the table, and proclaimed 'zero!' That indicated my deck balanced perfectly between high and low cards, suggesting the remaining four cards would reflect a similar balance. Max flipped over three of them—two low cards and one high. Right before revealing the last card, he remarked, 'If this is a ten or an ace, Shack is our champion.'

It was a ten! I believe it was the queen of diamonds. I was in disbelief! Max handed over the trophy, and I soaked in the applause from the audience. This was genuinely a night I will always cherish. I acknowledge there were many skilled blackjack players in the room who outclassed me in generating profits at the game. Nevertheless, when you consider overall blackjack wisdom and gambling knowledge, I like to think I hold my own. I also recognize that luck played a significant role in my success that evening, and I certainly enjoyed more than my fair share of it.

In a light-hearted moment, my father asked, 'Now that you’ve claimed the title of the world’s greatest blackjack player, will you be banned from all casinos?' Perhaps I’m the first champion brave enough to announce it publicly using my real name. But given how far I already fly under the radar, what further risk could it pose? A huge thanks goes to Max for organizing this spectacular tournament and to the Barona for funding the event.

Trivia answer: The Riverside in Laughlin.

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The Ultimate Blackjack Champion - Wizard of Odds

Written by: Michael Shackleford