Side Mission
The crowd fell silent as James was escorted out of the club by Jose.
"Is that El Jefe himself escorting a guest out?" A bare whisper rose.
Jose gave a sharp look in the direction of the voice, and any further comment was choked to silence.
"This man is my guest, and my friend. Any disrespect to him as a disrespect to me and my followers. He is hereafter under my protection at all times." Jose announced blandly to sharp gasps of surprise.
The hecklers in the crowd who had previously given James a hard time turned green and started praying fervently that their faces weren't noticed.
James slid into the waiting limousine and headed back to the estate.
---
The next day found James at the villa again.
He had been summoned by an early text from Phil, and upon entering the rec room, was surprised to find that the usual pool and poker table setup had been replaced by a casino table and roulette wheel.
Phil, surprisingly, was at the wet bar waiting for his arrival.
"Surprised?" Phil asked.
"Yeah, what happened to the usual decor?" James said.
"We've got a special tasking from above. For the next two weeks, we need to pay a visit to the holdings of some of our rivals and leave a message." Phil said.
"Above? What holdings? What message?" James asked, pretending to be confused. Phil hadn't briefed him on the truth before. All his knowledge had come from Trevor, and James wanted to keep Phil in the dark about how much he actually knew.
Phil sighed, it was a fair question to ask, but it was a little early to reveal the true extent of the Organization to James.
"It's like this. The gambling team that we're part of belongs to a larger group that specializes in gambling and other legal and quasi-legal activities. As you may expect, we're not the only group out there. In fact, we're not even in the top tier of groups around. We're solidly in the middle of the second tier." Phil said.
James nodded encouraging to Phil, urging him to continue.
"Since unbridled competition and violence is bad for business, all of these groups tend to settle our disputes using gambling as a medium. Poker is a popular game, but definitely not the only means. As you may expect from people in our line of business, one of the key assets and revenue generators in any group is a casino." Phil said.
James remained silent and stared at Phil with a rapt expression.
"Now, one of the more aggressive moves we can make is to visit some of our rival's casinos and win as much money as we can. Of course, once you get detected by the casino management, it's likely that they'll limit the amount of money you can bet, or even ask you to leave. That's perfectly legal, and is why we have spent so much effort getting a relationship into the identity making business." Phil said.
"I get it," James said, feigning enlightenment, "So we're going to go gamble at a casino and try to win as much as we can."
"Exactly!" Phil said, relieved that James didn't press on the structure of the organization.
"Aren't casino games rigged in favor of the house though? How are we going to win?" James asked curiously.
[ System can help you win. ]
"There are a few systems that we can use that will tilt the odds in our favor." Phil said, sending a shock through James at his choice of words.
"Like computer systems?" James asked with faux innocence.
"No, that's been deemed illegal after much lobbying from groups like ours. Betting systems. For example, in blackjack, there are card counting systems that will inform you when the leftover cards in the deck are favorable to the player. If you raise your bet during those times, then you can creep towards positive expected value. Similarly, if we enter a poker game with their high stakes players, we can steal some of them away to our own games." Phil explained.
"What about the roulette tables and other games then?" James asked.
"Roulette might be a bad example, it's pretty hard to find a player advantage on roulette. It's a great game though, helpful to deflect suspicion if you add a couple of rotations at the roulette table between table hopping. Some of the other games have player advantages based on whether or not you are able to share information." Phil said.
"Makes sense." James nodded again.
"Great. Let me introduce you to the most basic counting system." Phil said, as he walked over to the blackjack table.
---
Phil stood behind the table and fanned out a brand new deck of cards.
"Alright, the goal of Blackjack is pretty simple. At the most basic, each player gets a hand, and the dealer gets a hand. Whoever has a hand with a value closest to 21 wins." Phil started.
"Now, the game is dealt with two cards face down to each player, and one card face down and one card face up to the banker. The face up card forms the basis of a player's advantage - it is information that a player has about the strength of the banker's hand. Then, starting from the dealer's right, players take turns to decide whether or not they want to hit, which is taking an additional card, stand, which is staying pat on the hand, or split or double. If a player has a twenty one in the first two cards, that is an Ace and a Ten through King, then the player is paid immediately." Phil said.
"Doubling is pretty straightforward. It lets you double the size of your bet, and in exchange you will draw exactly one more card. Splitting is a little bit more complex. Splitting happens when you have two cards of the same value, for example, a pair of eights. Then, you can choose to have each eight form the first card of a hand, and draw at least one card each to form new hands." Phil said.
"At any point in time, if the total points in your hand is more than 21, you bust and lose immediately. That instant loss forms the basis of the house advantage - a player may lose even without seeing the dealer's hand. Once all the players have passed, the dealer reveals the second card in their hand. A dealer must hit if they have less than 17, and stand on 17 and above." Phil elaborated.
"There are some nuances to the game, such as whether or not you can draw a third card when you split Aces, or the maximum number of times you can split, or when you can double, or whether a dealer hits on a soft 17 or a hard 17 but that's the basics of the game." Phil said.
James nodded, he was, of course, familiar with more than just the basics of the game.
"Alright, so the counting system works like this. The basic system is known as the Hi-Lo count. We assign each card a value. Cards from 2 through 6 have a value of positive one, and cards from Ten through Ace have a value of negative one. Any time the count is hugely positive, that represents a situation with player advantage." Phil said.
"Why?" James asked.
"High value cards are advantageous to the player because they signify a greater chance of getting a natural 21, or a blackjack. In addition, a high count gives players higher expected values from doubling or splitting." Phil said.
"That makes sense." James said once more.
"Alright. One more thing. Here is a basic strategy card that tells you how to play based on your hand and the dealer up card. You should memorize this in addition to the count. These two things combined will make the difference in overcoming the house edge." Phil said.
James took the proffered card and placed it into his pocket.
[ You don't need that, you know. System can calculate the ideal play every time. ]
I know, James thought to his system internally, but we can't let Phil know that.
[ Good point. You're getting smarter by the day. System is glad that System is being a good influence on you. ]
James rolled his eyes.
"Can we do a quick intro on the other games as well?" James asked, trying to deflect attention from his momentary lapse.
"Sure, let's go." Phil said.
Phil brought James around to the other tables, explaining other casino mainstays such as Baccarat, Roulette, and even some of the carnival games like Let it Ride, Four Card Poker, Three Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold'em.
"Alright, thanks Phil," James said, after they had gone around all the games once, "I think I get most of this. I'll look up the rest online."
"Yeah mate. No worries. We're going to go twice. Once this weekend, and once next weekend. For this week, you should just focus on getting comfortable with the games. We only have one alternative identity for you anyway, so don't worry about winning. Next weekend is when you'll be able to take a stab at playing for real." Phil said.
"Alright. I assume this is all expenses paid?" James said jokingly, making a reference to his indebtedness.
"Yeah, win or lose, it's all attributed to the team." Phil said, tossing two flags over to James.