A Swindle, of Sorts... pt. 6

Any successful business enterprise isthe result of successful teamwork, with each member of the team specializing in a certain field of expertise. It is this combination of expert abilities that creates a Gestalt, whereby the strength of the team is greater than the sum of the strengths of its members. It doesn't matter the teams legal "swing." A good team makes money.

The best team to take off a dice table has a minimum of three agents; each agent is a specialist in one aspect of the take-off. These three members are a devastating combination, as each has practiced to perfection his own contribution to the enterprise. They are the real experts. They have practiced their moves and actions a thousand times before they walk onto a live game where real money is being played. They have considered their angles. They have considered all of their outs. They have considered permutations. They know which way the wind is blowing. They have cased and stalked their prey. They are the three hunters.

the edge

Come to the edge...
(We might fall!)...
Come to the edge!...
(It's too high!)...
COME TO THE EDGE!...

and they came...
and he pushed...
and they flew...

-Cristopher Logue (1969)

A Swindle, of Sorts... pt. 5

It doesn't require a lot to take off the game. Bums can steal chips off the game when inexperienced players or operators aren't watching. Semi-experienced players can past-post a bet or two when the operators' guards are down. But these types of petit larceny are really the work of sophomores. They're foolish. They're so easily caught. They don't really rank up there with that certain class of criminal gang whose activities score tens of thousands of dollars at a time, and whose activities remain quite often undetected, even by the bosses themselves.

This is a "once-upon-a-time" story about one of those clever criminal gangs that worked the dice table take-downs, and of one guy they didn't expect to meet one day.

A Swindle, of Sorts... pt. 4

Heads up, hands up, money plays where it lays... I'd rather be lucky than smart.

There can be as many as twenty people on a game with only four or five of them being the operators. That's as many as twenty-five people moving and hustling to get their piece of the action. Heads down, butts up, the operators work for the bank, the house, the joint, the boss. The rest are the real players. The three main moving and humping operators are the Stickman and the two Base Dealers. The fourth operator is the Boxman. He's the senior member of the operators. He keeps the boss happy. He guards the cash and watches the dice, constantly on the lookout for any funny business. The fifth operator, an enigma, rarely if ever seen, is the Omnipotent Eye, the boss himself.

A Swindle, of Sorts... pt. 3

In the gambling game of Craps, people stand around a long, low, walled table and throw money and dice all over its surface. The dice are thrown, they land, their sum called out, and the money exchanges hands amid the shouts and preparations for the next throw. This continues as long as the money lasts and the cops don't raid the joint. The game is complex, yet simple. It takes five minutes to learn to play, and a lifetime to forget the experience. The players can be euphoric and ecstatic one minute, destitute and desolate the next. It is a high-risk, high-reward investment. Fortunes have been won and fortunes have been lost, all on the turn of the Galloping Dominos. Craps is a Funny Game.

A Swindle, of Sorts... pt. 2

One person leads, an another person follows. It's a rare experience. Eventually, someone catchs up with the other, and then they pass.

But,

For that brief time when nobody has caught up, solitude loses its meloncholy for the leader... the path ahead is clear... and the view is nothing short of spectacular.