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Las Vegas
Tiring but a tiny fraction of the thousands it would be stuck for. And 10 make all that even better, each couple could leave individually , "bile those who remained could adjust their bets in order to continue the offset. Finally, when only the last couple emained at the table, the man would bet $500 on player while his companion bet the same Inbound on bank.
We planned the big mini-baccarat scam for Saturday night. On Friday afternoon I went to the airport with Joe, Duke, and Jerry to pick up the two girlfriends flying in from San Francisco. Marla was with Duke, the prettier Sandy with Jerry. They both seemed friendly enough and willing to participate in the scam.
Duke and Jerry got their separate rooms at the "Trop," but we invariably met in Joe's room to shoot the shit. They almost always lit up a joint when we kicked back. At first I'd been concerned about their pot smoking, but it turned out to be no big deal because none of them did cocaine or any hard stuff-at least not in my presence. Joe seemingly liked his pot as much as the others. He tried to get me to try it once, but I declined, telling him kiddingly, "I'll get my high robbing. He responded, "Don't worry. In that case, you're going to be high all the time." I appreciated Joe's not pushing getting high on me.
In a very short time I grew to respect Joe immensely. The guy had an incredible talent for recognition of detail, no matter how minute. Even without knowing what it was that he did in the , I knew he was a perfectionist down to the tiniest matter. He was also, I noticed, a stickler for respect. Although I had planned the entire Four Queens scam, there was no doubt that he was in command. Joe had a military bearing about him (it turned out he had served in Korea and even spoke a tad of Korean), and his mere presence did not go unnoticed. On the other hand, Duke and Jerry were both easygoing and seemingly less disciplined. I imagined that whatever talents they had in the business had been developed and controlled by Joe.
I'd also learned that Joe had once been a whiz kid on Wall Street affairs with his own consulting firm in California. When I asked him why he gave all that up to involve himself in ripping off the casinos, he smiled and said, "It's just what I like to do." I imagined that someday I'd entirely understand what he meant.
Joe had been reading the New York Times when we all converged on his hotel room Saturday morning after breakfast to go over the Four Queens scam taking place that night. He was almost always reading when not discussing business, hence his wealth of knowledge and mastery of English.
Duke had a bong in his sports sack, and he got the thing going as everybody found a comfortable spot in the room. Joe stayed propped up in one bed, the two girls on the other one, while the rest of us sat in chairs around the coffee table. It was obvious that Marla and Sandy had vast casino-cheating experience as they didn't ask any dumb questions while everything was being explained. They both had brought exquisite cocktail dresses with them. I thought that Sandy, being a real looker, would turn a lot of heads at the Four Queens. We didn't get too many hot-looking numbers going through there.
A few minutes later, Raul and Rosa Garcia showed up at the room and sat humbly on the floor. I had already run the scam by Raul. Since he clerked at 7-Eleven while Rosa took care of their sixmonth-old baby, they both appreciated the opportunity to earn whatever money they could on the side. The only problem was that Raul's English and Rosa's dress were not exactly up to par for the occasion. Joe quickly rectified that when he began explaining in fluent Spanish to Raul whatever he didn't exactly understand. He told Marla and Sandy to take Rosa over to Neiman Marcus immediately after the meeting to buy her an outfit. The guy was all class.
