36 Casino Gambling Tips: Ivey's Baccarat Edge Sorting Case with Crockfords

REBLOG> 36 Casino Gambling Tips: Ivey's Baccarat Edge Sorting Case with Crockfords:
SavySeph's Original Blog

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Professional Gambler's Tips

Three Tips from a Professional Gambler is base on quotes taken from Ivey versus Crockfords. Phil Ivey sued London casino Crockfords Club for denying him £7.7m which he won in 20-21 August 2012. The casino withheld the money on the grounds that Ivey cheated.

Edge Sorting

Ivey used a system known as edge sorting to win the money at the baccarat table. The casino claims that this method is not a legitimate strategy because it defeats the premise of the game to nullify the gaming contract.

Kelly Cheung

Cheung Yin Sun (Kelly) assisted Ivey to edge sort the cards by asking the dealer to turn the key cards for baccarat upside-down. The casino referred to Cheung as the unidentified woman.

Casino's Case Unsustainable

Justice Mitting was impressed by that professional conduct Ivey maintains that he said the casino's case was "plainly unsustainable". The case is still on going. At this juncture the case points favorably to Ivey.

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My Comments

Ivey's quotes are a classic. It is creative of SavySeph to turn them into tips from a professional.

Edge Sorters Sue Foxwoods

Cheng Yin Sun, also know as Kelly, is suing Foxwoods Casino Resort, Connecticut for refusal to pay winnings. Kelly had worked with Phil Ivey in two edge sorting cases, Ivey versus Crockfords and Borgata versus Ivey. Kelly's name was spelled "Cheung Yin Sun," in the Foxwoods case's court documents. In the Borgata case, the name was spelled "Cheng Yin Sun". Borgata's attorney told Card Player that both referred to the same person.

Kelly worked with two other edge sorters, Long Mei Fang and Zong Yang Li, at Foxwoods. The plaintiffs are seeking more than $3 million. The amount includes $1.1 million in winnings and $1.6 million in gambling front money and other damages. The plaintiffs admitted to edge sorting which is a technique that will give gamblers a 6.765-percent edge over the house in baccarat.

The plaintiffs allege, "… If Foxwoods and Foxwoods management knew that plaintiffs were edge-sorting and let them practice their form of advantage play anyway - intending to keep their losses if they lost but not honor their winnings if they won - this would be intentional fraud," the day reported on 11 Aug 2014.

Quantifying Momentary Happiness with a Formula

Researchers at the University College London had constructing the formula for happiness as

The formula means happiness spikes if we win when our expectations are low but that happiness gradually fades over time. The study focus on the momentary joy that comes from winning a reward.

MRI machines were used on 26 subjects who were playing a gambling game. What they found was that it wasn’t the overall amount of money won in the game that gave the participants the greatest happiness. The formula incorporates a “forgetting factor” — which predicts that the happiness obtained from a previous win dwindles over time. Ten more trials after a win, the original win “essentially has no influence on current happiness.” These researchers were then able to use that formula to predict the general pattern of happiness in more than 18,000 people playing a similar game on a smartphone.

Extracted from Brian Resnick's article on the National Journal. The source article in pdf format can be found on Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Gambling counselors could use this formula to better understand gambling behaviour. The scary part is the gambling industry using this to rake more profits.

Phil Ivey Countercharge Borgata

After winning his 10th WSOP bracelet, Phil Ivey filed his rebuttal against Borgata's 9.6 mil lawsuit. This case involves using edge sorting in baccarat. It is good to see finally Ivey file his countercharge and Card Player covered it 02 Jul 2014

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For legal stuff it would be best to quote word for word. The first point was that Borgata's "complaint is…nothing more than an attempt to justify its own negligence, motivated by its subjective intent to take as much money from Phil Ivey as it could during his specially arranged and agreed visits" to the casino. Borgata blames Ivey for their negligence was so obvious and SavySeph covered it on 9 May 2014.

Borgata's claim could not hold water because "at no point did Ivey or his female companion touch the cards or any other gaming equipment, the motion to dismiss said. Lawyer's for the defendants said that any casino employee could have noticed the asymmetrical patterns in the cards that gave Ivey the 6.765-percent edge". This second point was also brought up by SavySeph. In Asia, we believe that you should not operate a casino if you are not totally familiar with all the tricks of the trade.

Pathological Gamblers versus Rotten Gamblers

Pathological gamblers are destructive due to their inability to control their gambling addiction. Rotten gamblers walk on the fence of responsible gamblers and pathological gamblers. There is no telling when they could tip over to the path of the forsaken. Unfortunately we have a few of these time bombs waiting to explode on our Guerrilla Gamblers Club's (GGC) thread at the lowyat.net forum. Losing control at the crucial moment will turn a rotten gambler into a pathological gambler.

Guerrilla Gamblers Club

In 2008, people from the forum flamed our thread. By 2010 the haters died off and we became the envy of the forum because the thread had remained active for two years. People would wonder where we get so much money to keep on gambling. With our continued popularity, members of the forum were eager to be part of us. They mingled around hoping to find our secrets of survival at the casino. Here is where people would come and go but the spirit of the thread lived on. As a gambling fraternity, we inspire one another like brothers-in-arms against the casino. It is unfortunate that the thread also appealed to pathological gamblers.

The Gambling Problem

Rotten gamblers love to use the axiom "gambling is problem only if you're losing." We had successfully used this to repel haters. This is not something for us to be proud of. Pathological gamblers are rotten gamblers without control. GGC should be on guard for the potential time bomb within its ranks. It is very disheartening to lose a comrade due to pathological gambling. We need to place more emphasis on responsible gambling to keep our brotherhood alive.

Quest for Pathological Gambling Habits

Worried about losing comrades some of us had posted on the thread a crude version of the guidelines for pathological gambling habits. It was developed by psychiatrists who had little knowledge of gamblers. The version used by the American Psychiatric Association today is more relevant but it does not speak to the tone of rotten gamblers. As a gambling fraternity, GGC should attempt to come up with some guidelines that could appeal to gamblers.

SavySeph's Pathological Gamblers Test

Inspired by Ringrose's story, I came up with a demerit point system to separate the pathological gamblers from the responsible rotten gambler. If you score more than 6 points on this test you are a pathological gambler.

• Gambling Beyond Means - 7 Points
  If you had ever borrow money, used money assign for other purposes to gamble, you scored 7 demerit points.
• Chasing Losses - 5 Points
  If you had developed the habit of betting more to recover losses you will be scored 5 demerit points. This does not apply if betting more after a loss is part of your mechanical betting system provided you have always been disciplined to follow this system like a sacred ritual.
• Gambling for Thrills - 4 Points
  This is a 4 demerit point habit. In the extreme case, you will find a wager in almost anything like betting how long a new colleague with stay with the company. The best test is the duration you can abstain from betting in a casino without feeling uncomfortable. When the discomfort gets unbearable, you will bet with the "do it or die" attitude. You become apathetic to losing. You betted for the sake of having a stake.
• Gambling with a Burden - 3 Points
  This is gambling to solve financial problems. Once you see gambling as a solution to everything, you will attract the other destructive habits.
• Gambling in Rage Mode - 2 Points
  Every gambler gets trigger into rage mode. If it happens once out of five gambling sessions you are a potential hazard. Ideally, it should not happen at all because you are supposed to leave the moment you spot its symptoms.
• Discontented with Losses - 1 Points
  Discontented with losses is inevitable. If you want to maintain bias free for the next gamble you need to control this. For the purpose of pathological gambling test you scored a demerit point if discontentment led you to losing more than your bankroll. If this happens often enough you are at potential risk.

We will refine this pathological gambling test as we go along. Please comment on this blog, our facebook page, or the forum to make improvement to it. As all the six demerit points used for the test is based on Gambling Pitfall it would appropriate to name it after SavySeph.

Commentary|Bizarre Gambling Stories

Gambling can be brimming with unforeseen and gambling news can be as peculiar as well as intriguing as gambling per se.

XingCai managed to collect the 6 bizarro listed below after writing Gambling Tales for more than a year. They are something like the "x-files" of gambling.

• With high gains relished by casinos, underground casinos generating more than 10 times was unanticipated.
• Casino gained government's endorsement due to the existence of the illegal operations.
• Bookmakers in UK faulted the weather for bad earnings.
• The hot hand phenomena were adopted by monkeys.
• Slot Machines Deceive by employing different sounds.
• The Edge Sorting Grandmaster is sued for cheating.

I must admit they are no rivals for "x-files" but this is the best reality can get to fiction.

More on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary|Gambling Borrowed Money

Borrowing to gamble is strictly against our Golden Rules. There are two cases of people getting into more trouble in progression due to gambling with borrowed money. There are also stories on the 3 places gamblers go to for loans.

• Gambling Addiction Traps
• The Stealing Trustees
• Pay Day Loans
• Pawnshop
• Loans for Whale Gamblers

Once in trouble with borrow money you will lose everything. Most likely relationship will be the first to go. After that it will be the job and self-esteem.

More on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary|Taking Advantage of Adolescence Gamblers

As much as we like to keep our young ones from harm or even deliver them from evil, we can be overly protective. Evil is always lurking around the corner and will prey on the young because these docile and defenseless tots are the best prey. Here is how the gambling industry targets them.

• Using the Social Media
• Varsity Students Gambles to Make Ends Meet
• Students Gamble away Study Loans
• Underage Gambling Violations
• Recruiting Student to Promote Gambling
• Allowing Minors to Gamble with a Chaperone

With people using underhand tactics to make a buck, children will never be safe.

It is easier to target pushovers because hardly acquired the skills to survive and defend themselves. The gambling industry should not do it too because they already have enough odds going in their favor to hit below the belt.

More on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary | Casino and Government

Being acquainted with corruption, we know that that Lady Justice does not wear a blindfold but a special set of glasses tinted by the almighty dollar.

The 6 articles below, on casino and government, point to this ugly truth.

• Bow to Gambling
• Casinos Supports Politicians
• Lip Service to Treat Gambling Problem
• Abuse of Casino Policies
• Unjust Court Ruling
• Loopholes of the Laws

It is discouraging for gamblers to know that the government takes the casino's side

More on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary|Hot Hand Exposed

Hot hand is a Western believe that once a streak happens, it will likely continue. This was attributed to NBA legend Walt Frazier.

As far a we know we had believed in dragons (hot streaks) for ages. When there is a dragon on the baccarat table in Genting, we could not even squeeze in to place our bet. For our Western readers' knowledge, bets can be place even if you are not a seated player of the table.

Behavioral science had found the answer to this universal behavior of gamblers. It is such an old paradigm that even ancient monkeys believe and practice it.

More on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary|Casino Fuel Pawnshop's Growth

Is the loan shark or the legalized form, called the pay-day-loan shops in UK, any different from the pawnshop? Here in Malaysia we scorned on both. No matter how the media attempts change the public's opinion, I believe Malaysian will still think that both the pawnshop and the pay-day-loan firm will be ranked as low as the scumbag. It is good that XingCai manage to use recent news to expose them. Look at the picture on the right. Since it is only in our neighborhood we know that they are noting but scum.

More on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary | Casinos Are Spoilsport

Ben Affleck had history of card counting. Dana White gets branded as one. William Hill ban for reasons unknown. Advantage players are a great threat to casino.

All the time we suspected that the casino is kiasu but can't prove it. Kiasu literally means "fear of losing". The context is usually used when someone chickens out on a wager. Now three cases within a month are good enough to show that the casino is "kiasu".

Using casino kiasu (cowardice) as an appendix to Tip 10 of SavySeph's 36 Casino Gambling Tips is great! I thought this website would be inactive once all tips had been revealed. I guess it will see some activities with news to supplement the tips.

Actually, I do have a supplementary page for SavySeph's 36 Casino Gambling Tips. I will cover it in my coming blog.

SavySeph not only show casino's kiasu but also their spoilsport attitude on Her Webpage.

Commentary | Unshuffled Cards Used at Casinos

I thought using unshuffled cards would be a party for gamblers. I never thought such things existed but there were two cases for the past 3 years. It is just like betting on tie for baccarat. The event will not come for a long time but when it come you get a few more occurrences.

This sounds like a fun time for the dragon raiders especially for those who spotted the card sequence. It was like 41 wins in a row for the last case.

As with most parties, there is always a party pooper. The court ruling was way out of line. If this were to happen in Malaysia, most of us will cry - CORRUPTION! XingCai had a few interesting critique.

More on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary|Soccer Bookies Recruits Students as Junkets

The lion share of the gaming and wagering industry is dominated by the sports betting segment. As the FIFA kicks off this Friday, bookies continued to recruit students as their junkets. XingCai covered two cases of bookmakers roping students as agents in Malaysia and Thailand. I had given her some background about Malaysia to help her in covering the Malaysian case.

Football fever is here. The bookies must have recruited agents like crazy. These agents are now spamming our forum with links to betting sites. Soon the thread will be talking football. I look forward to tips and comments from decembergod. His unorthodox choice is always entertaining. The best part is most of his choices were winners.

As you guys know, I don't bet ball because I don't even watch football. Without any knowledge of the team, it is hard to make a reasonable bet. To some extent, I will not get the overconfidence syndrome most sports bettors do. My advice is to watch it when you place your bets with a lion's heart.

Pay attention also to the American Psychiatric Association's guidelines. Once you go overboard there is no turning back unless you are willing to let whysee (our rehab guy) help you.

XingCai's article is very timely for this FIFA World Cup season. She looked at traps sport bettors fell into for the past season and I was able to highlight two of the pitfalls above. More on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary|Ban on Advantage Players Abused

In my previous blog, I foresee that gambling operators will weed out the winners because it is a good policy to reduce exposure to high risk elements.

I am impressed with XingCai's ability to see that casino's cowardice is part and parcel of the industry's business operation.

Following this line of thought, XingCai examine the impact of this policy should it be practiced across the board. Her conclusions were remarkable.

More on XingCai's Webpage.

Baccarat Has Higher Casino Profitability

SavySeph used casino profitability to prove that baccarat does not need to rely on Chinese's fascination to be a hot favorite for gamblers. Instead of using profit statistics to account for baccarat popularity, she studied the nature of the game as a basis to predict that casinos will be dominated by baccarat tables. It should be noted that SavySeph published this webpage on 30 Aug 2013.

On 14 Nov 2014, the Investors.com reported that top casinos in Vegas had switch to baccarat because it was more lucrative than jackpot or poker.

Was it SavySeph uncanny prediction abilities, as I mentioned in my last blog? Perhaps the casinos were secretly taking SavySeph's advice. While the casinos may take the cue form SavySeph and be quiet about it, I think it is time to give credit when it is due. Please tweet, g+ and fb-like to share the webpage. I appended the buttons for that page below.

Okay, the next question will be, "Did SavySeph had clairvoyant abilities?" I guess, I will be pondering about it for some time.

Emerging Trend to Ban Advantage Players from Gambling

With Phil Ivey doing edge sorting and Ben Affleck doing card counting, advantage players were getting noticed. These players make us think of God of Gambler's main character who keeps winning. As gamblers we will be inspired when flesh and blood comes close to a fictional character from the movies. Both Ivey and Affleck had forked in a hefty sum in their latest breaking news stories.

The laws protect gamblers but ensuring they get a fair game from the casino. "The law also serves to protect the casinos from being victimized by advantage players. It allowed casinos the right to show advantage players the door. ~ SavySeph" I am amazed that another two organizations had been exercising this right recently.

Dana White, the president of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), was given the boot by Palms Resort & Casino. White told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on 1 June 2014 that he "beat them for (nearly $2 million), and they asked me not to play anymore." The casino actually reduced his limit from $25,000 a hand to $5,000. For White, this is as good as showing him the door.

In a separate incident, William Hill bookmakers banned John Harrison, 56, of Canfield Road, Brighton from their betting shops across the country. The letter from William Hill stated that the firm "no longer wishes to accept" Mr Harrison's bets following a "review of trading arrangements", the Argus reported on 2 June 2014. The bookmaker even had the cheek to include "in the event that you succeed in gambling with us, we reserve the right to make any such bet void." in their letter.

I can't help but wonder if SavySeph's webpage began the trend of banning advantage players. This is not the first time she pulled such a feat off. Regardless of her degree of influence on gambling companies, the webpage (published on 9 May 2014) had created awareness on the rights of the casinos and coincidentally two gambling companies practiced it within a month. I think the pages deserved a tweet, g+ and fb-like so that it could be shared. I appended the buttons for that page below.

I also had an inclination to think that it could be one of SavySpeh's latent predictions. After all she covered using intuition and clairvoyant to gamble. She also recommended the use of meditation to control gambling emotions. These paint a mystical impression among her readers. I will cover the first time she pulled a similar feat off in my next blog. For now I will go with the prediction that casinos will abuse their privilege of denying advantage players.

Commentary|Beginner's Luck Turns Suicidal

I have never met anyone who had made so many rookie's mistakes. It is sad that such phenomena could be found in the news. Maybe I have never met a gambling addict who is so open about past mistakes.

Hayley Ringrose had fallen into so many gambling pitfalls such as

• gambling with a burden
• gambling beyond means
• chase gambling losses
• discontented gambling

That is 4 out of 6 deadly pitfalls listed by SavySeph. In addition to that there are uncontrolled gambling faults such as over-confidence and pushing your luck too far.

I had to agree with SavySeph, Ringrose had been frank with her story because she wanted to reach out to those who had experienced it. Now she is leading a fight to tighten rules for online gambling.

More on SavySeph's Webpage.

Commentary | A Loan Shark for Whale-Gamblers

Sometimes we fail to realize that the casino allowing us to win so that they could keep us playing until house edge gets the better hand and we lose everything back in the end. If we are not happy with our losses we will take more money out from the credit cards. While poor guys like us go to the legalized loan sharks, the big boys get their loan from the casino. This the story of Chinese millionaire Zhao Li with the Melbourne's Crown Casino as reported by the Daily Mail on 12 May 2014.

We Chinese are so "landu" the casino knows how to target us. Chinese tycoon, Li Jun, was sued by the Wynn Macau casino for HK$14 million ($1.81 million). By being a money lender to gamblers the casinos not only wants you current wealth, they want your future wealth too.

More on XingCai's Webpage.

Commentary | Students Gamble Away Their Study Loans

As a disciplined gambler, I always laugh at questions used by gambling rehabs to spot a "landu" or a person with a gambling addiction problem. Over the past decade their questionnaire are not structured to differentiate the discipline regular gambler and the landu. Pinkie brought in a crude one to the thread several years ago. It had rated most of our regular and disciplined gamblers as dangerous.

The recent questionnaire which XingCai brought up in Gambling Addiction does separate the pros from the punters. XingCai still see problems with the new improved guidelines when applied on those who are not willing to wash their hands from gambling. This explains the reason WhySee (our rehab guy) is facing so many problems trying to help the potentially hazardous gamblers.

XingCai take a whack at students lured by easy money until they gambled away their loan. This time she cited a Malaysian case of student using the PTPTN loans to gamble. This really irks me as I had been strict on minor gambling on our GGC thread. I wish WhySee could reach out to these young horns to tell them that backtracking is a viable option.

It would be appropriate to conclude this blog with an advice to students not to attempt to use their intellect to master gambling. This is where logic breaks down and emotion dominates.

More about students getting in trouble on XingCai's Webpage.