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Interview
With Gene Palensar
By Eric Nielsen (key associate of Jerry Patterson)
Gene
Palensar is a full-time professional Blackjack player -- and a living legend.
In his early days, Gene played solo and organized/ran his own small BJ teams,
mostly in Atlantic City. In the mid-eighties, he worked with Ken Uston
and lays claim to being the last member of Uston's last BJ team in Las Vegas. Today,
Gene plays in Atlantic City and other casino locations.
As noted in Jerry's article a couple of weeks ago, Ken Uston was arguably the
most famous blackjack player ever. His innovative blackjack team play
techniques took millions off the Las Vegas blackjack tables before they were
detected by the casinos. Player, Author, Instructor, Jazz Musician, and
gambling raconteur, Kenny was a great guy to hang out with.
Jerry and Gene have known each other since the early eighties. I've known
Gene for less than a year. But in that short time, I've gotten to know
him as well as an old friend. Gene has freely shared his playing philosophies,
his methodology, and all the little tricks he uses to take the money off the
tables.
Gene is a very unique individual. He is a brilliantly skilled player.
He can "count down" a deck of cards faster than any player in history,
casually recite over 150 Basic Strategy variations, and can keep an accurate
count of several indices simultaneously while in the heat of play. He
can present himself as an astute, well-spoken professional and has a real flair
for philosophy, often sharing his own. Gene also possesses the street
smarts of an inner-city bulldog. He can get down and dirty as well as
anyone. He pumps iron and sports arms the size of tree trunks. All
his skills and diverse abilities give him the tools necessary to successfully
exploit any situation in the casino.
Gene employs a blend of card counting, table selection (using TARGET 21 factors),
and casino "savvy" to win consistently. He is also a master
at exploiting the "comp game." He lives rent-free in AC casinos
nearly half the year.
Gene has graciously offered to share with us his background, his insights on
winning play and his "spin" on today's casino Blackjack in general.
On a Thursday afternoon a couple of years ago, Gene and I sat across from one
another at a table in my room at the Trump Marina in AC. What resulted
was an incredible interview in which Gene shared it all. Here it is.
All of it. Unabridged, just as Gene tells it.
EN: When was it that you first developed an interest in Blackjack?
How old were you? What were the circumstances?
GP: Well, to be honest, I was about seventeen years old. Actually, the
first hands of Blackjack I played was when I was six or seven. I was playing
against my dad and I won around twelve dollars -- my first winnings. But
at about seventeen, I started coming to the casinos to play the real thing.
EN: You were getting into the casinos then?
GP: Yeah. I was sneaking in. Me and a buddy, we were just gamblers. We liked
the action; we would try to predict when to bet and throw $500 out on the table.
I remember I won a few times. I was always ahead, at one point up to ten
or fifteen thousand. Being a gambler and not knowing what I was doing, I eventually
lost. Then at about nineteen, I started in again. I was being told at
the time to stay away from the big money. They were saying, "Don't
go near the big money." But my philosophy was the opposite: "The
big money
knows how to get the big money." I still didn't know how to play
but would sit in the $100 games. I was only nineteen. They would
say, "Kid, get the hell off this game. You don't know
what you're doing. Find a $10 game." But I would win!
I was winning thousands and thousands of dollars! I was getting casino
limousine service, big comps, living the good life. Then, all of a sudden
one day, it ended.
EN: What happened?
GP: I lost...(long pause)... My girlfriend left me and everything came
crashing down...(another long pause)... It made me more determined than ever
to learn how to beat these places. It made me ask myself, "How can
I consistently beat these places without having to rely on Lady Luck?"
I heard about card-counting, so I bought a book.
EN: Up until that time, Gene, you were relying on intuition? Luck?
GP: Right. But I figured there was some way for me to become a better
player and consistent winner.
EN: Were you using any method? Basic Strategy?
GP: Not even Basic Strategy. The big players on the $100 games at
Caesar's would flat bet $2,500 a hand. I would stick my nose in and they hated
it. (laughing) They'd want to beat me up!
EN: How many casinos did you have to chose from back then? There
weren't very many open, were there?
GP: No. There was Resorts, Caesar's, the Claridge, Bally's, Sands,
the Golden Nugget, and I think that was about it. I remember TropWorld was just
being built. So, I decided, I'm going to practice, I'm going to study.
And I'm going to be the best card counter that ever was.
EN: How did you hear about card counting?
GP: I heard about it from a friend's mother. She would talk about
it. I saw the "Sixty Minutes" interview with Ken Uston.
And I knew there was a method to beat Blackjack. So I bought Uston's book, Million
Dollar Blackjack. I decided to practice day and night 'til I could beat these
people.
EN: Did you practice with the information in the book alone?
GP: Yes. Day and night...and I became determined that, not only would
I be the best, but I would eventually get on one of Kenny Uston's teams!
EN: Really?!
GP: Yes. I made up my mind while I was reading the book and practicing.
EN: Had you met Ken? Did you know him?
GP: No. I just knew that I would do it. Whatever it would take to
do it. And I did it.
EN: Pretty confident attitude.
GP: Well, I don't know. Maybe it was confidence; maybe it was sheer
stupidity (laughing). But I knew I would have to use his three-level count.
Because he (Ken Uston) would need to be impressed. I couldn't use any old count,
and I had to be good. I kept practicing and studying. I went to
Atlantic City a few times. Played and initially lost. I didn't have
much of a bankroll. But eventually I began to win ... and won quite a
lot of money in Atlantic City.
EN: On your own? By yourself?
GP: Yes. On my own.
EN: Gene, you have the reputation of possessing some of the most impressive
card counting abilities around. Please tell us a bit about this.
GP: Well, I've counted down a single deck in eight-and-a-half seconds.
I've perfected that.
EN: Very impressive.
GP: Thanks. I can do an eight-deck "special" in eighty-six seconds.
And I can do a six-deck regular in around sixty-five seconds ... with accuracy,
AND with a side count of aces on my feet ... (long pause) ...
It's just my obsessive nature to be the best in order to beat these people at
their own game. And it runs over from my time with Ken...to show him I
was the best...I had to bring something to the table. I couldn't be just
any Joe Blow, walk in off the street and say, "Here I am. I can count cards.
Put me on your team."
EN: How did you finally meet Kenny Uston?
GP: Well, here's what I did. I knew he stayed at the Jockey Club
when he was in Vegas. So I called there several times and they finally gave
me his home phone number.
EN: Really? (laughing) Persistence!
GP: Yeah. Persistence pays off sometimes. So I talked with him.
He was living in San Francisco at the time. I told him that I use his
count, I have money, and I wanted to get in on the team play.
EN: When was this?
GP: 1984. I was twenty-one years old. Ken said he was going
to get something going. He promised to call me, and eventually he did.
EN: How long did you have to wait for the call?
GP: About six months, I think. He finally called .. in the
spring of '85. My dad was against it. He said, "Why go there?"
He said, "You're making money here. Why bother?" I said, "Well,
I'm going to take a chance, go out there and try it."
EN: When Kenny called, did he accept you over the phone? Did he
want to see a demonstration of your skills? How were things handled at this
point?
GP: He said to come on out and asked how much I wanted to put up in the
bank. I told him I'd be willing to put up $10,000. He said to come on
out and he would check my skills. I was nervous. I made a lot of mistakes
at first. But quickly things straightened out. I became the most
consistent winner on that team.
EN: How many members were on that team?
GP: People shifted from time to time. But, overall, nine participated.
EN: What was the team's profit objective? Many times a Blackjack
team will look to double their bankroll, then disband. Was your objective
similar?
GP: That's it. We were looking to double our starting bank.
EN: What play methodology did the team decide to employ?
GP: The Big Player strategy. There would be a Counter at the table
and the Big Player would also be present at the table, varying his bets from
$25 to $500. We would use "chip signals," placing our bets at set
locations in the betting square to indicate proper bet size for the Big Player
... from one to five. We would also use hand signals to tell the Big Player
to hit, stand, double-down, or split.
EN: Did you move around a lot or stick to just a small number of casinos?
GP: We played wherever we could find good games. We played anywhere
and everywhere. Mostly all double-deck, though.
EN: How many team members did you have in a casino at any given time?
GP: Just two players in one casino. The Big Player and the Counter.
We broke up the overall team into mini-teams of two. Maybe Ken would play
at the Riviera. He liked the Riviera. I would play at the IP (Imperial
Palace) most of the time. Sometimes I would play at Caesar's. My
first session was at Caesar's ... with his girlfriend, Inga. My first
session out, I won $5,000.
EN: Very Nice. Did you switch back-and-forth between functioning as BP
(Big Player) and Counter?
GP: No. The BPs were always assigned as BPs and Counters were always Counters.
Wait. There was one time when Ken was a BP for me. I was calling
Ken's signals at the Dunes because...Umm...Ken was inebriated.
EN: How many hours each week did the team play?
GP: That's hard to say. Often I was playing twelve hours a day.
EN: Seven days a week?
GP: Yeah. Seven days a week. Ken called me "Dig Out" because
it seemed I was the one who always recovered our losses, brought us back from
our low points. Ken would mention that it took sheer determination to win.
EN: How long did this team hold together?
GP: It started to break up on July 1. There was a woman on the team that
used a $10,000 concealed Blackjack computer in her play. She contributed $7,000
cash to the team bank. On July 1, the Nevada State Judiciary outlawed concealed
Blackjack computers. She immediately pulled out. I think she was
looking for an excuse to drop out anyway.
EN: Was anyone else on the team using a concealed computer?
GP: No.
EN: Interesting. Did you find her play to be more accurate with
the use of the computer?
GP: Well, I can say that she was a consistent winner. She was good.
She knew what she was doing. And I liked having her on the team. I knew
we could count on her.
EN: The computer that she used. Was it the "George" or
the "David?"
GP: The "George" was one of the first, maybe the very first,
concealed Blackjack computer around. Hers was far more sophisticated than
the "George." Maybe it was the "David." I really don't
remember if it had a name. I do know that it was far superior to anything
Kenny had used up to that point.
EN: Ken had been experimenting with concealed computers, hadn't he?
GP: Yes. In prior years, Kenny had a computer team. I had spoken
with the computer expert a few times. I know who he is.
EN: Back to the team. Gene, when did the team start and when did
it disband?
GP: It started in June and I left in August. I was on the team for
two months, staying at the Jockey Club. I stuck it out 'til the very end.
EN: Members just gradually pulled out?
GP: Right. They just couldn't handle it. Ken wasn't the easiest
guy ...he had his problems. But the guy was a genius. He really
was sharp. He just had his problems ... his vices. He let his vices
overtake him. But he was a whiz. I thought that if he could straighten
out, we could make some real money. It was funny. I would
have these talks with Ken and he would say, "Gene, you have the wisdom
of a seventy-year-old." I knew what was troubling him and we would discuss
it. His father had died and left unresolved issues behind. It bothered
him. We had one member of the team who
was destructive. He would supply Kenny with his vices because of
his own avarice. That guy really hurt the team. He was stealing
from the team.
EN: Did the team use lie detectors?
GP: We never did. We were going to, but never did.
EN: This was your first encounter with Ken Uston. Was he everything
you expected?
GP: No. Nothing like I expected. It was a letdown. I
could see that the guy was a master at marketing and he knew how to market himself.
He was a brilliant individual. He really was. In many ways, I really
admired him for what he could do. Half in the bag, he could still crank
out numbers unbelievably. I liked Ken. That's why I stuck with him
so long. I liked him. He had his problems, but I thought maybe we
could make it. We had a bad session at Bourbon Street one time and that
was the beginning of the end.
EN: What happened?
GP: The team was still together. In this session, he had a bit too
much to drink, too much partying, too much ..... And he was
playing a table at Bourbon Street with maximum bets of $200. He
was playing all seven spots. It was around 6:00 AM. I heard a knock
at my door. It was Ken's girlfriend. She told me to get down to
call plays for Ken. He was in no shape to play and was certainly going
to lose. So I ran down as fast as I could and started calling plays for him.
I was back-counting while he sat at the table ... and we started to win a little
bit. Two security guards rushed me and threw me out. They knew they
had a drunk and were poised to take him for every nickel. He lost over
$5,000 in that session. Excuse me. It was about
$7,000. This was the last straw. You can't play drunk.
EN: Where was the bank at that point?
GP: We were down. I forget how much. But we were down.
EN: What was the overall result of the team? Where did things stand
when you broke up?
GP: Well, I lost only a couple thousand of my own money with the team.
Ken put in more money to keep it going. He went to San Francisco for a
week -- to the bank. He wanted to overcome the problems -- keep things
going. He wanted me on his team. I know I told him I'd stick with
him to the end ... but that was it, that was the last straw. You just can't
play drunk. It's a total lack of discipline.
EN: I guess we all learn that at some point.
GP: That's what did it. I was playing my heart out every day ...
twelve hours a day. I remember Ken called me on the phone. He had
a suite downtown at the Sundance. He said, "Hey Gene, we won twelve
thousand this week!" I responded by saying, "No Ken, I won twelve
thousand this week. You didn't win anything." I said, "Let's
get on the ball ... quit playing games ... let's make some real money."
If we could have kept the garbage out, I know we could have taken the
town for a hundred thousand ... easy ... EASY! The BP's were getting the
bets down. We were getting $500 bets down. Even $1,000 bets.
Two hands of $500 ... no problem at all. No heat at all. Finally,
I got pulled up at the Imperial Palace ... because I beat them for so much money
that week. They finally snapped and "back-roomed" me.
EN: Really. What was the experience like?
GP: Well it was nerve wracking, hair raising, to say the least. They took
me in a back room. They took my picture, made me sign the "Trespass
Act" stating that I'd never set foot in there again, called the police,
claimed that I was mucking cards. They said they were going to call the
police. I said "Go ahead, I want them here." They looked
at me kind of strange. They said "Let us see your identification."
I showed it to them. I had a temporary paper New Jersey license.
On the bottom of my license was Ken Uston's name. It read, "In care
of Ken Uston, Jockey Club, Las Vegas, NV." I
showed this to the police. I said, "See this? It says Ken Uston.
This is who I'm with. Do you want a lawsuit? Do you want to beat
me up? What do you want to do?" They had two big security guards.
After all this was done, the cops said,"OK, let him go."
The guards led me out the back way ... and boy, was I scared. I thought
they were going to kick my ... !
EN: What did they do with your money at the table?
GP: They let me keep it.
EN: So that was Ken Uston's last team.
GP: That's right. That was it. A couple of years later, he died ... in
Paris.
Editor's Note: Ken Uston passed away from unknown causes in 1987.
EN: Did you stay in touch with Ken after the team broke up?
GP: I called on one occasion about three weeks later ... he was still
there at the Jockey Club. He didn't sound in very good shape.
EN: You told me earlier that you didn't lose your entire stake on this
team. What happened in the end? Did you simply split the remainder?
GP: Right.
EN: How did you handle expenses? Did they come out of your winnings?
GP: Yes. At times we were ahead. Ken handled that. He
was taking care of the condos. We rented two condos at the Jockey Club.
We did take expenses out of the winnings.
EN: After that, did you return to New Jersey?
GP: Well sure ... I came back ... a little bit wiser ... to say the least.
EN: (chuckling) I see. Did you resume individual play?
GP: Yeah. As a matter of fact, just a couple of days later, I went
down to Resorts with a little mini-team and won about fifteen hundred.
EN: Must have felt good.
GP: Yeah. It felt great.
EN: You've known Jerry for some time. How did you meet? What
were the circumstances?
You've only read the half of it; Part 2 next week.
Until then,
Jerry Patterson
***************
Eric Nielsen
is a key associate of Jerry
Patterson. Jerry, a gambling instructor, author and player for 25 years,
is author of Casino Gambling: A Winner’s Guide to Blackjack, Craps, Roulette,
Baccarat and Casino Poker, the #1 selling gambling book on amazon.com and
bn.com since shortly after publication in February 2000.
You can purchase the book through the Books
section of AnteUp Gambling Links, by visiting Jerry’s Website Casino
Gambling Edge, or at bookstores nationwide.
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