The $3 Million Story
A story from Las Vegas, from a table at the Aria Casino.
I'm playing poker with Richie, he loses a big pot and tells me to come with him to play roulette, because he only sees a chance for a comeback in that tonight. I didn't need to be told twice, I love this kind of entertainment, so we walk to the very sophisticated Aria High limit room, where mostly 50-year-old Asian men in suits sit and play. I feel the least belonging here, both in age and bank account, but Richie wants to play, and play big, so fuck everybody. We sit down at the roulette table, where no one is playing, Richie exchanges 5,000 dollars and asks for a whisky. The waitress, who looks like Pamela Anderson in her 20s, asks me if I want anything too, but since I'm not playing, just "observing", I don't want to seem like a freeloading parasite, so I decline the drink. Rich insists on drinks and orders a double whisky for me too. On the first spin, Rich puts down 500 dollars and loses it all, the second spin turns out similarly.
We are preparing for the third spin when a Chinese guy in his 30s with glasses approaches the table and asks the dealer what the maximum bet for a single number is. The answer is $40,000. Yes, 8 million forints. Our man pulls out an iPhone, types something in, and leaves without a word. We didn't attach much importance to it, we continued playing. Rich meanwhile caught a few numbers and was up by 6-7 thousand dollars, when the man in the suit reappeared, but this time with another person, and 2 black silk bags. Here the dealer, whom we had known for a while, winks at us and quietly mouths: "watch this Guys"! The man in the suit (who later turned out to be the mathematician for the super High Roller participants) empties the contents of one of the silk bundles onto the table and lets the "boss" approach. Rich looks at me: "holy shit!!!" I look at the table and only see $100,000 chips in the pile. Our main character enters the scene here, politely smiles, then approaches the table and places 10 chips on the red color, which is one million dollars. I'm not a whisky fan, I've seen some more intense games, but at this point, I had to take a good gulp of the drink in front of me, because my heartbeat jumped to 200. The ball falls, black 17.
9.2 million dollars in chips. 2 billion forints.
The dealer silently pulls away the chip stack worth 230 million forints resting on red and waits. My glass was already empty. Our main character now changes strategy and places 10 chips on the odd numbers. Rich watches motionless and doesn't place a bet. Red 32, even. -Oh my fuckin' god. He lost again. Rich and I order another double whisky, while the other black bag also appears. From this, 25-thousand-dollar chips emerge. Our presumably Forbes-listed man instructs the dealer with a single, uttered word: "SPIN!" He lightning-fast fills the table with red chips, I counted, he placed 40 chips. The third million. Green zero 0. Without chips. This also went. I felt so uncomfortable here that I only stayed because there was a deadly silence around the table and I didn't dare to make a sound or move. However, our man had had enough of the unlucky bets and left with a "Thank you". So that's how I witnessed the loss of 700 million forints in 10 minutes. I haven't recovered since.
But the craziest thing is that the guy didn't even care much about it. Because you know, What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
