The Samonte System
Finally, a gambling system that works.
By Alan S. Samonte
SMASHWORDS EDITION
PUBLISHED BY:
Alan S. Samonte on Smashwords
Copyright 2011 by Alan S. Samonte. All rights reserved.
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This may not be re-sold or given away to other people. No part of this ebook may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the permission of the copyright owner.
If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this ebook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should buy a copy at select online book retailers, (http://www.smashwords.com) or through the author’s official website at http://www.samontesystem.com. Thank you for respecting the author's work.
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DISCLAIMER
The information, ideas, and suggestions in this ebook are being presented for educational purposes. Before following any suggestions contained herein, you should consult your personal accountant or other financial advisor. As a responsible adult, you are expected to take full responsibility for your actions. You shall not hold anyone accountable for any losses incurred as a result of your participation in gambling.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1 - INTRODUCTION
Chapter 2 - HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Chapter 3 - HOW I DEVELOPED THE WINNING SYSTEM
Chapter 4 - THE SAMONTE SYSTEM
Chapter 5 - THE WAY I PLAY
Chapter 6 - THE SYSTEM WAS TESTED IN A CASINO
Chapter 7 - THE NINE MISTAKES GAMBLERS MAKE
Chapter 8 - PLAYING BLACKJACK
Chapter 9 - PLAYING BACCARAT
Chapter 10 - CASINO WINNING
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The world has numerous stories of underdogs beating a favored competitor or opponent. We hear the story of David defeating Goliath, of Rambo annihilating a battalion, of a slayer crushing a fiery dragon. Stories like these move us… inspire us… stir our senses. They give us the impetus to achieve courageous feats. They give us a reason to believe that we too, as mere mortals, can take down a formidable foe.
Can a bird really exterminate serpents in real life, or do events like these exist only in fairy tales? Is there really a methodical way any underdog can use to consistently defeat the champion every time they clash? Similarly, is there really a methodical way any lowly gambler can use to beat the formidable casinos?
For as long as gambling has existed, many have tried answering this last question. Some are highly knowledgeable in mathematics, and some are armed with practical gambling skills. There are also those who use unconventional methods, and there are others who use their own irrational quirks. A great deal of inquiry has already been conducted into this subject time and again, and in every part of the globe.
The answers are as varied as the personalities who produce them. But with just glance you immediately know that most of the answers are not sensible, practical or realistic. The fact that the casinos are still standing, and still raking in big profits, is a reminder that none of the answers produced have even been noticed, much less caused a stir.
There are also answers that are so irrational that you wonder how their creators thought of them in the first place. Consider these systems used by other gamblers: One friend of mine would bet on Tie in Baccarat if Tie did not show for already nine times in succession. There was also a man who would bet on black in Roulette if black did not show for already three times in succession. Another man advised other gamblers to play only on a slot machine that hasn’t “paid” yet any of its players. There are also gambling “experts” who believe that if the dice were thrown in a certain fashion, it would favor certain numbers. Others assert that there are patterns in Baccarat so that the outcome can be predicted to some extent. I seriously wonder why there are still gamblers who believe in systems like these.
There were those who actually came up with logical answers that were unworkable in actual casino settings. Their systems would work only if alterations were to the mechanism surrounding the event. Take, for example, the Martingale betting system. In this system, the gambler keeps doubling his bets every time he loses, and returns to his original bet every time he wins. By using this method, a gambler always wins one-unit bet after every win. In theory the Martingale works, but in actual casino play the Martingale fails. The reason is because the casinos always put a limit on bet sizes. I have never heard of a gambling system that convinced me it has any practical value.
As to the question of whether or not there is a systematic way to defeat the casinos in extended playing, my answer is YES! I believe I have developed a gambling system that works for this purpose. The system works for me in my experiments and in my actual casino play, and because it is a system, I see no reason why it will not work for other gamblers. I call this gambling system The Samonte System.
Because it’s a system it can be tested to prove or disprove its claims. Anyone can separate the interlacing elements that made the System and study these elements separately to know how they function. Its consistency can also be verified. Any gambler can apply the System any time at any casino and expect the same result the System asserts.
You are probably thinking by now that the System maybe a breakthrough in mathematics or something of that sort. It is not. The System is actually nothing more than a common sense approach to winning. It is actually a series of smart plays that I integrated and found way to systematically apply at casinos. The System is also very simple in concept and there are no complicated formulas to memorize. Any gambler at any level can readily apply the System at either in land-based or online casino of his choice.
Before I wrote this book, I mentioned to a friend I had figured a way to beat the casinos. At first my friend was skeptical, and who wouldn’t be? Any rational person would. But my friend was ready to listen. As I explained to him the System’s details, he showered me with questions trying to disprove my theory - the same questions you would have asked had you been there. I fully answered his questions so that later, his doubts turned to curiosity and then to feverish interest.
This friend of mine was not a gambler and he had never been to a casino. Although he knew what a casino is, casino games were all Greek to him. He had played card games before but only for small stakes with selected friends, and only on weekends. He had always considered his gambling to be a recreational activity and never thought of getting serious about it. After he understood the System he told me he wanted to try it in an actual casino play. I thought he was only kidding. I never anticipated how my words could have an impact on him. I knew his decision would mean an investment of his time and money considering that the nearest casino is still a far travel. But the day my friend left for the casino, I realized he meant what he said.
He stayed in the casino for two days. While he was there I was worried about his venture. I was anxious how he would fare, not because I lacked confidence in my System, but because there were many things in extended playing my friend did not know yet. I was afraid that for some reason he might deviate from the System.
When my friend returned he was very excited about his first casino visit. He told me in detail his experiences in every session he played. He was now talking about Blackjack, Baccarat, and Craps - terms I’d never heard from him before. He also talked about the ineptness he observed in other gamblers. In that first trip he actually won, though not much. In fact his winnings were only enough to cover his expenses with a little left over. He said he could have won bigger if only he was courageous enough to apply the System in full. My apprehension then that my friend might deviate from the System was now confirmed. I understood though that this was because he was not the experienced gambler that I am. He was looking forward to trying the System again.
I know plenty are indifferent to gambling systems. There are always doubters. There are always those who will immediately dismiss the System as another hoax without giving the System the chance to prove its merits. In fact most, if not all mathematicians, are hostile to it. These math experts declare that no gambling system can ever overcome the casinos’ in-built mathematical advantage. At this early point I will not defend the System, but in later pages I put up a challenge to silence even the most hardened skeptic.
I know too, that some people will put the System under intense scrutiny to discover whether or not it can really stand up to its claims. I welcome any effort meant to dispel the doubts about the System. In fact, it is a better idea to try the System at home first, before applying it in the casinos. I myself am a veritable skeptic, and there was never a system that escaped my scrutiny. After finding all other systems to be useless and ineffective, I created a system of my own. Only after it passed my intense scrutiny and testing did I finally put my name to my System to share it with the rest of the world.
A casino is a formidable place. It has continually proved itself to be so to everyone, everywhere. The casinos have destroyed countless lives… devoured the biggest of human ambitions… humbled the hardest arrogance. Against a casino, a gambler is a sitting duck, a lamb for slaughter, a milking cow. Going against it is like scaling an insurmountable height. A casino is a place that deserves fear and respect.
Why is this so? Why are there more losers than winners in casinos? Who is responsible for the mess? Gamblers believe that the casinos are the cause of their misery. Actually, they are not. The casinos are just the receiving end of a favor. The real culprit is the Law of Probability, the Law that governs the likelihood of an event to occur. It is this Law that dictates how much each participant gives and receives in any gambling situation over an extended playing. The Law is the entity who calls the shot, pulls the strings. It is the eye in the sky, the invisible hand, the unseen force.
The undeniable reality is that the Law of Probability favors the casinos. This is because the Law works for the casinos, and there is nothing a gambler can do about this. This is the reason why casinos win and gamblers lose. This Law is the ever-dependable weapon the casinos use in fleecing the gamblers. What is ironic, however, is that the weapon the casinos use to fleece the gamblers is the same weapon the gamblers can use to fleece the casinos.
Quite literally, I had observed everything about the Law. At many times I had subjected the Law to scrutiny. I had also known the Law’s properties, its behavior, and its idiosyncrasies. At some point I imagined the Law as the king… the master… the most supreme. I had observed first hand how the Law mustered up its absolute power in exacting compliance from its subjects.
At some points I imagined that the event - the outcome when dice are rolled or cards are dealt - is the Law’s subject. Practically I had observed too, everything about the event. I had seen first hand how events behaved, their properties, their characteristics. At times I witnessed the events’ absolute obedience to the Law. At times, too, I observed how events went crazy and dysfunctional, and how they stubbornly obeyed their master.
On the internet I learned of a math expert who put up a challenge that no betting system could stand in a computer simulated billion-trial test. The challenge was for anyone who had created a betting system of his own. The math expert was putting up 20,000 dollars against only 2,000 dollars for the challenge. The condition was that a computer would deal one billion hands. If the betting system could come out ahead after a billion hands, its creator would win 20,000 dollars; otherwise, its creator would lose only 2,000 dollars.
This is a “cute” way to earn easy money. The math expert knew that in extended trials, no betting system could come out ahead in a game with negative expectations. The math expert knew that if the number of trials was long enough, (like a billion deals, for example) his chance to win would increase from 99.99 per cent to 100 per cent. It is in a billion trials that the event’s absolute loyalty to its master, the Law of Probability, is certain to materialize.
The funny part of the story was that someone accepted the challenge. How dumb can a person be? The man did not think about what he was up against - the Law of Probability. He could never win. He should not have wasted his time and money because nobody wins against a law. But the funniest part of it all was that the man was so confident he would win that he increased the wager from 2,000 dollars against 20,000 dollars, to 4,000 dollars against 40,000 dollars. This the math expert liked even better. My heart went out to the man. I would rather that he bet his 4,000 dollars in a Banker hand on Baccarat in only one deal as he had a chance to win.
Then after they settled on the details, they switched on the computer to start the one billion deals. The man’s system was like a rat thrown into a pond. At first it struggled to get out of the pond. After some deals, the system struggled to keep its nose above water. After a few thousand deals, the system finally went down never again to see the light of day. After a few million deals when it was clear that the trend was irreversible, the man threw in the towel. They terminated the simulation play even before they reached one billion deals. The man paid his 4,000 dollar loss.
As I have said it is in extended trials that the events’ obedience to the Law of Probability becomes absolute. Here you will observe firsthand how events submit to their master. But in a brief series, when the cards are dealt only once or the dice are rolled only once, the event’s blind obedience becomes uncertain. Here you will observe how the event can fail to function or how it can become disoriented that it forgets it has a master to serve.
This explains why a man in Las Vegas won 777,000 dollars in craps. The story was that a casino in Las Vegas started a gimmick to perk up business. The casino announced to the gambling public that they would book any bet no matter how big for as long as it was the gambler’s first bet.
A man accepted the challenge and went to the owner to confirm if he could bet one million dollars in only one bet at a game of his choice. When he got the nod, he went home and come back later bringing a suitcase full of money - 777,000 dollars in all. He was even apologetic it was the only amount he could raise! He threw his suitcase in the crap table and they began the game. Then much to the casino’s chagrin, the man won.
When the man did it, many people laughed at him. For the other gamblers it is stupidity to bet all of life’s savings in only one roll of the dice. Had he gone crazy? Far from it. If the man gambled all his money anyway, then what he did was best under the circumstance. In fact it is better than betting in the Pass Line in craps (a bet that has 1.41% advantage to the casino) at 100 dollars a roll, 550,000 times, for a total wager of 55 million dollars. In which case, it is 100 per cent sure that the man would lose all his 777,000 dollars in the end. (The figures above are rounded.)
The real fool was actually the casino who started the gimmick. The casino forgot that in one roll of the dice their advantage over the gambler is not certain. The owners of the casino were taking the casino’s profits to chance. They forgot basic education that the Law of Probability does not work in the casino’s favor in only one roll.
Occasionally you hear some gamblers win big. People love winners. You listened with envy how the gambler cashed in on his big windfall. However, you found later that the gambler actually was more of a big loser. He might have won 20,000 dollars once, but he had actually gone home 200,000 losers many times before that.
Then you found yourself in a similar situation to the person. There were times when you came home a winner too, but honestly, your winnings were fewer and smaller. Your losses prevailed.
How many times had you thought of making winning a science? I guess many times. After you won big you thought you had the way to beat the casinos. You dreamed of making it bigger the next time. You memorized all the circumstances surrounding your win. You recalled the time of the day, the clothes you wore, the game you played, the route you took, and many others. Then you decide to do exactly the same thing again the next time.
But when you played later, even when all the circumstances were there, you still lost. You asked what went wrong. Was it because you had taken the wrong route, had met the wrong friend, or had brought the wrong money? You retraced your steps and found there was a circumstance you missed. So you played again making sure that nothing was missing anymore. But you lost again. You found there was actually something you missed so you ended up blaming yourself. (Most of the time, you had blamed someone else for causing a change in the circumstance.) However, when you played again later, even when all of the elements were present, you still lost anyway. You started the cycle again but it seemed that you would end up losing no matter what you did. You felt discouraged. Then suddenly, you won big again!
A gambler’s life is a cycle of tears and laughter, of hope and desperation. But it’s mostly tears and desperation. His losses are big enough to decide to quit. But he just can’t. The dream of winning big will not disappear in his mind. The dream keeps him returning to the casinos.
Gamblers wish to become the hunter and the casinos their prey. Unfortunately, most gamblers fail to get out from the mess they were in. It seems impossible. In reality, turning the table against the casino is not impossible. There is something a gambler can do to reverse the situation and keep it that way.
In my actual gambling experiences, and in my experiments at home, I found that the Law of Probability has a soft spot… a weakness… an Achilles heel. There were times when the Law was most vulnerable. This vulnerability manifested itself through the Law’s subject, the event. This vulnerability the casinos cannot prevent, or hide, or cut off short, and so any gambler can exploit it. And since this vulnerability occurs consistently in extended play, the gambler who knows how to exploit it can consistently beat the casinos.
The casinos have a reason to fear me because I am not the kind they find easy to butcher. The casinos don’t want to see me around, much less pamper me lavishly or send me limousines. They would rather that I stay home, or play in other casinos, because against me, they are the milking cows. In most instances I was the lion who devoured whatever there was on their meal tables.
The casinos know that they cannot make big business from me. At times they won against me, and I was up for a beating. But the times when I won, it was bigger than they expected.
That is not fair for the casinos. I belong to the privileged few whose winnings are greater than their losses. If all gamblers gambled the way I do, the casinos would be in trouble. In fact, it is safe for me to say that if all gamblers used this System, the casinos would have, at most, six more months to survive. The only way they can avoid getting bankrupt is by increasing their in-built mathematical edge.
I believe that a gambler has the choice to become either the predator or the prey. When a gambler consistently loses, in my opinion, it is because he chooses to. He can actually become the winner if he chooses to be. This book provides the instructions on how he can achieve this.
It is now time for you to you make the switch, from a lamb to a lion, from a loser to a winner. It is not difficult to do. All you need is the awareness, and a little behavior modification. That’s all. There is no difficult formula to memorize, and it takes little time to learn. It’s as easy as snapping your fingers. There is nothing you lose but your losing days.
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The story began one summer many years ago. I was in my school library that time, skimming magazines, waiting for the bell to ring. Then I came across a magazine that featured a man who sued a casino association in America. My attention was immediately caught. I could not forget the face of the man. His name was Kenneth Uston.
The article said that the man sued the casino association because they barred him from getting in. The man argued that he should be allowed to get in like anyone, since a casino is a public place. He also argued that he was a tax-paying citizen, he was not a cheater, and he violated no law.
The reason the casinos barred the man was because he would always win. The article mentioned that the man and his team won a whopping 4.5 million dollars on their gambling binges in the U.S. casinos. At one point the man alone won 47,500 dollars in only 45 minutes of playing. He was what they called a sharp, a counter, an expert Blackjack player. This kind of player counts the cards as they are dealt, and by doing so, is able to know what cards are left, and make decisions based on the remaining deck. In short, the man could beat casino Blackjack by his own skill without having to cheat. If the casinos allowed the man to play Blackjack over an extended period of time, the man would always come out a winner in the end. Pretty cool, don’t you think?
So that was why the casinos barred Mr. Uston.
If a casino employee spotted him inside, they would throw him out before he could even start playing. Mr. Uston tried every conceivable way to get to the casinos. He tried disguises. He employed the services of a Hollywood make-up artist to do his disguises. He would put on false teeth and a wig to make him look like a British aristocrat or a cowboy. At first it worked but then the casinos caught up with him. The casinos hired detectives to follow his every move. Therefore, when Mr. Uston arrived at a casino in whatever disguise, the detectives would warn the casino, and he would be stopped at the door. When he ran out of casinos to play in, he sued the casino association.
Mr. Uston was a top student back in his college days at Yale University. In his job at the San Francisco Stock Exchange, he occupied a top position, a Senior Vice President. But he left his job that paid him 42,500 dollars salary, and for six years he studied Blackjack. When he became an expert on it he began his casino exploits. In his first try he won 3,000 dollars and he never looked back since then.
Of all things I had read, this had the biggest impact in my life. Mr. Uston’s story consumed me. It gave me a different kind of excitement. I became so engrossed that I read it several times not wanting to miss a word. When the bell rung I skipped my class and took the magazine home.
I was a sophomore in college that time, taking a business management course at Saint Columban College, one of the local colleges. I thought that day would not be different to any other day but it was. I had no idea it was the beginning of a very different journey I would later take.
That night I was not able to sleep - I kept thinking of the kind of person Kenneth Uston is. I wondered how he was able to accomplish such a very rare feat. For me, winning in gambling is the perfect venue where superior intellect is proven to work. I thought he must be some kind of a genius or something, with a photographic memory. I could not believe it is possible to count the cards and remember what cards are still remaining. If I hadn’t read it from a reputable news magazine, I wouldn’t have believed it.
Ken Uston mystified me and became my hero. His kind of work and the life he lived fascinated me. I believed that his job (playing Blackjack for a living), was the ultimate job for me too. I thought the job was the best in the world, better than that of James Bond or managing a company. If it is true that a person’s success in his job depends on whether or not his personality fits it, then I will not have trouble succeeding in this job. It seemed as though the job was tailored for me.
My imagination went wild. I saw myself like my hero. I imagined myself continually winning at any casino, traveling first class around the world, staying in first class hotels, eating nothing but gourmet foods, and owning fast cars and beautiful pads in every part of the globe. Ken Uston ignited the entrepreneurial spirit in me - he inspired me to dream.
The plan I set for myself suddenly changed. I did not know what Blackjack is and I had never seen how it is played but I had decided it was going to be my game. I also had never been to a casino but I decided it was the best place to hang around for the rest of my life. It did not bother me that learning the game might be a hindrance. I am a fairly intelligent person, and with the will to learn, I knew I could also succeed.
I decided to follow my idol’s footsteps even though I knew it was not possible yet because there was no casino in Pagadian City, my home town. It’s a beautiful mountainous city in the Philippines, 2,000 miles south of Manila. I would have to travel 500 miles just to be in the nearest casino, in Cebu City. I was still a student and it was impractical to leave my studies just to be gambler. Besides, I did not have the resources to finance the venture.
The excitement lasted several weeks. Whenever I had the opportunity I would go on to tell my friends or anyone who would listen about my hero and about the prospect of making a living in the casinos. My friends showed interest, but none of them showed the deep interest that I had.
I spent the next several weeks looking for any book about Blackjack and about casinos. I scanned the bookstores in our city but I was not able to find any. I also asked my friends if they had been to a casino so I could get some stories about them, but none of them had been there yet. After several months of not having anything to read about casinos or Blackjack the memory of my hero started to fade.
In the next few years I went on to finish my college studies and was eventually accepted to teach management subjects at Southern Mindanao Colleges, one other local college in my city. I was only 21 that time, the youngest in the faculty.
Being young and new to the job, I had to work double time to keep up with its demands. I did not have any extra time then as I spent most of it delving into books. I did love my work - it gave me a natural high when I heard comments on how I put myself into it. I enjoyed the company of students. Somehow I had forgotten my first entrepreneurial dream. Many times I thought I would be spending the rest of my life in my new teaching job.
But in the years that followed something unexpected happened - I became bored with my job. I felt I had mastered my subjects and was just repeating them. Being in the classroom had ceased to excite me; even worse, it became a punishment. I was no longer the productive worker I once was. Getting up for school every morning became more and more difficult to do. I was becoming ineffectual. It was unfair for the school and my students. Somehow, I had to get out of the mess I was in.
That’s when I remembered my hero, Kenneth Uston. I realized six years had already passed since I first knew him. The dream of following my hero had awoken. I felt that I had no other alternative but to give my dream a chance. Unlike before, I now had the resources to finance the venture.
The first thing I did was look for the book “Beat the Dealer”, which Ken Uston used in his study of Blackjack. I scanned all the bookstores in my city again hoping to get a copy but it was still not available. I also traveled to other cities just to find a copy. Still none. Then I found a bookstore in Las Vegas that sells gambling books. It was available by mail order. I was very excited. The day it arrived I could, for the first time, glimpse how casino Blackjack is played.
I later learned that on the same day I received the book, Ken Uston died of heart failure in a Paris hotel. He was only 52.
The book was not much to look at - small and very cheap. But it was a very powerful book, providing instructions on how a gambler can beat casino Blackjack under the usual rules. The book was the first weapon used by early Blackjack experts in beating the casinos. Its author, Dr. Edward Thorp, a very respectable Mathematics professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was a counter himself. With the help of a computer, Dr. Thorp was able to determine the correct and exact decisions to make in every card combination against the dealer’s any up card.
When the book was first published it was a sensational bestseller. The first wave of gamblers who had read the book stormed Las Vegas casinos to try their newly learned skills. As a result of the book’s power the Las Vegas casinos changed the Blackjack rules. The new rules resulted in an increase of casino advantage. But it did not last long and the casinos eventually returned to the old rules. They realized that the book, instead of being a threat, was actually a big help to their industry.
Because of the book the casinos’ business increased tremendously as more people played Blackjack knowing it could be beaten. But only very few were able to follow the book’s very difficult instructions, so only very few posed a real threat. Therefore, even when the casinos put themselves up against expert players they still made big money from the vast majority of gamblers.
The book contains a basic strategy for playing Blackjack. Basic strategy means the optimum way to play the game that limits the casino’s in-built mathematical edge to the barest minimum. The basic strategy contains decisions on what to do with every card combination against the dealer’s up card without having to keep track of the cards.
Dr. Thorp was the first to find that casino Blackjack is a beatable game. He asserted that in other games, say craps, the previous event does not affect the event that follows. However, in Blackjack, the previous event does have an influence in the succeeding event. For example, in craps, if you rolled the dice and six came up it may come up again. But in Blackjack, if in the first deal all the Aces showed, then no Ace would show again until the deck is through.
With the help of a computer Dr. Thorp found that there are cards that help the dealer and there are cards that help the player. He grouped them as high cards (10s, Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces) as those favoring the player, and low cards (2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, and 6s) as those favoring the dealer. In order to win all the players have to do is count the cards as they are dealt. If the remaining deck became rich with high cards they could then bet big in the succeeding deals as the favor had shifted from the dealer to the player. Dr. Thorp had devised every playing strategy for whatever count was in the range.
The book chronicles Dr. Thorp’s exploits in the casinos. It tells of his experiences as a counter playing Blackjack in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. We can also read about the colorful personalities that beat the game even before the advent of any Blackjack book. They were only very few and they discovered for themselves that Blackjack is beatable through empirical means. That was, they dealt thousands of hands at home to establish the correct decisions to make.