Photo from The New York Times
Ex-Casino Hustler Shares Story, Tips for Success
By John Strahan
A man sits down at a blackjack table and begins to play a few hands. After a while the man crosses his arms in front of himself. That is the cue. Michael Aponte sees the gesture from a crowd and sits beside the man at the table. Aponte proceeds to place a large bet on the next hand and wins. It may seem like a coincidence, but Aponte and his partner are actually using a system to count cards and beat the casino.
Fast forward 15 years, Aponte stands in front of a group of students and several parents in the Lory Student Center’s East Ballroom on Feb. 7. A medium sized man in his thirties with short black hair and a dark complexion, Aponte recounts the methods and stories that made him a successful part of the MIT card counting team in the 1990’s.
To some the story might ring a bell. That’s because Aponte is the man who inspired the main character Ben Campbell in the motion picture 21.
But Aponte explains that the movie took more than a few artistic liberties with what really happened.
He explains that no players from the team were ever dragged into a dark casino backroom and beat up and no one had to hide $100,000 in their dorm room.
“And as you can see, I’m not a thin white guy,” said Aponte with a smile referring to actor Jim Sturgess who played a character based on Aponte in the film.
After Aponte explained that he had no part in the making of the movie he turned back to his story. He found out about the card counting club from a friend during his senior year at MIT and decided to join.
After he found out that card counting truly worked they put it to use in Los Vegas using a method known as the Big Player Strategy. In the strategy one man counts the cards, then signals for another player to come place a large bet when the cards were in their favor.
The strategy paid off in a big way.
Aponte told of all the free things casinos gave him and the team for being high rollers including an all-expense paid trip to Aspen.
“During the week I was a regular college student eating cafeteria food,” said Aponte. “But on the weekend I was a high roller eating lobster and fillet mignon.”
At the end of it all, the 25-person MIT card counting team netted a collective $10 million.
But all the winning eventually caught up with Aponte as he began to be recognized and getting barred from entering casinos. While card counting is legal, it is also legal for owners to restrict who plays in their casino.
Today, Aponte explains, most casinos in the world will not let him enter.
“I’m probably the world’s best know blackjack player,” said Aponte in response to whether or not he could ever go back to playing. “I’m done.”
Instead of gambling, Aponte now follows other interests like teaching high school kids. He also teaches blackjack on the side and recently became the winner of the first World Series of Blackjack.
I love this movie! This was a very cool story, and interesting to see the differences between the movie and the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteGood use of quotes, but the lead takes a while to get into the meat of the story.
ReplyDeleteThis story has a great topic. I love the movie 21, and I thought it was so cool that the author got a chance to talk to the man who inspired the movie. I also had no idea card counting was legal. The lead was effective with a recount of a scenario that the subject played. The ending quote could have been a little more played out, and not have stopped so abruptly. Why is he done playing blackjack, even though he still teaches it? Other than that, the topic was interesting and the story drew me in.
ReplyDeleteI think this was a fun topic,and I like the feature-writing approach you took with description.
ReplyDeleteBut the story felt very one-sided, mainly because Aponte was your only source of quotes. Next time, try to gather some student opinions, and I also think it would be beneficial to talk to another card player about their opinion of Aponte and card counting.