Chapter 7-12

Chapters 7-9: Kevin approached a derelict alley and found an underground casino in Chinatown. This was his test. If he could do well here gambling/counting cards, he would be able to become part of the team. Kevin was thrilled and also solicitous. When Kevin entered the casino, he burned up the tables. He was on fire and earned an abundance of money. The casino knew though, that the team counted cards and only let them come when new members needed to take the test. The casino would not let them keep the money. Kevin was congratulated because he passed the test! Martinez, Kevin, and Fisher were going to the MGM Grand to watch George Foreman and Michael Moorer wrestle. Kevin didn't tell Felicia about anything, though. He lied to Felicia to go on the plane! The relationship was not looking good because Kevin missed almost every dinner with Felicia. He never really even saw her anymore. Martinez told Kevin that everytime he's in a casino, he must know that there are "the Eyes in the Sky" watching him. There are fish-eye cameras that hang from the ceiling in the casino pit. There are also many of them in elevators, restaurants, and even in hotel hallways. Martinez then explained to Kevin about the book that's put together by a detective agency called Plymouth Associates hired by the casinos to catch the card counters and cheaters. Certain notorious card counters are in the Plymouth Facebook. Martinez's and Fisher's faces are not in the book but Micky's is on the first page. If casinos see the team hanging out with Micky, then they will ask them to leave. So, the team must obey. The casinos also might back room them, meaning they tell the people to come with them. They take you to probably the basement of the casino, take your picture, and tell you to sign something that says you won't come back to the casino. If you do, then you're legally trespassing and they can arrest you. So, you should just say "no" when they tell you to follow them. Then, the last tip Martinez told Kevin was, "Don't let some guy named Vinnie take you on any long drives out into the desert."

Chapters 10-12: The team booked rooms at hotels near each other with imposter names. Micky told the team the rules. He said, "Whenever we're in public, we don't know each other. We don't use our real names, and we never mention MIT. If you need to go back to one of the rooms to rest, make sure you go alone. Once we're in the rooms, we're okay--as far as I know, they don't put cameras in the rooms. But the hallways and elevators are definitely wired, so we have to make sure we stagger our breaks." Micky Rosa told the team to play in two shifts with five people on the floor at a time. Kevin thought that Kianna Lam and Brian were professionals and wanted to be just as good as him. He was extremely impressed. Kevin played a spotter and gestured Martinez to his positive fifteen count table. Martinez acted like a rich man from Southern California. Martinez received a huge amount of money. They brought back $20,000 that night and split it between the eight people in their team. Each person received $250 from just a night's work! Then it was fight night and celebrities from the Knick's basketball team came to play blackjack. Kevin crushed them and the Knick's basketball players even invited him to an after-fight party in a celebrity suite. Then something very outlandish happened--Kevin saw Sanjay Das, the Indian kid. Kevin had taken physics with him at MIT two years ago. Another time, Kevin was playing blackjack, and he met a woman named Teri Pollack. She was a 22 year old rookie cheerleader with the Saint Louis Rams. She even gave Kevin her phone number! Kevin was so amazed by his good luck that he didn't see the man in the suit walk over to him. The man told Kevin that Kevin was not allowed to play blackjack here anymore. Kevin just said, "I never liked this casino anyway. Smells too much like smoke," and walked away like Micky told him to do.

$$Connections$$

• Just like Kevin, I also noticed that there are cameras everywhere in a hotel. I would think that even more in a fancy hotel!
• I agree with Micky. I think that if you let the men in suits take you down to back rooms, you might be tortured. So, you shouldn't let the men take you to back rooms.