But I am sure my reluctance to meet other players, players that could have taught me a thing or twenty has worked against me as well. One of the top Table game AP's in the country, has been critical of me saying that I was slow to progress from a "salamander". That should tell you who. That is mostly because I LIKE being a salamander, but surely I could have benefited from meeting some AP's especially after I moved to Vegas.

One such guy is Stanford Wong. And here is my Stanford Wong story. I was reluctant to meet Wong and attend the green chip parties because Wong had worked as a consultant for the casinos. So I never did. So one night I am playing blackjack at the Westin at Flamingo and Koval. They had pretty lousy blackjack at the time (not sure they even have live blackjack anymore), but it was one of the 3 casinos within a half block walk of my Condo at the time Tuscany and Ellis Island were the others....that should tell you were my first Condo was.

So as I was walking out from the Westin, I spot Stanford Wong (I was on BJ21, so had seen his picture) playing the electronic blackjack game. You know the one with 5 seats and the rotation video dealers with big boobs. So I thought, hummm. I sit down and start playing and strike up a conversation with Wong. I never tell him who I was, but we played for about 3 hours and he taught me how to beat that game. I saw him a second time a few weeks later at the same game. I guess he liked it at the time.

So just imagine if I had met some of the "right" people. I probably could have learned all kinds of things. But again, I like blackjack card counting and making a living from that most elementary of AP plays having put my own little spin on it. So I have no regrets and that includes my reluctance to meet many other AP's. I really has served me well.