DailyDirt: Beating The Odds

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Everyone knows that the odds always favor the house, but every once in a while, someone figures out a way to beat the system. Here are just a few examples of clever folks who have succeeded and earned some significant winnings. By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.
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Filed Under: blackjack, casinos, gambling, lottery tickets, press your luck, price is right, scratchers


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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Mar 2012 @ 8:05pm

    Press Your Luck

    That story has been around for quite some time now. There was a TV special all about it, chronicling what happened, how he did it, and the view point of the other contestants, the people working the show, etc. They even had the other contestants back from that episode to show them how it was done and let them try to do it a little bit.

    I'm not sure if the article talks about it, but the sad part is, the guy was a bit insane and ended up squandering away the money he won in an effort to use that money to "break" other contests/game shows like he did there.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Michael Ho (profile), 21 Mar 2012 @ 11:32pm

      Re: Press Your Luck

      It's an old story, but a fascinating one, nonetheless. I fully expect there to be a movie loosely based on Larson's life -- somewhat like Punch Drunk Love.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 22 Mar 2012 @ 1:39am

      Re: Press Your Luck

      Yeah you can find the story on it on youtube. He memorized it to a fucking T lol but he was so nervous he messed up the first time. After that there was no stopping him 500 and a spin 1000 and a spin and so on. It would have been funny as hell if they changed the programming on it and made him fail the next day. But you're right he blew it all and I'm pretty sure that guy is dead now from cancer. Smoking's bad mkay. "Even though my uncle (well great great or some shit) smoked and drank every day till he was 97" Died from a cut and letting it get infected. Exact quote he told the doctors. "You're not taking this leg because I'm taking it straight to hell with me." I can hardly remember what the guy looks like since I was only 10 but how could anyone ever forget such a quote rofl!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    BentFranklin (profile), 21 Mar 2012 @ 9:55pm

    Larson should have sorted the $1 bills, at least into, say, 100x $1000 bins. Might have been a lot easier to check.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Mike Masnick (profile), 21 Mar 2012 @ 11:24pm

    Not counting cards

    The great thing about the Don Johnson story is that it had nothing to do with "counting cards," even though most people assume that's how you beat the house at blackjack...

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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