21 Page #5

Micky, I didn't play

into a cold deck three times.

You know what's worse than a loser?

Someone who won't admit

he played it wrong.

Take it up with Ida.

Who's Ida?

- Who the hell is Ida?

- Shut up.

- Who the hell is Ida?

- Shut up.

There goes that paycheck.

- Money plays.

- Money plays, up to the limit.

How's she doing?

Oh, that doesn't matter, man.

The way I see it, yesterday's history,

tomorrow's a mystery.

It's all what you do in the moment, baby.

Just lost another property.

- Who is it this time, Caesars or the Mirage?

- Caesars.

That was a 14-year account.

- They opted to go with the new software.

- I know, Terry, I know.

Hey, Cole. We got absolutely murdered in

pits four and five the last couple of nights.

Okay, Clark, I'll take a look at the tape.

By the way, you wanna lose the cigarette?

There's no smoking in here, you know that.

I appreciate it.

End of an era, my friend.

Ben. Time for school.

I seem to keep waking up to you.

Don't get used to it.

I'm glad you came over this morning.

- I have something I wanna give you.

- Oh, yeah?

I want you to have this.

What's this?

That's a lot of money.

I've been saving for a long time.

It's for medical school.

I know it won't pay the whole way,

but it should help.

Ma, I can't take this.

This is your money.

You worked hard for this.

For precisely this reason. I wanna help pay

for med school, Dr. Campbell.

Well, you know what? You don't have to.

'Cause I got the Robinson Scholarship.

Yep, they're gonna pay the whole way.

- Why didn't you tell me?

- Well, because I wanted it to be a surprise.

And actually, I just found out today.

I can't believe it! Oh, my God!

This is amazing. I am so proud of you.

- I knew the hard work would pay off.

- Yeah, I know.

So, listen, you keep this, all right?

It's yours.

What are you doing?

I'm just jumping up and down on my bed.

What? You never did that

when you were a kid?

- No. Not really, never.

- No.

Right.

All right.

So where were you this weekend?

I tried calling you, like, 15 times.

Oh, yeah? I ended up

having to go to New Hampshire

to help my cousin move.

You didn't bring your cell phone?

Your cell? Your phone?

You didn't bring that?

No, I forgot it. I ended up leaving it here.

So, you know.

Yeah, well, you missed

a hell of a dorm party on Saturday.

Oh, yeah?

We almost had a girl there.

- Republik?

- Yes.

Let's do it!

She is an eight.

- No way. She's a 7.649.

- I was rounding up.

Hey, I thought we agreed

we weren't gonna round up anymore.

That's right.

But if we win the 2.09, I'm asking her out.

Wait. Ben? Ben, you only owe eight bucks.

Hey. Can I get you a beer?

- Sure.

- Yeah? Okay.

Excuse me. Can I get two Bud Lights?

Hey.

- How you doing?

- I'm okay.

- Yeah?

- Yeah.

Thank you.

Are those your friends over there?

No. No, I've never seen them before

in my life.

Could you just excuse me for one second?

Guys, I'm serious.

What are you doing? You're staring.

Yeah, we know.

Yeah, well, can you not?

I think it's gonna freak her out a bit,

don't you think?

Yeah, I got a feeling we're a little

more freaked out than she is right now.

So how do you know her?

Did you, like, take some self-help seminar

or something?

What?

- Jedi mind trick, huh?

- Jedi mind trick. Like that Luke.

- You will drink beer.

- Right. Right, right.

There is a fortune on the table now,

and it's all up to my dad.

It's getting ridiculous.

He actually needs to stop the table play,

track down my uncle and take a loan.

- No, are you serious?

- Yeah.

They let him, and he does.

He ends up with, like, two 19s and two 20s.

The dealer turns over a 17.

It's soft. He needs to take another card.

No. Don't say a four. Is it a four?

- It's a four, yeah.

- It's a four. My God.

Not a great Christmas that year.

So, what does he think about what you do?

Does he know?

Oh, no, he's long gone, Ben.

My dad's gone, too.

So, you know, when you came into the store

to ask me to join the team,

was that because...

What?

Well, you know,

was it because Micky asked you to?

Look, we've had three classes together.

You gave that presentation

on combinatorial algorithms

that nobody understood.

You're the smartest person in every single

one of those classes, Ben.

That is why you're on the team.

And that's why I came into the store.

No, no, not so much...

- Oh, God. I'm so, so sorry.

- No. It's fine.

- It's not a problem.

- I don't know why I just did that.

- Don't apologize.

- Are you sure?

Yes. Sh*t, this is my stop.

- You're getting off here?

- Yeah, I've gotta get off.

But, really, don't worry about it.

I don't know,

it's just'cause we've been drinking, and...

It's just we're on a team, we work together.

- I get it.

- Just don't feel bad about this.

Okay. Sure. Bye.

My world was flashing by

at a million miles a minute.

I had saved over $100,000.

Only $200,000 to go.

But there was still one thing

I couldn't get off my mind.

The moment we left campus,

the concept of vectors and formulas

were replaced with counting,

shuffle tracking

knowing when to hit

and knowing when to color out.

I was becoming a pro on all levels.

I made more money in one trip to Vegas

than I would have in 5 years, 9 months,

In Boston, I was just Ben Campbell.

But in Vegas, I could be anyone I wanted.

You know what I'm gonna do?

You know what I'm gonna do?

I'm gonna throw a half-mill down

on the one hand. Come on. Hit me!

One night, I'd be the high-rolling heir

to a pharmaceutical fortune.

Leon, could you make sure

there's some champagne,

maybe some strawberries

waiting in there for me.

I may not be alone.

The next, I'd be the hottest video game

designer on the West Coast.

There it is.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

No, please, keep going.

This video's priceless.

I'm not gonna lie.

It did get, well, a little confusing sometimes.

Operator, how can I help you?

Yeah, room service.

Excuse me?

Honey, we don't do room service.

What do you mean,

you don't do room service?

I mean, we don't do room service.

In Boston, we had a secret.

In Vegas, we had a life.

Micky said I was gonna have more fun

than I could possibly imagine.

And he was right.

- Hey, Jamie. There you go.

- Nice.

It was too good to be true.

There you go. All right,

my night just got better. Thank you, Joe.

And it felt like it was never going to end.

Clark? I think I got something over here.

Take a look at this.

That guy? He's a kid.

He was on the tape from last week.

Got a big roll and he's crushing your table.

Plus, he ordered a tonic and lime.

Tonic and lime. What does that mean?

It means he wants you

to think he's drinking.

Okay. So is he counting

or is he just getting lucky?

He's not running a progressive system.

He doubled on 10 when the deck was heavy,

but he didn't on 11 when it got lighter.

- How can you tell if it's heavy or light?

- I'm counting.

You...

Tell me something, Cole,

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