I didn't realize how late it was until I'd already started driving south to Santo Domingo. A glance at my watch showed it was just after midnight. I was about to embark on the most surrealistic ride of my life. There were people and animals constantly in the road, even at 1 :00 a.m. I soon concluded that the chicken population of the Dominican Republic greatly outnumbered humans. The heat of the day causes many creatures to come alive during the night. There are virtually no streetlights, and I nearly hit a stray pig and a pair of amorous donkeys.
I got lost numerous times and nervously had to stop and ask shady-looking characters for directions; some of whom probably would have killed me if they had any inkling of how much cash I carried. I had consulted a map before leaving and estimated the trip would take about two hours, but the highway hardly compared to an American interstate, and I drove six hours before I saw the first sign for Santo Domingo.
A violent storm blew in from the mountains and flashes of lightning provided an eerie picture of the darkened countryside. The road was in terrible condition, and my little tin box of a rental car shook intensely on every pothole. The battered auto finally limped into Santo Domingo just before dawn and just before running out of gas. It certainly was an ill-advised trip, and looking back today, I feel very lucky to have survived. So there can be a downside to exotic locales. Did the great rules and table conditions make up for the risk? In retrospect, I'm not so sure I would do it again. But earlier in my career I was much younger, hungrier, and more adventuresome. Let me recount a couple of more memorable trips I took abroad and let you decide if they were wise, unwise, or otherwise.
Asia
A number of tremendous blackjack casino gaming opportunities arose in the Orient during the 1970s and 1980s. For some reason Asian gamblers hated to hit their stiffs and often openly ridiculed players who violated this cultural taboo. It was so deeply ingrained that it seemed like part of some vow they had to take as infants. Their playing style led to some highly unusual rules in the Orient, which created several profitable situations for card counters. A few countries offered a version of five-card Charlie, a popular variation used in friendly home games but one you'd never find in Vegas.
Since the majority of their Asian customers didn't hit their stiffs and rarely played their hands correctly, this rule cost these casinos very little. However, calculations by blackjack whiz Stanford Wong showed that this little rule could yield huge profits to skilled players. His research resulted in several big-money card counters and blackjack teams hitting Malaysia, Macao, and Korea over a number of years.
I made a trip to Asia with my good friend Mickey to take advantage of these great rules, but unfortunately we arrived toward the end of the party. The games were still good, but the pit bosses tended to look at any Caucasian with deep suspicion. Very few American tourists chanced upon their games, and most who did were pros.
Strategy to Play
The strategy to best exploit this five-card rule and gambling was fairly complicated. Since Wong formulated matrix numbers for only the Hi-Lo count, Mickey and I each had to switch from the multilevel systems we normally played and learn Hi- Lo just for that one trip. And there were many variations to consider, since a three-card 13 or a four card 15 required a different strategy than its two-card relative.
Learning how to beat the game ended up being the least of our problems. We killed every casino in the entire country. Our wins sounded outlandish, since they easily ran over a million a day. The only problem was that it was a million in Korean currency. Still, it felt great to tuck 5 million into your pocket, even if it only translated into a few thousand dollars.