However, many people try to overcome the
casino’s advantage by using some strategy which they believe will help them to
“beat the odds”. One of these strategies
is known as card counting. This involves counting the various cards which are
used in games such as blackjack. Knowing which cards have already been used and
which ones are left would certainly give the player an advantage. This
technique is not illegal, but if the casino believes that you are counting
cards they will more than likely ask you to leave.
Some people use various other techniques,
either legal or illegal to gain an advantage.
Since the casino can potentially lose a large amount of money they are
always looking for those people who attempting to manipulate the odds in favor
of the player. If illegal methods are
used, that person will be arrested and will likely be sent to jail.
The idea of gaining an advantage while
gambling is certainly nothing new. In
the play The Queen of Spades 1
by Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799-1837) this issue is dealt with. The main character is Hermann, an ethnic German,
who is an officer in the Imperial Russian Army.
Like many soldiers, his friends often play cards, but Hermann never
plays cards with them. One evening
another officer, Tomsky, tells Hermann a story about his grandmother who is now
an 87 year old countess.
Many years earlier, the countess had been
playing cards in France and initially had lost quite a bit of money. However, she then learned a secret regarding
three cards and apparently had won back all the money she had lost. There is no indication that Tomsky had
actually ever learned this secret nor is there any indication that he had used
the secret if he had learned it.
Even though Hermann is not a gambler, he
becomes obsessed with the idea of finding out what this secret is. In order to
do this he must meet the countess, but instead of approaching her directly he
finds out that she has a young ward named Lizavyeta Ivanovna. Hermann begins sending love letters to
Lizavyeta asking her to let him into the house.
Not surprisingly, Lizavyeta is taken by
the attention she has received from a Russian Army officer and invites him to
the house. Hermann aggressively
confronts the countess and demands that she tell him the secret of the three winning
cards. Initially, she tells him that the
secret is not real, but only a joke, but he does not believe her. He asks her a second time, but she remains
silent. At this point he decides to try again; however, this time he confronts
her with a pistol. At this point the
elderly countess dies of fright.
Hermann, who is now completely scared,
Lizavyeta confesses to her that he killed the countess. His only defense is that the pistol was not
loaded. Lizavyeta helps him to escape from the house even though she is annoyed
by the fact that his love letters were simply a rouse to allow him to meet the
countess.
He attends the countess’ funeral and is
terrified when the countess opens her eyes and looks at him as she is lying in
her coffin. Later that evening, her
ghost appears to him. The ghost tells him the secret of the three cards (three,
seven, and ace) and that he must play once each night and marry Lizavyeta. On the first night, he bets it all on the
three and wins. On the second night, he wins on the seven. On the third night,
he bets on the ace - but when cards are shown, he finds he has bet on the Queen
of Spades, rather than the ace, and loses everything. When the Queen appears to
wink at him, he flees in terror.
Hermann goes mad and is committed to an
asylum.
He is installed in Room 17 at the
Obukhov hospital; he answers no questions, but merely mutters with unusual
rapidity: 'Three, seven, ace! Three, seven, queen!' 2
There is a tradition in Russian literature
that negative actions on the part of a particular character are ultimately
connected with them going insane. This
can be seen in Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) and
several other novels. Hermann’s actions were not only immoral, but illegal and instead
of benefitting from the information he received, he ends up going insane and
losing everything. This would definitely
qualify him as being unlucky at cards.
End Notes
1) “The Queen of Spades” http://www.classicreader.com/book/2154/1/
(English translation) [accessed 4/30/12]
2) “The Queen of Spades” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Queen_of_Spades_(story)
(accessed 4/30/12)
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