Chapter One: 25 over 21 – The rules of this funny game we call Blackjack

I occasionally dabbled in this game a mutual friend of ours Paul calls “21.” Not only did Paul call it by the name, but a movie was titled the number starring Kevin Spacey in early 2008 about a handful of Massachussetts Institute of Technology students led by their MIT Professor counting cards on their way to Las Vegas riches. There was definitely more to the story, but I’m not writing about them.

In most versions of the game Blackjack, players are dealt two cards face up with the dealer dealt one card face down and one up for players to see. You’re competing against the dealer to get a higher card count up through the value of 21. If you go over that amount, you bust and automatically lose your wager. Before you are dealt the two cards against the dealer, you have to bet the minimum amount the table requires you to the maximum limit. In some situations, you’re able to split your two cards to double your bet by adding the same amount of your original bet and getting an additional card for each of the two cards you split. This is a bit advanced, but for it’s important to understand for a later story that I heard when Brandon supposedly made more than six times the money he started with.

Chapter One: 25 over 21 – Just another night for Brandon

Brandon’s this 34 year old Asian American I met at an Indian Reservation casino in Auburn, Washington. He smiled his fair share when we talked making him very likeable on top of the fact when he trusted you, he opened up about many of the very private things that plagued or excited him in life.

When I first went to the Muckleshoot Casino to find some personalities I thought I could write about for my first venture into Biographical stories of every day people in the U.S., I never anticipated meeting someone like this guy who grew up in Puyallup of all places. He told me he worked for Expedia.com who many locally and even nationally admired at the time since their stock was at all time highs and was the leading travel website online. It was also associated with Microsoft, the local boon to the economy after it spun off from the company several years before. I thought anybody would be lucky to have landed a job like he did just 6 months before I met him.