2022 Tournament recap at the Cromwell

I had the privilege to participate in the 2022 Spin to Win tournament at the Cromwell last July. I was excited to be chosen since it was a chance to pit Breaking Roulette against a field of over 200 players. The 2021 tournament was held at the Paris casino and that tournament got full in matter of hours. These tournaments aren’t open to the public, so those invited must have been rated well by the casino to participate.

After getting there and registering, the rules of the tournament stated no writing materials were to be allowed during play. For an average mortal, this would be bad since The Book of Numbers has 228 different patterns to memorize. But since I wrote each, I had an idea of what chips to play and where.

I didn’t mention that earlier that summer, somehow I had sprained my ankle, and it developed into a most painful joint that didn’t like anything except for me to be in bed. It flared up constantly from June -August where it had to be in a full ankle boot. Even if I could get a refund on the airline tickets, I missed the last tournament and I wasn’t going to miss this one.

The tournament began with random selection of player assigned to their wheels for the semi-finals. The table would send only one player to the final table. We had a regulated 30 second window to place our bets (which is exactly what I trained myself and recommend players to do also when playing the game). So with 7 other players we played our version “twister” to place bets on the table in that 30 second window.

We had basically 3 types of players: the burnout, the sleeper, and the lucky.

The burnout makes heavy bets everywhere without rhyme or reason. They bet hard and sloppy and they tend to last a couple rounds before all their chips were gone.

The sleeper, by contrast, would make the bare minimum bet. They figure everyone else would be a burnout, and they planned to cross the finish line like the tortoise against the hare.

I played differently. I had to blend in to the table so the first few bets I played about 25% of my bankroll. I made small profits of like 10-20% so I won small but I still was putting a lot of chips out so I looked like a burnout. The sleepers still played small, and the burnouts were not having luck so they started dropping out.

One of the premises that Breaking Roulette works under is that although the ball has no memory, the dealer does, and after seeing few spins, I could gage them and was able to bet all-in on my patterns, stay in the game, and gained on the leaders.

That added pressure on those that still in burnout mode to keep burning out, betting hard, and the sleepers were on tilt worried that no one else would fall out before the last round, so they changed their play.

Now comes the third type of player: the lucky. The masters of pure luck. These are the ones who swear they never played the game before. Or they have no strategy other that using their aunties’ birthday, or some footballers’ number, or nothing else logical to make a bet. So, you think they’ll be first out? Wrong! They’re the ones that hit huge time and time again. For some reason those lucky ducks were the front runners.

I had made good gains and I was in third place when we came to the final round. I had tracked the dealer and I was sure the next spin was going to be the Number 2, so I laid out the “2 Mark Eight” pattern and reinforced as many bets as possible going all in. The ball was spun, and the result was the Number 0! Which is right next to the Number 2 so I won my bets. And my bankroll soared, and chips were counted up. The last burnout was wiped out. The sleepers came in last. And I, using Breaking Roulette, triumphantly came in … second.

So just like “Top Gun” there are no points for second place. I battled again by wildcard draw and came in second again, and that was good for $500 in prize money. I finished overall 11^th in the tournament. It always feels good to pull a good win out at the last second, and my mission to validate Breaking Roulette in these conditions was a success.

My picture of me shows my boot, which I claim happened from “kicking a$$ in the tournament”. Overall, I’m pleased with my systems’ performance and we’ll get another chance to showcase it. There’s always next year. Get your own copy of Breaking Roulette and practice!