The Hangover
The Hangover is a 2009 American comedy film, and it’s the first instalment in The Hangover Trilogy. It tells the story of four friends who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party to celebrate Doug’s impending marriage. However, it all goes belly up once they get to Las Vegas. Luckily this is Sin City where what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
The Hangover was filmed in Caesar’s Palace, and the plot was inspired by a real event that happened to Tripp Vinson a producer and friend of executive producer Chris Bender of the Hangover trilogies. Vinson had gone missing from his bachelor party blacking out and waking up in a strip club. He was threatened by Management and held responsible for a massive bill.
Bringing Down the House
In The Hangover Alan, the oddball has read a book on card counting, and they decide to head off to a Blackjack Table. Alan sits down at the table and watches the cards intently when he finally decides to start betting big and surprisingly wins.
The night gets wilder in the worlds ultimate party town, and an oasis of wild debauchery occurs with them losing the groom and not remembering a thing about the events of the evening. It depicts the craziness of Vegas and how the atmosphere of the gambling Mecca leads to all kinds of craziness.
Conclusion
Ask yourself how much debauchery can four guys commit in one night in Vegas and then not know what happened! Well if you watch the Hangover, it’s filled with the glitz, glamour and adrenalin rush of winning at the tables. Furthermore, it involves landing up in some of the seedier parts of Vegas and accidentally taking roofies. No wonder people say that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
Introduction
Dr Edward Oakly Thorp is a math’s genius who beat the dealer and the market. Born August 14, 1932, in Chicago, he has degrees from various US Universities. He is a math’s professor, author, hedge fund manager and a Blackjack researcher.
Dr Edward Thorp used computers to devise a system for uncovering mathematical advantages at the Blackjack table and thereby proving that it was not a game of luck. He subsequently published a book appropriately titled Beat the Dealer. His bestseller laid out a card counting system that remains in use today.
Testing his Theories
Thorp took to Reno, Lake Tahoe and Vegas to test his theories at the local Blackjack Tables. The experimental results proved victorious, and he won $11 000 in a single week. In addition to his Blackjack activities, Thorp also assembled a Baccarat team which was also victorious. He became an instant celebrity amongst Blackjack aficionados.
While working at MIT as a Professor of Mathematics Thorp met Claude Shannon who co-developed the wearable computer which Thorps Blackjack team wore at the casino as they targeted Blackjack and Roulette. Proof if needed that even before mobile roulette apps became oular there was high interest in the casino game. In 1985 with the passing of the Nevada Devices Law the wearable computer got banned from casinos in Nevada.
Thorp also devised the “Thorp Count” which was a method for calculating the likelihood of winning certain end game positions in Backgammon which also turned out to be successful.
In a Nutshell
This Father of card counting and a mathematic genius started a revolution in Las Vegas as well as Wall Street through his card counting techniques and truly changed the game forever. He gambled against some of the greatest gamblers and proved false premise that the house always wins. Thorp’s achievements have led him to become an inaugural member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame.
The Hustler
The Hustler is a 2019 crime drama based on the New York magazine’s 2015 article “The Hustlers at Score.” This film follows a crew of streetwise former strip club employees who band together, turning the tables on their Wall Street clients.
This Hollywood blockbuster stars Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu and the plot is based on real-life events of the likes of Samantha Barbash and Roselyn Keo who were arrested and charged for hustling their clients but served little to no jail time.
Hustlers the Movie
This group of savvy strippers in New York begin stealing money from their high profile clients like Coe’s and Stock traders by drugging them and running up their credit cards. This plot is thought up when Destiny (Jennifer Lopez) and her protégé find themselves out of a job when the financial crisis of 2007 strikes. The hustle begins proving to be very lucrative for the group. They cut their ties with Moves ( the name of the strip club ) and venture out on their own. Their reasoning was that they would be able to keep all of their earnings.
They become more adventurous, and greed sets in as always, be it gambling or hustling as the outcomes are the same. The more money one makes, the more reckless people become, leading to their downfall. This is precisely what happened to this hustling crime ring. Their initial aim was to hustle the Wall Street Bankers who they believed to be responsible for the 2008 market crash, not hurt and destroy innocent people’s lives.
Conclusion
The Hustler film is more than just a girl’s gone wild movie. It has emotional depth, is funny, sexy, empowering and highlights the fact that no matter who you hustle, every hustle has collateral damage to the victim or the hustler.
About Stanford Wong
John Ferguson, also known by his pen name Stanford Wong is known as the “guru” of Blackjack, and a member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame. Born in 1943 Wong started playing Blackjack in 1964 while teaching finance courses at San Francisco State University.
Not content with a life of teaching, he decided to pursue his gambling career. He published his first book in 1975 called Professional Blackjack. Wong also developed a computer programme initially for personal use called Blackjack Analyzer. However, it became one of the first commercially available Blackjack odds analyzing software programmes in the market.
Stanford Wong has also appeared on many televised Blackjack Tournaments as a contestant. Furthermore, he also owns a publishing house Pi Yee Press based in Las Vegas and has published books by other authors on Gambling.
Achievements
Wong started playing Blackjack in 1964 and in 1980 he made the term “wong” or “wonging” popular. This term has come to mean a specific advantage technique in Blackjack and involves watching a play of cards in a game without wagering your own money until the count becomes advantageous. Wonging is the reason many casinos have signs on some of their Blackjack Tables saying “No Mid Shoe Entry.”
Wong has also acted as a consultant for Blackjack writers and researchers, and they include well-known aficionados on the game like Don Schlesinger and Ian Anderson. Wong also wrote a book called Wong on Dice which purported to reveal how to beat the odds on Craps through controlled dice throwing. He also has an official website Stanford Wongs BJ21 which has been around since 1997 and contains a subscribers-only area called Green Chip.
This Blackjack legend has dedicated his life to Blackjack. He has written many books on various casino games and his name Stanford, which is his alma mater name combined with Wong certainly creates the mystique of the Orient and adds to his allure.