The Wild Ride of Blackjack Superstar Don Johnson
Michael Kaplan, a journalist who specializes in gambling, is the author of Advantage Players: Inside the Winning World of Casino Virtuosos, Master Strategists, and Mathematical Wizards. He sat down with blackjack legend Don Johnson to hear the story behind one of the gambling world’s most remarkable runs.
Don Johnson famously won so much money from the Tropicana Atlantic City, just shy of $6 million in 12 hours, that he dented the casino’s monthly profits for April 2011. That big score was part of a blackjack rampage that generated millions in profits at the expense of gambling dens around the globe.
The years-long achievement helped Johnson to land his spot in the Blackjack Hall of Fame (check it out if you are at the Barona Resort and Casino in Lakeside, California, near San Diego) and makes him one of the gambling world’s most financially successful players.
But, enviable as his winnings might be, Johnson insists to Cafe Casino that it is not all about the Benjamins. “You can always find ways to make money,” says Johnson, who shares a name with the well-known actor and has lived a life that possesses all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster. “But beating the game? That was everything. And beating the game while making money changes the whole scope. You’re out there solving a puzzle.”
And what a puzzle it was. When Johnson’s play was at its peak, it came with a Swiss watch’s worth of moving parts. There were fellow advantage players at the table, all charged with spotting various opportunities, a trusted lieutenant signaling him on what moves to make, and a few seats that would be occupied by attractive women who ate cards with low stakes bets in case conditions deteriorated.
It was a wild ride, which Johnson knows a thing or two about. After all, his primary occupation has him running a math-driven team of computer scientists who use sophisticated probabilities to win fortunes at horse racing. That was already up and making money when, in 2009, Johnson heard about a casino deal that he knew he could exploit. It offered primo rules and a generous discount deal, which are rebates on gambling losses that get paid back to high rollers, both available to anyone with $1 million to put at risk.
“The deal was that you enter the casino with $1 million and can bet $100,000 per hand,” Johnson says, acknowledging that racing was going well enough to make him comfortable with the sums. “You get $50,000 for walking in and a 20 percent discount up to $500,000 [in losses].”
As Johnson puts it, he was already “monkeying around” with card counting. But this promised to be something much more profitable. He ran the numbers and recognized the edge he’d have at a game where players are at a relatively modest 0.5 percent disadvantage if they do nothing but play basic strategy. “When people ask if I was a professional blackjack player, I say no,” explains Johnson. “I tell them that I saw an opportunity and took advantage of it.”
It worked, and, understandably, at some casinos, which put up similar offerings, management did not love Johnson’s outcomes. After being backed off from playing blackjack at a now defunct Atlantic City spot called The Plaza, The Plaza – even though he executed an astute advantage play there and did not cheat or do anything illegal -Johnson found a more welcoming place to play in Caesars Atlantic City. His big night there was memorable. Deploying a combination of advantage plays, aided by a collaborator, Johnson went on an incredible run that resulted in a win of more than $4 million of profit.
He admits that his skills were augmented with good fortune: “If I played that situation 500 or 1,000 more times, I don’t think I could get that lucky again.”
By sunrise, Caesars AC had had enough. “The [chip] tray was down to black and green chips,” recalls Johnson, referring to denominations of $100 and $25, respectively. Explaining that he had cleaned out all the higher denomination chips, he adds, “I looked around and said, ‘I assume there won’t be another fill.’ The manager shook his head.”
But there was something bigger than that win. Following the session at Caesars, Johnson entered a gambling partnership for the ages.
Working with card-playing geniuses Keith Burks and James Grosjean (who recently authored a book titled The Ultimate Report: The Book for Casino Carny Games, which is well worth reading if you enjoy playing the likes of Mississippi Stud and Ultimate Texas Hold’em), Johnson put his operation into overdrive.
“They wrote some computer programs for me that had to do with rules of blackjack relative to discounts,” says Johnson, adding that plays went down with his two partners at the table, executing high-level strategies. “We beat the Venetian; we beat the Wynn; I created a slush fund to seem like a high roller in the nightclubs. That made me look like somebody other than an advantage player. Guys who blow money in the nightclubs are there to have fun, not to win money at the tables.”
It worked. The three gamblers traveled the world, with Johnson playing his high roller part to the hilt. He demanded the fanciest private jets, Cuban cigars, bottles of top-shelf liquor in the suites and all the freebies he could get his hands on. “In reality, I didn’t care about any of that stuff,” Johnson says. “It was all about looking like a high-rolling schmo.”
Meanwhile, Grosjean and Burks, who played serious roles in managing the plays, appeared to be a pair of hanging on ne’er do wells. “Keith looked like he hadn’t shaved in a month. James wore sunglasses and a baseball hat. The two of them resembled a pair of dum-dums. I told people that they were special.”
As the dollars rolled in, Johnson had a blast. He’d hang out on nightclub stages alongside Steve Aoki, the famous DJ who became a friend, eat at the best restaurants in any casino and carry on like few others.
Recalling that a casino gifted him a football and helmet signed by NFL stars, Johnson remembers bringing that gear to the gaming table with a retinue that included TV personality Brody Jenner: “Brody put on the signed-helmet and I said to him, ‘Go long!’ He ran through the casino and I threw him the football.” Casino personnel acted like they didn’t mind and a security guy even asked if Johnson wanted an area cleared out so they could toss the pigskin. “You can do anything you want when they think you’re a loser. But as soon as they realize you’re beating them, they don’t want your action.”
But this is not to say that Johnson always won. When he lost, he dropped significant sums and kept his eye on the long game. “Don Johnson has a stomach of steel,” Grosjean says. “He can lose a million dollars and get up from the table with just one question: ‘Where are we eating tonight?’”
Casino bosses on the other hand did not like losing big bucks to Johnson. Over time, it led to him not being allowed to play in some places and being reprimanded for weird things in others. “I took a pillow and comforter from my villa at Wynn Las Vegas,” says Johnson, explaining that he needed it because the casino’s private jet was always particularly frigid (maybe in a bid to keep gamblers wide awake for when they landed in Vegas). “Housekeeping snitched me out and one of the executives called me. I was told that they need their blanket back. Steve Wynn and I have a very good rapport. Fine. I got the blanket drycleaned, had it shrink-wrapped and brought it back. Then we were able to hug it out again.”
A more ominous signal that things were winding down came when he and his team were in a Midwestern casino, poised to fire it up and win money. “We got to the casino, and the state police were there,” says Johnson, adding that he was threatened with arrest. Despite the fact that he had done nothing illegal, Johnson wanted to avoid the hassle and grudgingly left. But he did not shut things down quietly. “I became more aggressive and less cautious. Getting timid and pulling back would have hurt me.”
Nonetheless, in 2012, things had played themselves out and the great blackjack run reached an end.
These days, Johnson continues to focus on horse racing. His social media posts show him at the biggest races, dressed to the nines and having a blast as always. When passing through Las Vegas, he stays in what had once been Elvis Presley’s suite at the Westgate, which used to be the Las Vegas Hilton when the King performed there. The Presley penthouse remains huge and luxe in every way. There’s a private pool, many bedrooms and multiple decks for al fresco meals.
Johnson stayed there last year during the Blackjack Ball (a secret gathering of elite gamblers, held annually in Vegas) and hosted a small party for friends who happened to be in town. Johnson gambles at the Westgate blackjack tables to get his comped digs. But he does not play in the edge-heavy way he used to. Nor does he gamble in a manner that might rankle casino brass.
“I play a square game,” Don Johnson says. “It’s basically break-even. I give the casino enough action to get the comps.” And, he adds that, considering his celebrity status in the gambling world, the casino gains a bit of an edge from him being there. Acknowledging that high rollers get a kick out of playing cards within proximity to him at the big-money tables, Johnson says, “I take a lot of pictures and sign a lot of autographs.”
Some people, the true advantage players, always find a way to finish on top.
