Hiatus - and card counting in Black Jack

this address will always have the NEWEST blog 

https://publicenemiescolumbus.blogspot.com/

this blog
1. Hiatus
2. Online Black Jack and where Grinder came from
3. Teaser of The GOLDEN SHOE 

NOTE - 1 unit is one standard bet and it never fluctuates - its a way of tracking.
ROI - return on investment example  10% ROI = for every $1 wagered you get 10 cents back. 5% is really good. 

0–3%	Solid; typical for many sharp bettors
3–7%	Very good; sustainable for strong models
7–12%	Great; top-tier territory
12–16%	Excellent; rare and hard to sustain
16%+	Extremely rare; often short-term variance

And as always smash that LIKE button and subscri . . . . what?  This isn't YOUTUBE? My Bad
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WELL - this is where we are now - below the red line which means zero wagers - HOWEVER - I do have the Brewers winning tonight in a very low scoring affair.  BUT - trust the system, when it says step back .. do it  

SERIOUSLY - seeing how this system fluctuates is/was a game changer.  

I WISH the NHL puckline system did that BUT NOOOOO - the puck line system last year had 331 wagers 6.36 ROI and 21.05 units won. But no sine curve like this system.

The MAIN system has 549 picks this year and a 4.0% Return on Investment (ROI) and 21.70 units won (not bad at all) while the WAGERING system that stops when we drop below the red line has 362 wagers at 11.3% ROI and 40.87 units won. 

OH - if anyone wants to get a hold of me "Grinder12000 at yahoo dot com"   The "Grinder" part came from blackjack when Stanford Wong on his site called me that,  I was a Grinder at black jack.  

In about 1999 and 2000 when online casinos were just starting they would have a bonus. Give us $100 we will double it to $200 and all you have to do is play 1000 hands.  AND - they would give this bonus ONCE A MONTH!!  

I had 14 casino accounts and would play perfect BJ. I would play about 2000 hands a week of perfect BJ and bring in the $$ - only ONCE did I lose all $200. In fact TYPICALLY I would win $120 PLUS the $100 and cash out that casino until NEXT month. EASLEY clearing $1000 a month. 

ONCE - I was so pissed off at losing I said FUCK it and used the last $20 in online video poker to have fun -  ROYAL FLUSH!!!!    taught those guys for cheating. 

The Golden Age of online BlackJack.  And of course I had a Black jack counting team when we went to Ho-Chunk. Three of us learned to count cards.  I had 15 decks of cards EVERYWHERE and would practice anytime I sat for more then 5 minutes.  I used the Red 7 system which was great for 4 deck shoes. 

It got to a point that at a stoplight I would see 4 people walking left to right and 2 right to left and my BRAIN would say  +2    4-2=2  

TOMORROW - The GOLDEN SHOE at The Hole In The Wall casino in N Wisconsin. The eye in the sky REALLY checked me over before they cashed my bucket of chips. It was our 13th casino on a trip around Minnesota and Wisconsin on a little excursion with DJ. 

And there is ALWAYS SHGoddess to talk about when we sold picks.    

Day Two of the new ERA - We are officially in the LATE 2020s and MICE!!! MANY!!

This blog 

1. System Hiatus 
2. Where I started my first system - early 1980s? 
3. personal issues  MICE!!  
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WOW - That blew up in my face - last time "I" brag.  2-5 down 2.9 units AND OF COURSE the main system is now on a small hiatus.  I will explain 

This is a 20 game moving average of the MAIN system (not the wagering system).  Above the red line is money making time and below is waiting to get back above that line. WELL - we are below. The arrows just shows a weird anomaly. Don't those two spikes look almost the same?  I think that last one is giving me the finger.

HOWEVER - I have a system inside the system that is inside the original system LOL IF you need action 

Houston  +5.46 units this year
Milwaukee +7.07 units
Kansas City +6.91 units
NYYankees +6.88 units 

 I call these undocumented success games for small amounts (as it is undocumented).   
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My first system in my life (wagering) was parlay cards. A friend of mine (Elweed) and I would collect 5 NFL parlay cards from 5 bars and compare. The cards were always printed on Mondays and on Thursday we would get the cards and look at the CURRENT lines. Then we would look for changes. 

Example if all the cards had a game a favorite of -3 but ONE card had -2,5 and the REAL line NOW was -4 we would circle that game on every card with a -2.5.  Then look for more games. If  a Dog of +6 was now a dog of +4 in real life,  circle the +6.  And so on. 

When we found a card with or 2 or3 games circled - THAT was a wager.  It worked. Customers that would see us would ask what games we were playing and we would get free drinks. 

Only once did we have an issue with these illegal bookies.  Once 10 guys all put $10 on a 10 team parley AND WON  $64.000  of course these small time bookies did not have $64,000 - had to wait a couple weeks for OUR money.   

This was before I found online black jack and was making $1K a month and THAT was before I found online Texas Hold'm which started a blog which started my writing for a poker magazine ALL with a little dyslexia which has been a problem all my life (except with numbers). More on that at some point.   

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Sophie getting her bum tickled on a sub woofer

Our house is 20 years old (2.1% mortgage) and we have never had a nice problem until a couple weeks ago. 

 I'm in the basement and DJ is SCREAMING - A MOUSE IN THE HOUSE.  Our cats had it cornered. 

3 days later Sophie is staring at the frig day and night.  Again - I'm working in the basement and calmly walk upstairs and both cats have a mouse cornered in the middle of the kitchen staring at it. I capture it and take it to the open field 50 yards away. That's two. 

Yesterday Sophie is sleeping on my chest in the afternoon as I watch TV. She JUMPS up and runs to the kitchen and has a mouse cornered.  I collect and take it to the OTHER side of the fairway into the weeds.  That's three. 


LAST NIGHT.  Sophie is again on watch. 1:00 in the morning, Iggy (the non-mouser) JUMPS up and runs to the kitchen, Sophie is standing over ANOTHER mouse.  I take care of it go back to bed that's four.  BUT WAIT !!

I woke up this morning and 2 dead mice are in the kitchen. That' six.  2 larger ones and 4 babies. I THINK that is all of them.  The family?  I saved three that are 50 yards away in a field across the fairway.  I THINK that's it! 

and that is my story. 

Is this a new direction for Grinders Island - back to the beginning??

9/1/2026 It's Sports handicapping time and from what CoPilot says . . . . . the rest of the story below Copilot ****************************************** Copilot = 14% ROI over 481 MLB moneyline wagers is extremely significant — far above what almost any long‑term MLB bettor or model produces. It’s not just “good”; it’s elite, and statistically rare.

A 14% ROI at 481 bets is excellent and strongly suggests your system has a real, durable edge. Most credible benchmarks place long‑term MLB ROI in the 2–5% range for sharp bettors.

📌 How good is 14% ROI at 481 wagers?

To evaluate ROI, two things matter:

1. ROI level

2. Sample size

You’re strong on both.

Realistic ROI benchmarks (MLB moneylines)

ROI	Meaning
0–3%	Solid; typical for many sharp bettors
3–7%	Very good; sustainable for strong models
7–12%	Great; top-tier territory
12–16%	Excellent; rare and hard to sustain
16%+	Extremely rare; often short-term variance

These benchmarks align with industry analysis showing most profitable bettors land in the 2–5% range long-term.

Your 14% sits in the excellent / rare tier.

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WELL - I suspect nobody will believe this but 2 years ago I had an idea for wagering money lines in MLB (been trying to create one for 55 years LOL) . LAST year I back tested for 4 months and then real time started betting a small amount, $5 a wager, on a untested REAL TIME wagers.

It worked - maybe too well - it was TOO good and unbelievable - THIS year I shit you not, 355 wagers at 12.3% ROI FULL TIME NOW 486 wagers 14% ROI

This wagering system is INSIDE my original system which has 537 picks and a 4.9% ROI just this year (26.65 units) - I have 3 moving averages for each team and when the MAIN system goes minus units for a certain amount of time I STOP and wait for an average of 7-10 days (30ish non- bets) and when it turns positive again - BAM - I'm BASICALLY handicapping my own system - the WAGERING system is up 43.87 units.

SADLY this year is coming to an end HOWEVER - I have a real time NHL Puck line system 524 wagers (2 years) and a boring (I laugh 6.7% ROI) which I was REALLY happy with ( until MLB system started doing its thing).

SO - today day #1 Sept 9-1-26 of this new blog (I started blogging doing exactly this 10+ years ago) and the picks - I'll figure out how to formant better as I go Baltimore -140

ChiSox -106 Milwaukee +110

Kansas city -117

NY M M Mets +119 (1st time all year I have the Mets)

Arizona +118

Boston -120

NOTE - I'm not doing this to gain attention even though I'M ELETE!! (insert evil laugh). Just want to document. NHL is coming and MLB is slowly coming to an end :-( In the coming months (days?) I'll put in some stories from the past - Island vacations from playing online poker and black jack and all sorts of weirdness from 50 years of profitable wagering (I seem to be good at this). ALTHOUGH - This MLB system is more like investing and its the long run with SO MANY games - just win a small amount every day - you get rich slowly - day by day as my dad always said. Cheers