HBO decided to bet on a story that seems like it came out of a movie, but actually happened in real life: a professional player who spent more than two decades finding ways to beat the casinos and ended up turning her experiences into a television series.
The protagonist of this story is Gina Fiore, a professional gambler who dedicated 24 years to the so-called advantage play, a set of techniques that allow gaining a mathematical edge over casinos. Now, her life will come to HBO under the name Advantage Player, with Riley Keough – known for Daisy Jones & the Six – as the star and executive producer.
Fiore started as a blackjack dealer in Las Vegas, but quickly discovered that there were players capable of beating the casino using skill and knowledge. She wanted to learn how to do it and ended up becoming a professional advantage player.
Throughout her career she used techniques such as card counting, hole carding (reading the dealer’s hidden card) and edge sorting (exploiting subtle involuntary differences on the back of the cards dealt; the famous Phil Ivey). It was not simply about betting on luck: the strategy consisted of detecting information or situations that allowed reducing the advantage casinos normally have.
A story that also reached the Supreme Court
The Book is Coming.
Fiore’s life also had a legal chapter. In 2006, while returning from a gambling trip in Puerto Rico, DEA agents confiscated approximately US$97,000 in cash during a stopover in Atlanta, suspecting the money might be related to drugs.
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Fiore maintained that the money came from her activity as a professional gambler. The case eventually reached the United States Supreme Court under the name Walden v. Fiore. In 2014, the highest court ruled unanimously on the jurisdiction issue of the case.
Fiore’s story had already been made into a documentary and now will have a new life on HBO. The series will be written and produced by Will Graham, who will also be the showrunner, reuniting Graham and Keough after their work on Daisy Jones & the Six.
It still has no announced release date or start of production. The blackjack professional will also publish her memoir book in October, Advantage Player: Blackjack, Backrooms, and Beginnings, in which she recounts her journey through the world of professional gambling.
Thus, a story that began at blackjack tables and developed for years away from the big spotlights will now have as its setting one of Hollywood’s most important platforms.
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