Mardock Scramble полностью

Douzaine bets: choosing one of 1-12, 13-24, or 25-36. This also paid out triple her original stake.

Weaving backward and forward from one of these bets to the other, Balot and Oeufcoque gradually started piecing together a picture of how the croupier spun both the wheel and the ball.

The ball would almost always do between eighteen and twenty rotations. In particular, whenever the croupier focused on the spin, it would be closer to eighteen full rotations. Oeufcoque calculated the amount of time it took from the ball’s release to when it first started dipping, all the while computing the odds that it would hit a particular pin and the angle at which it was most likely to hit the bowl.

There were three key factors involved in the spin. Three states: the numbers were easily visible, or they could just be made out when following them around, or they were blurred beyond perception. After watching a number of full spins, Balot and Oeufcoque found they could work out the point at which one state transitioned to another.

It wasn’t an easy task to pinpoint it exactly—but it was absolutely essential if Oeufcoque and Balot were to stand a chance in predicting the croupier’s habits.

All the while, numbers were appearing inside the glove on Balot’s right hand.

Oeufcoque’s magic numbers.

The numbers contained in each of the eight segments of the wheel, divided according to the positions of the pins. Each segment was given a name, and the idea was to accurately predict the path of the ball as it bounced from one segment to another.

First there was North Side: 25-29-12-8.

Then North East: 19-31-18-6-21.

Followed by East Side: 14-2-0-28-9,

South East: 14-2-0-28-9,

South Side: 26-30-11-7,

South West: 20-32-17-5-22,

West Side: 34-15-3-24-36,

and North West: 13-1-00-27-10.

There was a fine line between success and total failure, and the difference would come down to whether they were able to determine, in an instant, which segment the ball was heading for.

This was where Oeufcoque really came into his own.

Every time the ball fell, he could highlight in an instant which segment it would hit.

Furthermore, this was hardly cheating. Any player was allowed to have a crib sheet at the table with them, showing the arrangement of the numbers. Indeed, it was fair to say it was standard practice among regulars.

You could even buy official guide sheets containing such information—and much more besides—at the casino’s own kiosks or in the hotel lobby.

The question was not whether you were allowed this information, but whether you could you use it quickly and accurately enough for it to be useful.

And could you then go on to use that information to work out how the angle of the ball—as it ricocheted off the pins—would vary according to when and how the ball and wheel were spun.

The table was divided into four blocks, and if, for example, 00 (in block A) was at position B when the ball started to fall, you were talking about a spin of roughly ninety degrees, or one quarter of a full rotation of the wheel.

Oeufcoque was able to perform complex calculations to cut out the intermediary steps and focus on just the crucial factor: the point in the rotation at which the ball would fall into the wheel.

When Bell Wing put her mind to it, this was at the point of a full rotation: 360 degrees. Otherwise, it was almost always around the ninety-degree mark.

There were some variations in results, of course. But these outcomes were because Bell Wing was deliberately manipulating the spin. Oeufcoque could tell this because these were the only times when the ball seemed to move with a different sort of motive than usual. The motive being to deliberately inject some variety into the figures.

The better the croupier, the more constant the spin and therefore the easier it was for the numbers to start falling into a predictable pattern. That was why the croupiers were under strict orders from the house to ensure that there were deliberate variations in the number of rotations, the speed of the wheel, and the angle at which the ball hit the wheel.

Hardly any croupiers were skilled enough to do this with 100 percent accuracy when customers were around and the chips were down. Still, Bell Wing was exceedingly precise. Balot found it somewhat ironic, therefore, that it was the croupier’s very accuracy and precision that allowed Oeufcoque to pick up on her movements and intentions. In other words, it was precisely because Bell Wing was so skilled that Oeufcoque was able to get the measure of her game so quickly.

Normally it would have taken even the most experienced professional many hours and tens of thousands of dollars in bets before they had a chance of working out what Balot and Oeufcoque had already managed to learn.