An investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The banker complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.The fisherman replied, "Only a little while."The banker then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"

The fisherman said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family's needs."

The banker then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

The fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, go for walks with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my friends. As you can see, I have a full and busy life."

The banker scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat! With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to the capital city. After that, who knows, maybe you could take on the world!"

The fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"

To which the banker replied, "I'd say about 15 to 20 years."

"But what then?" asked the fisherman.

The Banker laughed and said, "That's the best part! When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."

"Millions? Then what?" the fisherman continued prodding.

The banker said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, go for romantic walks with your wife, and in the evenings you could sip wine, play guitar and sing songs with your friends!"

To which the fisherman mused, "Now isn't that strange? Isn't that what I'm doing now?"

Sometimes it really makes me ponder… are we really just pawns of fate, walking down towards an end which is really no difference from the beginning?

And how true this saying goes… more often than not, we give up just one foot before we reach the gold, surrendering to the trodden path of dismay and peer pressure. It is the few, those who press on in such shitty times, who finally find the buried treasure, and god is it revitalising.

3 months into business, after my departure from the armed forces, it seems like such a short time I couldn’t even begin counting from where I started off. It was all just a concept, a paper proposal and a couple of business models on my laptop, and now, it’s the fully furnished office, ongoing corporate jobs and contracts, and new marketing developments. (Of course, revenue too).

Honestly, while I have been in and out of various ventures, this is the first of such scale, and complexity. And with such complexity comes the painstaking steps of kicking off the operations. I vividly recall the lonely moments of designing the catalogues, the numerous meetings with the web programmer, the excitement of buying furniture, the boredom of typing corporate correspondences, and the downtimes when big deals are lost when you’re a step from sealing it…

The past three months was, honestly, like shit. Orders were crawling, I literally mean CRAWLING! And the many hefty purchases made left me pulling my hair out over revenue and profit. All while having to maintain the cool and calm front in the face of clients and shareholders. Physically, emotionally, psychologically it was a toll, and a great one. The imbalanced schedules and the total lack of exercise.

But this month, everything came back. All the efforts which seemed to pour out into and abyssal space came flooding back in the form of numerous orders, so many I’m finding it a little hard to cope. Not that I should start getting over excited, but do allow me this little bit of time to just jump around in euphoria.

It shows, as I have always said to myself during the shittier times, the universe will reward those who put their heart and soul into pursuing whatever they are pursuing. In such a way, the world is quite fair.

Eight and a half hours before I depart from this dreadful place where I have spent the last 48 hours. I am suffering from insomnia due to the total imbalanced sleep schedule I have to run on up here. Typing is a problem, as the only inputs to this computer for the last 48 hours contained of digits and graphs.

5 days ago, back in little Singapore, I thought it might be a good idea to use my newly developed method to spin some extra cash, primarily to increase my company’s revolving credit for this work-year. Not that there isn’t enough in the company, just a moment of greed and fancy, I suppose.

Despite the recent busy schedules due to new potential shareholders and the ongoing corporate gift jobs and marketing waves, I managed to squeeze out what little time there is to run my little money-spinning method on online casino live tables, just for some extra confirmation.

Consolidated results show that this humble method is able to predict consistently 60% of the spin results for the roulette wheel. Sometimes it goes as high as 80%. This means to say we effectively change the 2.7% house edge in favour of the player, giving the player an approximate 40% edge (which is quite scary should casino operators find out). This also means that all the player needs to do is place flat bets, and over time, he / she will be able to pocket substantial winnings.

Back to this trip - Its primary objective, was of course, to spin cash. It cost me 102 for the ticket and lodging, plus my very meagre expenditures here, should not exceed 200 bucks. One might ask, if this method works, why not stay home and wager at the online casinos. The answer, those online casinos give players only 12 to 15 seconds to place their bets. Totally not enough to analyse (which takes 10 seconds or so), and place the numbers (which take about 45 seconds, well maybe I’m slow at computer controls). Plus, online casinos are able to statistically track every player’s winnings. And the bank wire is another very troublesome procedure. Plus, I have already been banned by one of these vendors.

I arrived here at 2am on the 3rd of January 06. Having about 3 hours to check in time, I went for my first session. Sat there for about an hour to jot down statistics, plus using a simple flat betting method (not the formula / method I am speaking of), I spun about 70RM (enough to cover the day’s meals).

The first thing after check in was, of course, sleep. The bloody bus journey was so uncomfortable (although the seats were really great), thanks to a lesbian couple sitting across the aisle, who couldn’t turn their TV screens off while sleeping.

I woke up by noon, and for the next 5 hours, and 5 hours after dinner, I sat at the goddamn wheel taking records, and walking up and down my hotel room to input these records into my laptop and making my mathematical calculations and graph drawing.

By 11.54pm I qualified the first day’s results, which seemed to tally exactly, if not more, with my pre-trip expectations. I was too dead tired to do any further analysis, and I knocked out soon after finishing “Constantine” on Vision Four.

Woke up at 8 on the second day, and went on with the routine statistics collection and computer calculations. My programmers were supposed to write a program to ease all this shit, but they couldn’t get it out on time, and I’ll be busy with company matters from the 6th, so I thought manually doing this was feasible. I sincerely curse that decision.

Another full day of facing numbers. Genting is supposed to be an Entertainment City, but I swear all I’m getting here is torture. If anybody out there thinks there’s an easy way to beat the casinos, a simple and straightforward formula, keep dreaming. I must say I am familiar, if not already fully a master, of all these so-called “winning formulas”, and NONE of them works in the long term. If they did, do you truly think casinos will still be in business.

My method (I stand that it is NOT a formula), works fine, but it is so fucking complicated and hard to use I believe the average man wouldn’t even understand it, let alone be able to effectively apply it. In fact, by midday, I was wondering if the challenge was the hatching of the formula, or actually trying to use it.

Not to mention the very irritating calls from my partner, who has agreed to wager 1000 bucks along with my bets, IF THEY HAVE BEEN PROVEN TO WORK. (Well basically, he just tried to tag along with the ride, but I obliged on the terms that winnings go to the company). I shouldn’t be finding his calls irritating, since we agreed to keep in contact in the first place. But then again, human nature gets the better of me, and I start complaining in my head, “You’re sitting comfortably back at home, while I’m slogging the shit out here. I’d really appreciate if you could just shut up and wait for my confirmation!”

By 7pm, I managed to fully qualify my method, buffering a 30 minute gap for analysis and calculations. Day 2’s results weren’t as favourable as Day 1, but nevertheless, it still wins, so no qualms. Quite ready to get started with spinning cash, I did some final prep, getting my mini charts and tables ready (they’re prepared before the trip as templates so as to avoid suspicion from the casino, not because they’re illegal, but well, they can always ban me from entering if I win too much).

Happily making my way down, I sat another 2 hours for live-qualification and confirmation before placing my bets. Then I realised, the scribblings on my mini chart were too damn small, so by the time I figured what to bet, the betting window was closed (45 seconds)! I stared at the wheel as I see my predicted number appear. I could only stare…

I realised there and then, this method can NEVER be effectively applied by a single person, not even if they had the best psycho-motor skills and a photographic memory. This has to be done in a team, of at least 3 people.

It was undoubtedly torturous, both physically and psychologically, to compile, calculate, qualify and confirm. But it is utter traumatising to finally finish the shit work, and NOT be able to place the bets! It’s as good as seeing the money, knowing it can definitely be yours, but not being able to take it! It is totally devastating!

So I came back to my hotel room to type this entry…

I’m trying to comfort myself – well at least now I know for sure the method works, and how exactly to plan a 3-man trip to legally rob the casino. But this is all bullshit… it doesn’t beat the demoralising factor of taking home a measly 70 bucks, when there could be so much more. I did I brief calculation of how much I would win in those rounds which I couldn’t place my bets – 7k! And mind you, it’s 7k in less than an hour!

Anyhows, having calmed down a little, I must say, this method should only be used as a last resort for cash. The sheer physical and mental toll makes it totally not worth it (perhaps I speak for myself, since I still have business income and sorts). It does have a limit too, like a maximum possible amount of 6.4 times your bank roll, if you continuously play for 6 hours (I don’t think most people can. I can’t even sit for 2).

And finally, I must confess, although I have proven the absolute workability of this method, I can’t really explain how it works. It’s like the magic you see in movies, the spell-casters can cast spells, but aren’t able to scientifically explain why. The explanation, as of now, remains a blur theorem.