Of all the players who have ever lived, none were better known than Nicholas Andreas Dandolos, aka; Nick the Greek. It was 1946. Benjamin “Bugsy” Seigal had just opened the Flamingo Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and things were about to change forever. For the next 20 years, the mob maintained a steel grip on legalized gambling in Nevada.

It was during this time that the legend of “The Greeks” began to take hold. Although he was well known and loved in Damon Runyon’s 1920s and 30s hay days, it was his adventures in Las Vegas that solidified the mystique that surrounded the man.

There are so many stories attributed to the Greek that it is difficult to separate fact from fiction. The only trustworthy accounts I have were told to me by my dad, who’d spent as much time in Las Vegas as the guys who empty the slot machines.

When he was a young man in his 20s, Nick was engaged to be married and the day before the wedding, his fiancé ran away with another boy. Heartbroken, some friends took him to the racetrack for entertainment.

As the story goes, without rhyme or reason, Nick proceeded to randomly select 8 consecutive winners, drawing on their funds of almost $ 20,000. From that moment the stage was set and our hero never looked back. Some people believe in destiny, others don’t. In this situation, it is difficult to call it something else.

At the craps tables he was a confirmed “no check” bettor always putting all odds against the point. He was a fearless player with an astonishing understanding of the mathematical percentages of any game proposition. He had very solid judgment and an innate instinct to find an advantage.

As with most seasoned players, the methods they used to increase their bets when on a winning streak were for the most part intuitive. When you’ve been playing for so long, a lot becomes second nature.

The “Greek” was also known to use a stage system, as he called it. This was a method of locking in a portion of your winnings to ensure that you would not play it again once you had a winning session.

Using an example; Starting at $ 1,000, you have a winning streak. Gradually increase the bet up to $ 1,500. You would then lock in $ 500 (50% of your initial stake) and continue to play with the rest. If he won another $ 500, he would lock it out and play with the winnings alone.

This is a very smart money management system that protects their capital and allows the player to try to build another plateau using their winnings. Every time it hit another $ 500 level, it would lock it up and refuse to replay it regardless of any bad luck streak.

Nick The Greek seemed to have an inspired knack for any type of game. He believed in luck and recognized that all luck, good and bad, ran in cycles. He knew the best way to take advantage of those cycles was to bet big when it worked in his favor and to keep his bets to a minimum when it worked against him. This procedure would ensure that your winning bets would be significantly higher than the losing ones.

One night at dinner Nick went upstairs to a high stakes poker game. About two hours later, he exited the game having lost $ 250,000. He came out on the dance floor laughing and joking and having a great time. A friend approached him and asked how he could be dancing and in such a good mood after losing a quarter of a million dollars. With a big smile on his face, he looked at his friend and said, “your life is not going with that.”

Maybe the reason the Greek Nick legend is so enduring is because he was clearly a classy guy. He was also known for saying, “the only difference between a winner and a loser … is character.” For our purposes, we’ll call it self-discipline.

The Greek was said to have made and lost about $ 400 million in his lifetime, about $ 1 billion in today’s money. Nick died broke in 1966, but I never had the feeling that having a lot of money meant that much to him anyway. It was just a way of keeping score.