Darryl Purpose – Master Card Counter and Famous Musician

Being a part of Ken Uston’s blackjack team, Darryl Purpose
has travelled across the world as a card counter, has been
barred from several casinos, and has even used a shuffle
tracking system named “Thor” to gain an edge over the house.
Darryl managed to make millions of dollars from playing
blackjack over the years, and from the outside looking in, life
for Darryl couldn’t have seemed to be any better.

Although the money was enticing, Darryl still felt something
missing in his life; no pun intended, he still needed to find
his purpose. His purpose, we discover, involves spreading his
musical talents all around the world. Throughout this biography,
we will explore the colorful history of Darryl’s past, while
getting insight into who he is today.

Finding His “Purpose” Early On

Darryl Purpose was the kind of person in school that most
people envied. Not only was he extremely intelligent, especially
when it came to mathematics, but he was also a very skilled
guitar player. Darryl’s mother was hoping that he would invest
more of his time into mathematics, so she purchased him a copy
of Edward Thorp’s, Beat the Dealer, for Christmas when he was
sixteen. She had no idea how much impact this would have on him
later on in life.

As he often played cards in his free time, Darryl was
intrigued to read the book and was surprised about how quickly
he was able to pick up the concepts Thorp addressed within it.
Although he was curious about whether or not the strategies in
the book would actually work in a casino, he knew he wouldn’t be
able to try it out until he was twenty-one.

He kept the book in the back of his mind, but chose to devote
his last two years of high school to enhancing his guitar
skills. Upon graduation, he enrolled at California State College
in Northridge to major in classical guitar, as his dream in life
was to become a musician. Initially things were going very well
for him; the professors acknowledged his abilities and his
grades were excellent.

His left hand started hurting one evening while he was
practicing the guitar; he was hoping the pain would subside by
the next day. After persistent pain for several weeks though,
Darryl decided to make an appointment with the Doctors to have
everything checked out. They forced him to put a splint on his
wrist, which greatly hindered his guitar playing abilities.
Although he was discouraged, learning how to fingerpick allowed
him to continue on.

Unfortunately within a few months, his right hand was
starting to have the same problems as his left. He eventually
would be forced to wear two splints, making dropping out of
college inevitable. He left school with just a few of his
personal belongings, his 62′ Chevy, and $50 to spare. He was
heading to Las Vegas, hoping to apply what he read in, Beat the
Dealer, to become a professional blackjack player.

Making a Living in Las Vegas

In order to live in Las Vegas, Darryl needed to find a job
that would support him as he built up his bankroll. The first
job he found involved selling ball point pens over the phone to
various companies around the world. It was a commission based
job, so sometimes he would only get $20 a week while other times
he would get up to $200. He lived on the streets for several
weeks before a co-worker offered him a spare bedroom.

As soon as Darryl had an extra $50, he headed down to the
Stardust Casino and Resort, quickly turning $50 into $500. It
was only beginners luck, however. Darryl spent the next year and
a half working at the same phone company, living paycheck to
paycheck. Sometimes he would win money at the casinos, but all
too often he would give it all back.

It was just an average night for Darryl at the Horseshoe
Casino and Resort, until he noticed that the man sitting next to
him at the table was trying to apply the same card counting
techniques that he was. When the man sitting next to him got up
to leave, Darryl decided to follow him out of the building. He
told him that he knew he was a card counter and asked if they
could talk.

The man’s name ended up being Art, and the two instantly
became friends. Art had a bankroll of $2000 and was willing to
let Darryl play off of it for a while to see if they could make
more money by working together. They weren’t doing very well, so
Darryl decided to seek the help of a professional. He got word
that a former Big Player from Ken Uston’s Blackjack Team was
staying nearby his apartment. He courageously knocked on this
man’s door, explained who he was and what his problems were. The
man, Ron Karr, graciously invited him in and shared some
valuable tips for card counting with him.

A few weeks later Darryl knocked on Ron Karr’s door again, as
he had more questions to ask him. This time Ron offered both
Darryl and Art a spot on his team. They would be paid $25 per
shift to count down decks and call in Big Players. Any sort of
consistent money sounded good to them, so they happily accepted
the offer. Darryl was easily able to make $200 a week doing
this, so he quit his job at the ball point pen factory.

Someone invested $10,000 into the team, but forced each
player to make $100 bets. Although betting that amount of money
made Darryl nervous, he stayed with the team. In just a couple
of weeks, that $10,000 turned into $60,000 and the whole team
was celebrating.

Behind the scenes, Ron and some of the players on the team
had been experimenting with a shuffle tracking computer they
wanted to use in the casinos. The team was ready to focus on
this, offering each active player a small percentage of the
team’s future winnings based on how well they thought they were
at card counting. Both Darryl and Art were only offered .075%,
which was insulting.

Ron gave these two men a second option; they could leave his
team and join Ken Uston’s team instead. This is where Art and
Darryl said their goodbyes; Art stayed with the computer
tracking team, while Darryl ventured off to Ken Uston’s team who
would ironically use their own version of a shuffle tracking
device in the near future.

Becoming a Part of Ken Uston’s Team

Darryl had to undergo a series of tests before he could
actually be a part of Ken Uston’s team. One of the major tests
he was given involved counting down various shoes. They also
flashed various hands at him through a slide projector to see if
he could identify their correct index number. Darryl did
surprisingly well on all of his exams, being invited to join the
team as a spotter.

Darryl would count the cards, and signal in a Big Player when
the count was good. The Big Player would signal to Darryl what
his hand was, and Darryl would signal back with what the best
move to make would be. From the beginning they had him call in
Big Players that the casinos were already suspicious of; it
wasn’t long before Darryl started feeling the heat too, getting
barred from casinos on an almost weekly basis.

Sometimes he was led to the casinos backroom, but he was only
ever threatened to never come back. Some of his other colleagues
were badly beaten in these backrooms, so he actually considered
himself one of the lucky ones. Despite the barrings, Darryl
continued to play for the team, actually becoming known as one
of the fastest card counters they ever had. He could
consistently count a single deck in under ten seconds, which is
nearly twice as fast as anyone else.

The only downside to working on Ken Uston’s team, is that he
often let his ego get the best of him. Darryl took a break from
playing for a couple of months, because he was sick of the way
Ken was treating him and the other members of the team. Ken
called him up after a while, telling him that he should join him
in Atlantic City, as the casinos had a no barring rule there.
Darryl couldn’t resist. The team had a bankroll of nearly
$25,000, which steadily increased as Darryl led the team on a 15
session winning streak.

The team eventually started using a new shuffle tracking
system called “Thor” to gain an even bigger edge over the
casinos. With their feet, they had to enter the exact value of
the cards they received. Thor would then respond through
vibrations to tell the players what moves to make next. Darryl
expressed his opinion of Thor in an interview with Richard W.
Munchkin,

“I wish I could remember some of the bizarre plays
Thor would have you make, because Thor didn’t have any
discretion. If it felt you could gain half a percent by hitting
a hard 18, it would tell you to hit it.”

The team had their biggest gains and largest losses while
using Thor. Darryl once won over $150,000 at the Cambridge Hotel
and Casino of Atlantic City thanks to that small device.
However, he also lost over $80,000 at MGM in Las Vegas, as a
result of listening to the bold moves Thor told him to make.
Darryl’s experiences with Thor weren’t limited to casinos in the
United States, as the team actually brought the device with them
when they travelled overseas.

Playing Blackjack in Europe

Darryl and the team started off playing in Germany and
Belgium, quickly realizing that Thor wouldn’t work there because
the shuffles were so intense. They headed over to England, where
they hoped using Thor would be much easier.

One of the first casinos they played at warned other casinos
in the area to be on the lookout for a group of American players
they suspected were cheating. The team was unaware of this
warning, so they continued to play as normal, using Thor to get
ahead. When Darryl went to cash out at Annabelle’s Casino, the
front desk claimed that they didn’t have enough money on hand to
cash him out and would instead have to write him a check that
could be cashed in the next morning.

Darryl assumed there must be another reason why he wasn’t
able to cash out that night, and he was certainly right. Before
they could pack their bags, the entire team was dragged in for
questioning and it was obvious that the casino knew they were up
to something.

Their cars, their hotel rooms, and their briefcases were
thoroughly searched, but the casino personnel had somehow
managed to overlook searching the actual players, most of which
had Thor devices strapped to their ankles. Had the casino found
these devices, they would have had enough evidence to lock
Darryl and his friends up for years. Even though the team was
eventually paid their dues, it was clear that they would be
unwelcomed to ever come back again.

Taking Disguises to a Whole New Level

Using disguises became inevitable for Darryl, as someone
seemed to recognize him almost everywhere he went. After he came
back from Europe, he made some drastic changes to alter the way
he looked. He died and curled his hair, he started wearing
veneers on his teeth, and he even had a mole removed. In
addition to that, he lost a significant amount of weight.

At some casinos he would put on his fake goatee, while at
others he would wear a three piece suit to change his
appearance. One time, he even put a dark toner on his skin to
make him appear Mulatto. He would do just about anything it took
to get the casinos off of his back. Eventually though, Darryl
grew tired of having to hide his true identity.

A New Phase in Life

By 1986, Darryl was ready to move on from his blackjack
playing lifestyle, so he packed up his guitar and joined the
Great Peace March from Los Angeles to New York. They marched and
played across the whole country, and it was nearly eight months
until they were finished. He participated in a similar march the
following year from Leningrad to Moscow. Famous artists
including James Taylor and Santana joined in his efforts this
time.

Nearly a decade after his first march, Darryl dedicated his
entire life to being a full time Folk Musician. He travelled to
various countries around the world, performing in hundreds of
concerts each year. He released several CDs, and had a steadily
growing fan base. From 2005 to 2012, Darryl took a seven year
break from his profession, spending the majority of that time
relaxing in the Rocky Mountains.

Everyone thought he was done playing music for good until he
released, “Next Time Around,” in 2012. That song actually
reached #1 on the Roots Music Report Folk Chart for National
Radio, which is an impressive accomplishment. Although music is
his true passion, Darryl will still visit the casinos of Las
Vegas from time to time, reminiscing about that chapter of his
life.