Mikki Mase: Baccarat Guru or Self Promoting Fraud

Who is Mikki Mase?

Mikki Mase, often dubbed the ‘King of Baccarat‘ has become a polarising figure in the world of high-stakes betting. Known for his audacious gambling exploits, flamboyant lifestyle, and uncanny ability to turn modest stakes into millions, Mase has carved a niche as one of the most talked-about professional gamblers of the modern era.

Now something of a social media phenomenon, Mikki’s fame comes on the back of an incredible win record in Las Vegas where he boasts $32 million in net wins leading to bans imposed by over 50 casinos.

Mikkis’s own account of his life is colourful to say the least and he’s very happy to talk about it. Youtube is full of Mikki Mase podcast interviews with Mikki on the couch waxing lyrical about his seemingly unbelievable life and podcasters frothing at his exploits.

Mikki’s life before gambling fame

Born Michael Waterman to a middle class family in New Jersey things began normally enough. It wasn’t long before they became anything but. Below are some snippets of his early life extracted from Mikki’s own accounts given in podcast interviews.

According to Mikki, there was considerable wealth in the family but it was lost when he was very young. Details are scant on how the fortune was made and lost. He mentions in one podcast that the family owned casinos. But when fact-checked on this in a later interview, he clarifies that his grandfather had won a stake in a casino during a game of cards, before losing that same stake a few hands later. The family’s casino empire was a fleeting one.

With an early propensity for living life on the edge Mikki was using drugs by the age of 11 and selling by the age of 12. Things went rapidly downhill from there with periods of drug addition, homelessness, house invasions, car thefts, gang affiliation, bouts of cocaine psychosis and regular incarcerations. He says he was in and out of prison so much that his mum decided to become a bail bondsman to save time and money.

During incarcerations he studied, took his SATs and applied to 5 colleges. Despite being accepted into all 5 colleges he chose not to attend any of them. This may have been because around this time he managed to land a job on Wall Street. Still homeless and with a face full of tattoos he was accepted into the trainee program at Exchange Place firm Wallace Morgan, where he excelled from the day one. First day training he broke national firm records, third day training he broke international firm records. The nature of the records was not specified.

Despite his talents in banking and finance, the Wall Street career didn’t pan out. Business success would come soon though.

A friend, looking to get Mikki off the streets, offered him an entry level job at a rehab centre. While working there, Mase came to realise the profit potential of the business. Despite starting on an hourly rate of $18, he managed to put the funds together over time to buy his own rehab business. This expanded to multiple centres. Then he branched out into pharmacies, which grew to an empire of over 300 stores before selling out for unspecified millions. This was all before turning 30 years of age.

In the crypto world in Mikki’s own (Trump-like) words he is, ‘the creator of some of the most known and biggest tokens‘, although for various reasons he can’t publicly speak about which coins he’s been involved with.

Mikki shedding light on his very colourful life on the No Jumper podcast…

Mikki Mase biggest wins and casino bans

It’s Mikki Mase’s gambling success, largely at Las Vegas casinos that have launched him into the spotlight.

The two things he loves talking about most are how much money he has won, and how many casinos he’s banned from (closely followed by his success with women). Mikki claims a total net win of $32 million, including a days-long session at the Venetian where he won just over $11.5 million.

He’s also quick to remind interviewers that he’s banned from over 50 casinos. The bans are something he leans into strongly, to the point that his reputation as a ‘banned gambler’ is central to his persona. The inference being his bona fides as an advantage player are proven by casinos’ fear of accepting his business.

A 2023 investigative report by The Wall Street Journal revealed that Mase’s name appears on multiple casino ‘watch lists,’ though specifics remain confidential. This shadowy collaboration explains why he faces difficulty accessing high-limit rooms, even at casinos he’s never visited.

Industry experts, like Global Gaming Business editor Roger Gros, argue that while some bans are plausible, Mase’s tally of ’50+’ is likely exaggerated: ‘Advantage players like Mase are absolutely monitored, but outright bans at that scale are rare.’

Skeptics have also questioned the amounts won. While casinos are obviously silent on the matter, Mase has been eager to silence the skeptics with evidence of his own.

YouTuber Spencer Cornelia who describes his channel as a ‘deep dive into the scammy world of online marketing, analysing the facts‘, released a video doubting many of Mikki’s claims. Mikki was quick to invite Spencer to do a one-on-one interview to put any doubts to rest.

On the veracity of casino wins, Mikki logged into his casino rewards accounts and let Spencer take a look. Spencer ended up satisfied on this and pretty much every other claim he previously thought to be dubious. By the time Spencer was invited to scroll through the list of girls sliding into Mikki’s Insta dm’s, he had well and truly been converted from hardened skeptic to gushing fan-boy. You can watch the full video here.

Proof of casino wins was taken a step further when the Money Buys Happiness podcast crew filmed Mikki logging in to his MGM, Venetian and Wynn rewards accounts and displaying full win/loss data over the years 2017 to 2021 on camera.

Mikki Mase’s casino game of choice

Mikki’s casino games of choice are 2 deck blackjack and baccarat. But baccarat became his go-to for most of his biggest wins.

His early attraction to baccarat was largely due to the fact that he could get bigger action on these tables – up to $250,000 a hand, compared with $75,000 on blackjack. The game’s simplicity and very small house edge (1.06% for the Banker bet, 1.24% for Player bet) were also deciding factors.

Mikki would flat bet $250k per hand betting Banker or Player and ended up winning a lot more than he lost. His win rate implies he is either a statistical anomaly or he devised a winning baccarat strategy where no known strategy exists or he somehow cheated.

Mikki’s winning baccarat strategy

This is where the intrigue sets in. Because whenever he is asked about his specific baccarat playing strategy, he gets very vague. Watch his interviews and you’ll hear statements like, “I noticed I had an edge, and casinos noticed I had an edge”. Or, “I figured out that the casinos cheat in ways most people are unaware of and I reversed their cheats”.

When asked on a recent follow-up No Jumper podcast, ‘do you not want to speak openly about what your edge is?’, he gave the following response:

“I can’t do that and I’ll tell you why. I do have a plan that could bring every casino to their knees, and I may pull the trigger on this and watch these casino burn. I might do that. It’s something I’ve been working on for about a year now…it going to crush these casinos. Some of them are going to go out of business.

I’m not going to say what it is, but for sure I do have the capability of bringing a lot of these casinos to their knees. But what my actual edge is I can’t say what it is”.

As part of that same response he reasons that [the strategy] is something of significant value – why should I give away my secret sauce.

He has hinted edge sorting may have played a part only by defending the practice. He once reasoned, ‘If the casino uses defective cards, that’s their problem. I’m just observant.’

Edge sorting exists in a legal grey area. Unlike card counting (which is legal but frowned upon), edge sorting exploits physical card flaws, which casinos argue violates their rules of play.

In 2012, poker pro Phil Ivey famously won £7.8 million playing baccarat and (by admission) edge sorting at Crockfords Casino in London. He won another $9.6 million using the same method at Borgata Atlantic City.

Crockfords refused to payout the winnings and were backed by the The UK Supreme Court who later ruled it ‘cheating,’ setting a precedent casinos now use to justify bans. Borgata, which had paid Ivey his winnings successfully sued to have the money paid back.

Mikki Mase’s wild life

A Mikki Mase story would be incomplete without touching on the life of excess and debauchery he prides himself on and loves to share publicly.

Casino villas filled with beautiful women, private jets at his beck and call and a McLaren as his day drive paint the picture. Away from the baccarat tables he’s like peak Dan Bilzerian without the beard and physique.

If he’s not busy travelling he’s smashing (his worlds not mine) 2 to 3 different girls a day. A recent birthday celebration involved 3 to 5 orgies daily each involving around 15 participants for 7 straight days across multiple cities.  Seems you can add world class athlete to his long list of talents.