All language subtitles for Numb3rs.S02E13.1080p.AMZN.WEBRip.DD2.0.x264-CasStudio-HI

♪♪

I'm feeling lucky tonight.

Changing $5,000.

Now there's a man
with confidence.

MAN: Yeah, I'd love
to join you, partner,

but I have two ex-wives
counting on me.

How about you?

I think I'll stick with
my 3-iron off the tee.

Straight and safe, huh?

♪♪

( Heavy accent ) Split them.

- Where you from, kid?
- Moscow.

But my dad's business
brings me to L.A. a lot.

Daddy's business
must be good, huh?

( chuckles ):
You are lucky, son.

Dealer busts.

( sighs )

Looks like everybody's
pretty lucky here tonight.

Sit in, find out for yourself.

I lost too much already.

Maybe next time.

You leaving?

Just need a little fresh air.

In L.A.? Good luck.

I need my car.

Sorry, man, we're shorthanded.

It's going to be a wait.

If you want to get it yourself,
I can tell you where to go.

( alarm beeps )

( gun cocks )

You want my money?

( gunshot )

Task force got the call
about an hour ago.

Gunshot was reported
at 10:10 p.m.

Any witnesses?

Not so far.

That makes four robberies at
this location in the past six months.

First homicide, though.

Manager says they installed
a camera after the last robbery.

Might get a look off that.

Also found this in the truck.

That's a lot of notebooks.

It's all numbers, equations.

Lucky for us, we know a guy.

We do know a guy.

Wallet was tossed.

Cash and credit cards
are missing.

DON:
Yuri Chernov.

Born '86.

19.

That's kind of young
for a high roller.

DON:
Yeah, Huntington Tech undergrad.

Picked the wrong night
to take a study break.

Yep.

CHARLIE:
We all use math every day,

to predict weather,

to tell time,

to handle money.

Math is more than
formulas and equations.

It's logic...

it's rationality.

It's using your mind to solve
the biggest mysteries we know.

Well, I've heard about this,

but I've never actually
seen it demonstrated.

Are you sure this is gonna work?

Absolutely.

DON: Hey, Charlie,
I've been looking for you.

Hey, hey, hey.
Come over here, man.

So this is for a lecture I'm
preparing -- "Math and Molecules:

An Introduction
to Fluid Dynamics."

It looks like mints
and soda to me.

Well, two words:
surface tension.

The stuff that gives soda its
fizz is a gas, carbon dioxide.

What holds the gas inside
the liquid is surface tension.

And we all know the importance
of surface tension in fluid dynamics.

We do?

Bubbles of gas in the soda

experience viscous drag force
from the surrounding liquids.

The mints hyper-excite
the thermodynamic equilibrium

of the supersaturated CO2,

weakening the surface tension,

causing the gases to escape
rapidly, very rapidly.

You guys actually
get paid for this?

Despite your brother's
adolescent grin,

this is actually very
sophisticated math here.

I don't know about you guys,
but I'm ready to do this.

- Are you guys ready?
- LARRY: Step back.

Sure you don't need
a permit or something for this?

CHARLIE:
Okay.

( laughs )
Yeah!

That's awesome.

Yeah, that was pretty cool.

So who cleans all this up now?

I am... gonna clean it,
probably... later.

Uh, I'm assuming
you're not here for the show.

Um, yeah.

This is Yuri Chernov,

who was actually a math student
at Huntington Tech.

They've got a brilliant
undergrad program there.

Well, he was murdered last night
and we found this in his car.

Thought maybe you could
figure out what it means.

Those are probability
calculations.

If I could, these equations,

they just seem a little
familiar to me.

Have you worked
with these equations?

I don't know.

If I could just examine them
more closely.

DON: All right, let me just make
a copy in your office.

- Hey, Larry?
- Oh, uh...

I'll bring it right back.

I'm just gonna
make a copy, all right?

Yuri's parents
are flying in today.

I don't know
what I'm going to tell them.

Well, I can
talk to them for you,

if that would
make things easier.

No, I-I should be
the one to tell them.

They always liked me.

Really?

How long did you two date for?

About a year.

We broke up a couple
of months ago.

May I ask why?

The gambling.

At first, it was just
sort of a weekend thing for fun.

Then it got to be that's
all he would talk about,

all he'd do.

He'd play all day, all weekend.

And did he start
getting into debt?

It was the opposite.

He just kept winning.

And the more he won,

Yuri got into this whole
player vibe --

dressing differently,
acting differently.

And that's why
you guys broke up?

Crazy thing is,
a couple of days ago,

I thought we might
get back together.

He called and apologized.

Said he was going to quit.

Did he tell you why?

He said he made a mistake...

a big one,

but that things
were going to be okay now.

Excuse me, do you mind stopping
just for a second?

Thanks.

So Yuri Chernov is shot at close
range with a nine millimeter?

Right, nine mil, I mean,
there should be some casings.

Yeah, none were found.

You know, the witness from
the last robbery at the casino

described a .38 caliber.

Right.

The whole thing feels like
a different guy to me,

so different gun.

Yeah.

What's up, boys?

What's going on?

Check this out.

We found these
in Yuri Chernov's dorm room.

Ah, driver's licenses, fake IDs.

DAVID: He had different
wardrobes in his closet,

hair dyes in his bathroom.

Yeah, look at this.

He's got a different look
in each one of these.

COLBY:
Checked his transcripts,

straight A student,
total math geek.

Well, none of this
fits that profile, right?

No, but the ex told me that
he was playing the player role,

and that he wanted out of it.

Did we get anything
from these security cameras?

Nothing. They're blind spots.

Should we check inside?

Club's eye in the sky, right?

Yeah, maybe we can find
someone shadowing the kid.

Something wrong, Charlie?

I've been thinking about this
lecture I gave on applied probability.

What, the famous casino night?

Oh, yes, "Applying Probability
to Games of Chance."

An Eppes classic.

Turning the class
into a mini-casino

and applying probability theory
to roulette, poker, blackjack.

Gets kids hooked.

I gave that lecture
as my guest lecture

at Huntington Tech last year.

Wait, you're not seriously
proposing a causal connection

between this student's death
and your lecture?

Students gamble, Charlie.

Remember those MIT students?

They took the casinos
for millions.

How about the book that just
came out on blackjack strategy?

What was it, "Busting Vegas?"

Okay, maybe this student
read that book.

Look, if anything,

I think I'm the one
to proffer a mea culpa here.

The moment Don showed me
these equations,

- I recognized them immediately.
- What?

These are calculations
for card counting,

blackjack, to be precise.

You're a blackjack stud?

Was a blackjack stud, okay?

And in the unfinished biography
of my life,

that is very much
a closed chapter.

Outside of bulk calculations,

what's involved
in card counting?

You said
you attended my lecture.

I had to duck out
after roulette.

I was prepping
for my orals, sorry.

Yeah, yeah, so much
for an Eppes classic.

Well, blackjack
is all about math.

The point is to hit 21
without going over.

The game is ruled
by conditional probabilities.

What you see affects
what you're going to see.

If an ace is dealt, then there's
one less ace in the remaining cards.

And knowing how the cards
are likely to be dealt

works to the card
counter's advantage,

because players can ask
for a card whenever they want.

But a dealer must take a card
when the total is below 17

and can't take a card when
the total is between 17 and 21.

So lower value cards
favor the dealer,

because there's less likely
chance that he'll bust.

WOMAN:
21.

The opposite is
true for picture cards.

Each of them are worth ten.

They favor the player,

because the more of them
that are left in the deck,

the more chances
for the dealer to bust.

WOMAN: 24, dealer busts.

Now keeping exact track
isn't easy,

but card counters use
certain techniques, like, uh...

Like assigning general values.

Uh, plus one for cards
two through six, minus one

for picture cards, aces, tens,

zeros for seven, eight, nine.

Okay.

Larry. Uh...

Well, I'm sure you'll
correct me if I'm wrong,

but doesn't that allow the
card counter to keep a tally?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. High number
count favors a player,

they make their bets
accordingly.

Doesn't that attract attention?

Yeah, of course it does.

Sometimes
with grave consequences.

You got caught.

"Eyes In The Sky" has
Yuri Chernov gambling

for seven hours that day,
starting at 3:00.

He made 20 grand.

All right, so high roller,
a lot of cash,

same as the other robberies...

MEGAN: Except none of the other
robberies escalated to violence.

- That's what I was going to say.
- Let alone homicide.

And I don't see Chernov
challenging a guy with a gun.

Well, so, then
we're talking murder.

MEGAN: Yeah, and then you throw
in the fake IDs and the disguises,

and I just think there's something
more here than a robbery gone wrong.

I see what you're saying,
and I agree.

- Hi, guys.
- Hey.

Hi.

CHARLIE: Larry has something
he'd like to say to you all.

Yeah. Um, Don,
I owe you an apology.

I withheld, uh, my insights

due to personal discomfort
with, uh...

past non-scientific exploits.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. What...
What are you talking about?

The notebooks that you found
in Yuri Chernov's car --

they're filled
with card-counting equations.

CHARLIE:
Larry thinks that Yuri

was card counting
at blackjack at the club.

Yeah? How do you know that?

MEGAN: Are you saying that
you were a card counter, Larry?

The salient point here
is that casinos and clubs,

even other players --

they regard card counting
as cheating, and

this practice has led to certain
acts of violence on occasion.

COLBY: The only thing is,
Professor --

and I don't mean
to dis your theory --

but we've been looking at
this tape, and this kid --

he's been drinking and throwing
money around haphazardly.

I mean, it doesn't really look
like a system.

It just looks kind of
like dumb luck.

And the sum total
of said dumb luck?

20 grand.

To beat the house, there's more
than one way to skin a cat.

Can-Can we somehow
just roll back to the point

where Yuri Chernov
first begins to play?

Okay, now, the card counter faces
one major obstacle to success...

Transparent betting patterns.

In order to make money,
a card counter has to raise

or lower his bets based
on-on the count.

That's right, and that's
where the team comes in.

A team uses a spotter to count.

Now the spotter will bet small.

He stays inconspicuous.

But that spotter
will signal the big player

when the count is high.

There you go, right there,
that's him.

MEGAN: Okay, so you're saying
the guy in the purple,

the preppy guy, is our spotter?

Well, I mean,
unless he just has an itchy ear.

DAVID:
Wait a minute.

That guy that just walked in,
in the yellow and green --

we've seen him before, right?

Yeah, actually,
he was playing earlier,

and he was throwing money
around the same way Chernov was.

Was this guy playing with our
spotter, the preppy guy?

DAVID:
Yeah.

They were at the same table.

Well, there you go.

LARRY: And then
there were three.

So, we're looking at a team
of card counters...

Yeah, well, look, if that's
who got Chernov killed,

we better find those partners,
'cause they're next.

DAVID: All the kids
are in disguises.

It might take some time
to find them.

If Chernov was a student,
maybe the other two are, also.

You know where to go.

Huntington Tech.

All right, see you later.

Larry said these card rings
often have a backer

who puts up money
at the beginning,

and then takes a percentage
of the split.

Maybe the guy got tired
of the split.

All right,
so the backer's a suspect,

but I don't want to rule out
that club yet, either, you know?

CHARLIE:
So, you had a gambling problem.

It only makes you that much
more colorful, you know, Larry?

Just-Just so you realize,

you know,
this wasn't some hobby.

This was a calling.

This was our way of just
demonstrating to the world

the power of mathematics.

So winning money had nothing
to do with it?

Not at all. No.

Not...

Not initially,
but listen, remember

that a mathematician
named Ed Thorpe

had already created a
sensation back in the '60s

when he wrote this book
called "Beat the Dealer."

Now, in response to that book,

casinos introduced
the card shoe.

Actually, they were called
"perfesser stoppers."

And a few mathematicians
like myself,

I mean, we saw it
as a challenge.

David versus Goliath,

uh, wits and nerves
versus cameras

and high tech thuggery.

What do you mean "thuggery"?

Oh, listen to this.

I was playing at a private
card club in Atlantic City.

I was up $20,000.

$20,000?

Yeah, yeah.

And the manager
and two pit bosses --

they took me into the back room

where they were cracking nuts
with pliers,

and they told me
that mine were next.

But they didn't...
I mean, you're still...

No, I remain whole,
but I had friends

whose fingers were broken,
who had kneecaps reconfigured.

I mean, they said
we were cheaters.

No, we were playing smart.

Smarter than these kids today.

We weren't losing our lives.

( computer beeping )

COLBY:
You got face recognition?

Oh, yeah.

Our high rollers versus the
Huntington Tech online face book.

I'm still trying to get used to the
idea of Larry Fleinhardt, the player.

COLBY: They say Einstein
was a chick magnet, right?

Yeah.

All right, that's our spotter
right there.

Jason Brewer, 19.

Second year math major.

Local boy, West L.A.

And our rich South American,
Ignacio Nadal.

I wonder
if these two kids have any idea

how much trouble they're in.

I've given you statements,
handed over tapes.

We want to help.

These robberies
aren't good for business.

Actually, we're not sure
that the shooting was a robbery.

There are indications that the victim
is part of a card-counting scheme.

I can't really say
you look surprised.

Surprised people cheat? No.

What happens
when they get caught?

We walk them out the door.

That's it?

You think we shoot 'em?

Maybe one of your employees
got a little overzealous?

Guy wins five grand,

I'm not risking 20 to
life going after him.

That's just Economics 101.

Did you know there was a
card-counting ring working your club?

If I knew,
they wouldn't be here.

I still think I'm going
to need to see a list

of employees
over the past six months,

particularly the ones
working security.

'Cause that's just
Law Enforcement 101.

DAVID: When was the last time
you saw your son, Mrs. Brewer?

About a week ago.

My husband and I have
been out of town. Paris.

Have you spoken to him since
you've been back?

We got in late last night,
and when we got up this morning,

it looked like
Jason was already gone.

Should I call my husband
at work?

I mean, is my son Jason
in trouble?

We hope not, ma'am.

It just seems that
a couple of his college friends

may have gotten themselves
into a bit of a jam.

You're talking about
Ignacio and Yuri.

You know them?

Jason and the boys have been
hanging out together quite a bit.

We try to give Jason his space.

That was the whole idea of his
taking over the guest house.

We keep this for emergencies.

COLBY: Were you aware of this,
ma'am?

No. As I said, we...

Try to give your son his space.

The kid's running
a little casino out of here.

- Probably uses it to practice.
- Practice? Practice what?

COLBY: Your son plays an awful
lot of blackjack, ma'am.

What are you talking about?

Yuri Chernov was shot
last night.

He's dead.

No.

Please let us do our jobs,
ma'am.

I'm going to go call my husband.

I think that's a good idea.

Take a look at this.

Looks like Yuri Chernov wasn't the
only one using fake IDs and disguises.

Wait a minute.

Check this out.

Wow, looks like they were
keeping pretty careful records.

Yeah. Any luck, it might lead us
to their backer.

Yeah.

Now, if I can take
this data here

and isolate the student's
gambling history,

maybe I can analyze
the money flow,

maybe find a pattern.

You could use multivariate
time series analysis

to break the money down by
specific days, even hours.

That's a really good idea.

Wow.

Oh, once again, my living room
has become a Cal Sci annex.

- Your-Your living room.
- My garage is full.

All of my cognitive theory work,
so...

ALAN: Why am I not surprised?
What is this?

AMITA: Well, the student
who was murdered --

he and his two friends were
members of a card-counting team.

Don asked Charlie to have
us look at this data to see

if we could discover
who was bankrolling them.

Card counting.

Isn't that called cheating?

Card counting is not cheating.

It is the application
of probability theory to a game.

ALAN: Yeah, well, all those schmucks
who play the game for fun --

they think it's cheating.

LARRY: Well, those are
the same schmucks

that should stick
to slot machines.

ALAN: Well, you see,
that's why I like playing poker.

'Cause I can handle the ones
that try to take advantage.

Poker, I mean, you got
to have a mind, a pair of eyes.

These probability grids --

they go way beyond
simple high-low counting.

These were math students, Larry.

LARRY:
Oh, oh.

This-This is not
undergraduate work.

You're saying
someone helped them?

You know, this is reminding me
of someone.

There was this guy Leonard,

and he and I were in
graduate school together.

When the casinos
opened in Atlantic City,

we were there
the very first day.

We were using counting systems,
probability grids like this,

though these are at
a much higher level.

Leonard Philbrick.

Well, why haven't we heard
this name before, Larry?

I don't... It's just not a...

a part of my life
that I'm particularly proud of.

I mean, I've moved on
from my obsession.

But not so with Leonard.

He lost his wife,
he lost his career,

and he was a man
of great promise.

I'll tell you something.

Whoever did this
was a mathematician.

You can bet on that.

We were able to reach
Ignacio Nadal's mom in Detroit.

Single parent.

Says he missed his
weekly call home.

She seems worried.

All right, well, that's two kids
no one's heard from.

The fake IDs and disguises
in Brewer's place,

you got to assume Nadal's
working the same angle, right?

Anything in the dorm?

No, looks like he cleared
out of there in a hurry.

So both of these
kids are on the run.

Hey, I was just looking
for you guys.

Larry came up with a name.

The probability grids and algorithms
found in Jason Brewer's place --

he thinks there's a chance they
may belong to Leonard Philbrick.

He says he could be our backer.

Well, why don't you guys
just run it down,

see if you can find
out where the guy is.

You don't have to.

I Googled Philbrick's
name on the way here.

He's living in Long Beach.

He teaches
high school math there.

Well, that puts him right next door
to the Huntington Tech campus.

- ( phone ringing )
- Yeah, Eppes.

All right, we're on our way.
Yeah.

LAPD just found Jason Brewer.

MEGAN: Time of
death was 8:00 a.m.,

and the commuters
heard the shots,

but by the time
they found the body,

it was too late
to lock up the building.

SID said it's a nine millimeter.

Same kind
that killed Chernov, huh?

Yeah.

Single shot to the head.

No casings were found.

We did find his backpack
in the trash, though.

Phone numbers, addresses,
and this.

Yeah? What's this?

Wow, look at this --

J, K, Q, A...

Jack, King, Queen, Ace.

Some kind of card sequence list.

Ticket agent remembers selling
Brewer a one-way bus fare to Vancouver.

Stuck out because Brewer
didn't have the money.

Older guy paid
for the ticket with cash.

- You get a description?
- Actually, better than that.

They just ID'd the older guy
that was with Brewer.

Leonard Philbrick?

Same guy Charlie
and Larry pegged

as a possible financial
backer for these kids.

All right, well,
looks like they might be right.

Jason dead?

That's just horrible.

His mother collapsed
when we told her about him.

I can only imagine.

I doubt that.

You don't think I had anything
to do with it?

Well, he was shot in the head
at a bus station

within 30 minutes of
you buying him a ticket.

As far as we know,

you were the last person
to see him alive.

I think, uh...

I think I better talk to my
lawyer before we continue this.

Yeah? Why don't you ask them
in there what they're gonna think

about you recruiting their kids
to hustle cards, Leonard?

We know all about
you, Professor.

About your dreams
of putting your crew together,

about your past gambling debts.

I don't know
what you're talking about.

DON: No?
Well, why do phone records

put you in touch with Brewer,
Chernov, and Nadal

within the last six months?

You finally put together a team,
and now two of them are dead.

I didn't hurt Jason or Yuri.

I could never do
something like that.

Where is Ignacio Nadal?

I don't know.

Is he on the run from somebody?

Look, these kids --
they came to me.

They found articles I'd written
and a system I developed.

What, you taught 'em, and
you bankrolled 'em, right?

Until last month, yes.

Why? What happened then?

They told me
they found some new backer.

Somebody with substantially
more money.

And you just took that
in stride?

I didn't kill Jason Brewer.

All right, Leonard,
why don't you tell us

what you were doing in
the bus station then?

He needed help.

He was on the run,
and his parents are out of town.

He had nobody that
he could turn to.

I would never do anything
to hurt these kids.

I was their teacher.

MEGAN: We need
to find Ignacio Nadal.

We put a trace on
his mom's phone.

We're monitoring
his cell provider.

He makes one phone
call, we're on him.

What about friends
or classmates?

Aside from Chernov and Brewer,

this guy's pretty much a loner.

- Colby?
- Hey, guys.

I think I got something.

Remember that girl the
other night who was with

Ignacio on the tape?

Mm-hmm. Brandi?

- With an "I."
- Yeah.

Check this out. She was not
just with Ignacio.

She was there other nights.

MEGAN: She's
with all three guys?

Yeah, all of them.

See, I went through
Jason Brewer's address book.

I found her number.

It's her work number anyway.

MEGAN:
The Bareback Club?

She's the main attraction.

So, who do we think
should do that interview?

( hip-hop music playing )

Check out the midday crowd.

COLBY: Looks like a bunch
of dads got separated

from their families on
the bus to Disneyland.

( music continues )

I'm sensing premeditation.

We're looking for Brandi,
and don't start pouring.

I'll tell the DJ
to cut the music.

Whoa, hold on a minute.

One song's not gonna
kill anybody.

Relax, have yourself a soda.

Let the Disneyland dads
have one last look.

Nice tie.

Yeah, I was there that night
with Ignacio, but I left early.

- So you knew him?
- I know a lot of people.

How about people
who get murdered?

Ignacio's dead?

COLBY:
Not yet.

I don't understand.

We saw the surveillance tapes.

You were there with two
other guys besides Ignacio.

Ignacio's friends.

They're dead.

Oh, my God.

We're trying to make sure
that doesn't happen to Ignacio.

Have you seen him?

Has he tried to call you?

Why'd you leave
early that night?

I had another date?

Did that date have a name?

He's married.

We'll be discreet.

And Ignacio --
was he a date, also?

Not exactly.

Well, then be exact.

I provide a service.

Not that service.

What, were you their math tutor?

They needed me
to pull off their act.

With me on their arm,
it gave them some credibility.

So you knew
they were counting cards?

Nobody's that lucky.

So, what did you get out
of the deal?

Money.

A lot of money.

Did you notice
anybody following them?

Anybody watching them?

You're up five, ten grand,
people are watching.

I told Ignacio
some day they'd get made.

So you think that's
what happened to them?

Nobody likes to lose money.

MAN ( over PA ): Guys, put your hands
together for Sapphire.

Office getting cramped?

Uh, it's being cleaned.

After months battling
the maintenance department,

you know, I gave in.

- How's it going?
- Ugh!

I'm having trouble isolating

the students' gambling
histories, as we discussed.

To find a pattern that'll yield
the identity of the backer.

Maybe the killer.

No luck so far.

You know, I-I could really
use your help, Larry.

Lawrence.

Hey, did you two know

that Yuri Chernov
was a Tasker Scholar?

He was the first member of
his family to go to college.

Jason Brewer --
his IQ is off the charts.

Ignacio Nadal

may be the most, I don't know,
gifted of them all.

CHARLIE: Well, don't you take
solace in knowing that clearly,

you're not the only
brilliant thinker

to fall under the allure
of gambling?

I need your brilliant thinking
right now.

I'm-I'm... I-I just can't
make sense of these figures.

If I could be as vague
and opaque as Larry,

I'd say if the new backer
is behind these killings,

then maybe you need to
look behind these numbers.

Yeah, she's right, Charlie.

It's like...
it's like money moves.

Like planets, it's very movement
reveals truths.

You really think
these kids are laundering money?

On a pretty big scale.

So they take money they
couldn't account for legally,

and use gambling
to legitimize it?

They use the card club
as their washing machine.

Look. Look how the money
flow altered a month ago,

when I believe a new
backer came onto the scene.

These kids changed
the way they purchased chips.

And in any 24-hour period,
they never exceeded $10,000.

Right, 'cause they stayed below
the IRS reporting limit.

So there's no record
of the cash they started with,

and a few thousand winnings
doesn't really seem like a big scam.

That's where they were smart.

We have three students.

Right. With multiple IDs.

CHARLIE: Which they used to create
three separate card club player accounts.

So, we have three students

with three separate
player accounts

cashing out $9,900 a night.

That's $89,100 per visit.

Playing six or seven days a week
for a month.

So, that's got to
be at least, what...

I mean, it's over
two million, right?

To be precise, in one month,
that's $2,138,000.

So where's all that money go,
back to the backer?

They wired their money
from the player account

to an offshore account where...

Right, it disappeared.

Unfortunately.

So we can't trace
it to the backer.

This kid Ignacio is the only
one who can tell us where it is.

Which I'm sure the backer
knows, as well.

♪ This is it... ♪

CHARLIE:
You ever been to one of these?

A few times.
My dad's dragged me.

He's into it.

My mom always takes away
his credit cards before we come.

Table six just went
to a plus 18 count.

- Is that good?
- Oh, yeah.

I've got to tell you,

I'm feeling so uncomfortable
about this.

Larry, all you've been
telling me is

that the only way to
understand this game

is to sit at the blackjack
table and play the game.

Charlie's right, Larry.

The students were doing
very complicated equations

in a high-stress environment.

You know, I need
to feel how they felt.

I need to play how they played.

I-I need you to teach me.

I don't think you understand

just how truly narcotic
this is for me.

Can't you just see this
as-as field work?

Unfortunately,
it is a poppy field.

I'm warning you both,
we're standing at the precipice.

This is the event horizon
of a black hole.

♪ There's just one place
for me ♪

♪ This is it ♪

♪ Yeah, just one place to be ♪

♪ This is it ♪

♪ I'm so happy to be here ♪

♪ When I look around,
it's clear ♪

♪ Yes, it's perfectly plain
to see ♪

♪ There's the cream
of the crop ♪

♪ This is it ♪

♪ On my list at the top ♪

♪ This is it ♪

♪ Couldn't ask
for nothing more ♪

♪ Like a hope that I adore ♪

♪ If there's one place I fit ♪

♪ This is it... ♪

Well, nothing like the sting
of over-oxygenated air

and endless pecuniary promise.

You know, this used to be about
demonstrating the power of mathematics.

Okay, well, there is that, too.

- I think we should call it a night.
- What?!

- Yeah, let's get out of here.
- How about field research?

Come on, we got table four
over there

just ripe for the picking.

What is he doing
with those cards?

LARRY: Some clubs introduce a
fresh deck at the dealer shift change.

Just prevents players
from marking the cards.

People actually do that?

I know players who can cut a
multi-deck stack at exactly 52 cards.

Some players do other feats,
like shuffle-tracking.

Shuffle-tracking?

Yeah, well, no shuffle by
human hand is exactly perfect.

Some cards remain together.

And the players
who memorize the order

look for those same groupings
in the next shuffle.

That's why they're
using machines now.

How do those machines work?

LARRY: Auto-shufflers, they use
random number generation

to create a random distribution
of cards.

Interesting.

Because what do we know
about random distribution?

It's impossible for machines to
create truly random sequences.

These kids cracked the code for
how an auto-shuffler shuffles.

The sequences found
in Jason Brewer's notebook

were in fact card-counting
cheat sheets,

exploiting a weakness in the random
number generator found inside this box.

DAVID: That's the auto-shuffler we
found in Jason Brewer's apartment.

CHARLIE: The students used it to
adapt a card skill called shuffle-tracking.

Yeah, when dealers shuffle,

there are little runs of cards
that stay together.

So the players will
look for them to reappear.

CHARLIE:
And clubs try to prevent this

by using the auto-shuffler.

But, as we all know,
machines aren't perfect.

And the kids took advantage.

Right and how'd they do that?

First, they must have analyzed
this mechanism.

So an auto-shuffler shuffles
using a system of multiple shelves,

depositing the cards on shelves
in a seemingly random order.

But the shuffles
aren't really random,

because
the random number generator

controlling the auto-shuffler

is governed by
a fixed algorithm.

And these kids
figured all that out?

That's not all they figured out.

This specific card
club had a policy.

On dealer shift changes,
they would introduce new decks,

sealed straight
from the factory.

Now, these cards
are in a preset order.

Now, knowing this staring order,

as well as the algorithm
enabled these students...

DAVID: To know the cards that were
coming before they were even dealt.

That kind of math problem is
way beyond our three students.

Their teacher was
Leonard Philbrick.

- He had to have helped them.
- Oh, he did more than that.

I just got off the phone with
the auto-shuffler company.

Guess who they hired as
their math consultant.

What, Philbrick?

He created the
auto-shuffler's algorithm?

MEGAN: Yeah, which he
could have then given

to Ignacio and the students, right?

Which means that he could
have easily designed an algorithm

that had a much shorter period
to follow.

Thousands of steps,
instead of billions.

Okay, so they were cheating,

which gives the card club
motivation to go after them.

MEGAN: Yeah, but let's not
forget about Philbrick.

All that "I was their teacher"
stuff goes out the window,

if the students stole the scam
and ran with it.

What was I supposed to do,
admit I stole a trade secret?

Used it to cheat a card club
out of thousands?

Would have been a start.

You could have used it as
mitigation at your murder trial.

I told you
I didn't murder anyone.

Yeah, well, Leonard, I'm
guessing you know who did.

One way or another,
you're involved in this,

and you're not telling us, okay?

So I'm telling you, anything
happens to that kid Nadal,

that's three murders
I'm connecting you to.

Do you understand that?

Look, the kids got caught with
the auto-shuffler, all right?

By who?

Marius.

The club manager.

Next thing I know,
he's at my door.

Oh, so the kids gave you up.

I warned them not to get greedy.

Knowing that shuffle,

you can make returns of 200,
even 300 percent every few hours.

Yeah, but not without
someone noticing.

Marius caught them, day one.

And that's how
the dirty money came in.

He's got connections with drug
distributors on the East Coast.

So you made a deal --

your asses for the
money laundering scam.

What else could we do?

All right.

So what went wrong?

Well, the kids got cold feet.

They wanted to come forward,

admit to the gambling fraud,
the money laundering.

What happened then?
Marius found out?

The recent high roller robberies
presented a perfect opportunity --

a cover for Yuri's murder.

As for Jason,

Marius must have followed him
when he came to see me.

That's got to mean
Ignacio is next.

I guess he doesn't
want to leave any witnesses.

Hey, FBI.

Where's Marius, the manager?

( sniffs )

Smell that?

Shots fired.

Yeah, here we go.

I got a dead body here.

Lock this place down.

DON: All right,
so Marius isn't the killer.

So we have to figure out
who would want Marius dead.

Well, how about the people
he was laundering for,

these east coast drug dealers.

I mean, if you think about it,
Marius got a bunch

of college kids involved
in money laundering,

only he loses control of them.

So what, he killed them all
to keep it quiet?

Obviously he didn't
keep them quiet enough.

Well, we know he's going
after Ignacio next.

Yeah, 'cause he's the one
last witness.

You, why are you so quiet
over there?

It's statement Marius gave
to the LAPD.

The night Yuri Chernov
was murdered,

he says he started work
at 7:00 P.M.

So?

What are all these calls coming out
of his office first thing in the morning?

Maybe somebody else
was using his office.

COLBY:
Maybe he was just lying.

DON: Yeah, but why
would he lie about that?

Maybe he didn't want anyone to know
he was at the club when Yuri arrived.

- What?
- CHARLIE: Constrained dynamics.

Chernov's car was parked in a
security camera blind spot, right?

Yeah, the whole corner
was obscured.

All right. Do you have an overview
of the card club parking lot?

Yeah. That's it right there.

Chernov arrived late afternoon,

well before the evening
crowds showed up.

Why the hell would he park his car
this far away from the club's entrance?

That doesn't add up.

More than that,
it defies mathematical principles.

Constrained dynamics is used to
analyze everything from traffic flow

in supermarkets and malls to
the mechanics of granular matter...

Meanwhile, back
in the parking lot?

Applying constrained dynamics,

the parking lot should have
filled up in a predictable pattern

starting with the spaces
closest to the entrance

and fanning out like a wave,
like, like a wave.

Given the time
that Yuri arrived,

I see no reason why
he parked his car this far away.

Unless he wasn't the one
who parked it.

All I did was park his car.

Right.
In the back of an empty lot.

Hey, Willie, you want to be
charged as an accessory here, huh?

Look, the man paid me 500 bucks
to park the dude's car by the fence.

What man? Marius?

Another guy.

But I saw him talking
with Marius that morning.

Before that, he was with
the dude who got whacked.

You're saying the guy that paid
you knew the victim.

Yeah. A Latino dude,
a young guy.

Came to the club all the time
with two friends.

That day he was wearing
a soccer jersey

- and a lot of jewelry.
- and a lot of jewelry.

So Ignacio.

He played both of his friends
and Philbrick and Marius?

And if he's killing witnesses...

He's got one left.

Philbrick's heading
towards his car.

I've got Philbrick.

Suspect's acquired.
He's moving in.

Where is he?

He's on the other side of the
car as he's tracking Philbrick.

I got him.

Mr. Philbrick?

If you have a second,
can I talk to you on my calculus grade?

This is not a good time, Karen.

But I really need...

Karen, please walk away now!

You guys, move, move!

Keep your hands
where I can see 'em.

Make a move for that gun
and you're dead.

You set me up.

COLBY: Yeah, just like
you set up your friends.

And then you were going
to kill him.

Up to your knees.

Put your hands behind
your head slow.

- Why?
- Why?

Why not?

You told us the money
was there, remember?

All we had to do was take it.

If Yuri and Jason
hadn't punked on me,

it would have worked out, too.

It looks like you gambled
and lost, pal.

Well, I see once again you've escaped
all responsibility for your actions.

Oh, Leonard,

you must be very proud
of yourself.

Larry Fleinhardt.

Well, what's it been, 25 years?

22, Leonard.

I see your name in journals.

Academic life
has treated you well.

Well enough.

What are you doing here?

I'm just waiting on you.

How could you do it?

You know what the game
did to us.

How could you visit such a fate
upon young gifted minds?

Those kids came to me.

And instead
of sharing your wisdom,

two are dead and
another's going to prison.

These kids were a second chance
for me.

Come on.

Don't tell me you don't
remember what it felt like

to beat the house
at their own game.

You were the best I ever saw,
Fleinhardt,

and you just walked away.

That's right.
I never looked back.

When the numbers
are running you,

instead of you
running the numbers,

it's time to take your money off
the table, Leonard.

Men make choices they have
to live with.

Well, you know, I know two
who will never get that chance.

So Philbrick cut a deal:
two years probation.

ALAN:
He got lucky.

Oh, yeah, if you want
to call it that.

Again, I apologize
for not coming forward sooner.

Ah, it's all right.

No, I was tormented.
I was mortified.

Look, you stepped up ultimately.

Larry, do you realize
that without your help,

we would have never figured out
those students were money laundering.

Not to mention giving Charlie a
taste of real action at the tables.

What are we talking about
blackjack for?

Let's play a real game.

- A real game?
- Poker!

All the math in the world
is useless

against a good read,
steady nerves.

I have had enough action
to last a lifetime.

Besides, poker is for
professional card players

and underemployed celebrities.

DON:
Yeah. I'm out, too, actually.

The last time I played with you,

I ended up eating mac and cheese
for a week.

Come on. We'll go sit outside.

You can tell me about
the gambling days.

Yeah. Yeah.

I guess it's you and me.

Texas Hold 'em, no limit.

What do you say
we bet the house?

You're not, you're not serious
about betting the house.

I'm always serious.