Learn Blackjack Video Source & Info:
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Thanks to @StevenBridges for teaching me. Go check out his channel for REAL card counting in the casino for real money.
This week I learned to count cards. We replicated a real blackjack game to see, if working in a team with Steven Bridges, we could make a profit. I spent 4 days learning to count cards.
Good resources if you want to learn for yourself: https://www.blackjackapprenticeship.com/
Source: YouTube
Dude I had an absolute blast filming this video with you! You smashed it!
For anyone that wants a bit more info on the specifics:
Learning to count cards takes months or years of training, so the challenge in this video was to see how many corners we could get Mike to cut where he'd still be an asset to a blackjack team, with only a few days training.
So we focused purely on counting, and skipped out basic strategy completely. We simulated a real blackjack game that I've played, that has very favourable rules and a huge range between the table minimum and the maximum. This means that even if Mike is a terrrrrrible blackjack player, the amount he'd lose playing would be totally offset by the value he'd bring by counting.
Mike was playing the role of a spotter. When we count as a team though, we won't just have one spotter. We'll have a spotter at each table. This ensures that the Big Player (The one who's betting big) is being regularly signalled in by spotters. The more time the BP is playing the more money we can win.
There's a really nice thing Mike said that I don't think he got on film, and I think it perfectly outlines the difficulty of what he was trying to do. He said that he thought card counting would be a very complex system, that once he understood would be relatively easy to implement, but in reality, it was a very simple system, that is incredibly difficult to implement. I think that's such a good way of putting it.
And finalllllly, for the love of everything good in this world, please don't spend 4 days learning to count cards and then try it at a casino, it will not go well. 😂
If you want to understand how card counting works then this video explains it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLYsck5fsLU
Really think this video needs a disclaimer and links towards responsible gambling and support services for those with gambling addictions. Please update this Mike!
Fantastic content.
Stevens videos are so good I’ve been watching for a few months and I’m so excited for his Las Vegas videos
idk if you sign contract when you go to a casino but, at least in the US, if you were caught, you should be able to cash out your chips. You can't refuse service if you have made an informal contract, exchanged considerations, and had a history of mutual assent for iterated games until the point you are ejected. I mean, you could, but the person would have reason for legal recourse.
You should learn to shuffle poker chips
Yooooo9oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Most casino blackjack tables with any limits above $50 will have six decks in a shoe, and will rarely use more than 75% of the cards in the shoe before using a newly reshuffled shoe. Some high limit tables will use an eight deck shoe and may even use only 50-60% of the cards before shoe replacement. This severely limits the advantages of card counting (which is why they do it!) as the fewer cards left the more one can know.
Casinos look for Card Counting and if they suspect you or you are winning big, they will 'Back' you off and ask you to leave. Card Counting is not illeagal but Casinos do not like winners.
One thing to note is their "simulation" had an unintended "control" present, which was our lovable Mr. Mike. With any game of chance, over a large sample size probabilities become dominant, while the smaller the sample size "luck", both bad or good, has more of an effect on the outcome.
Mike, a self admitted terrible/poor blackjack player, won a substantial amount based on him betting the minimum over a short period, meaning he had really "good luck" during the simulation. Having good luck in blackjack doesn't mean just that your cards were more often good (meaning getting a card that doesn't bust you and gives a high count) than chance would dictate, it also means the dealer's cards were more often bad (meaning getting a card that busts them or gives a low count like 17 or 18) than chance would dictate. With Mike winning as he did, it would therefore be reasonable to assume the dealer had a run of bad luck which would also affect our "card counting" player's results, causing him to win quite a bit more as well.