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: ruclips.net/video/QLYsck5fsLU/видео.html
Hey Steven, I've wondered all along the video why you were not playing BJ online. There are some real time BJ tables with real dealers playing as it was in a land based casino. My guess is that it's illegal depending where you currently live.
I think that "please don't spend 4 days learning to count cards and then try it at a casino" should be capitalised and in bold flashing letters! Great job explaining.
I'm a casino dealer in France. In my country, card counting is virtually impossible as all the shoes have been replaced with machines that continually shuffle the cards. You are right, it is not cheating, and kicking you out is absolutely wrong. If casinos want to keep their edge, they need to invest in electronic shoes. Don't tell people they're cheating when they're not, just fix your broken game.
@@syomchi yep, when they get to about half of the shoe, they pop the cards on the back of the machine, there is no downtime, so more hands = more money for casinos; and it counters card counting.
I've been told by a friend who works at a casino in London that restricting card counting is actually of no benefit to the house. There are many more bad card counters that end up losing money than there are good ones winning, so the casinos would actually benefit from encouraging the practice. Abusing card counters the way many casinos do is actually hurting their bottom line. So even though you'd think that their main goal would be making as much money as possible, it's apparently even more important to them to be sadistic assholes.
Cool cool. But isn't the restricting card counting thingy the very one thing that makes people bad card counters? :P I mean imagine they let everyone count cards without any worry in the world that they will be backed off. No one would count cards bad in the end. And everyone would start counting cards making huge profits off it in the long run. I share ur view off them being sadistic assholes but I would argue they are smart by backing off all the card counters and not just the good ones. Because it makes it so much harder for every card counter out there to actually become a good card counter and it prevents the whole world from getting the idea to start card counting daily. it's like that one obstacle making people think nah it aint worth it. To summarise. They actually make more money because of it, in the long run : ). they are shitheads, but they are smart shitheads.
It's probably more nuanced than that. If they allow all the bad card counters to play until they get even a slight advantage, then politely ask them to leave or give them a room (if they also lose money in another game), the house will make its point and the player will have clear boundaries. If he's a legitimate gambler who loses on the regular, allowing him to count sometimes won't hurt anyone. But if they see someone who works with a team and is clearly intent on making money leave the casino, then they give that guy a rectal shoe implant because he is not going to help the casino in any way by being there. Card counters are good for casinos overall because they still lose money. But I think the tough guy routine is just an act to make sure the person stays away and tells his friends. That "sadistic asshole" is an urban legend that is an effective repellent. This conversation is the result, so I think it is working.
If they only throw out the ones making money off of them they're still winning. So that's what they do. You know it helps them because they do it. Casino's don't have morals and they don't care about you.
@@jama211 No company has morals or cares about you. If they claim to it's just to get your money. Very few businesses will make a profit by caring about people. It is a morally sound practice to remove players that appear to have an advantage other players don't have.
The point is to discourage people. When you get somebody threatening in your space ordering you to do things you know aren't right, it takes a certain kind of person to not just comply and stop doing the thing you're being harrassed for.
Thank you for finding someone who actually knows what they are talking about! There are so many people out there who claim to be card counters, but don't really understand what it actually means in a practical sense. I was concerned when I saw the shots of him handling big bundles of bills, but was relieved as soon as he spoke and it was clear that he was the real deal. Your simulation was good, and counting was hard - now imagine doing it in a room with flashing lights, loud music, people and staff chatting to you, etc etc. Great video!
Thank you! There are many, many card counters with more experience and expertise than me. But tried my best to give as accurate an overview as I could. And you’re right, unfortunately there are a lot of gamblers that think they can count, when they can’t at all
I learned to count cards from Wizard of Odds in like 2 days. I went to a casino and it seemed to work just fine. I'm sure I was very obvious about it too but nobody said anything to me. It's really easy especially with a full table
I used to work as a poker tournament director, it's insane how many people would show up and tell me that they were going to clean out my regulars because they knew how to count cards... in poker... they thought they could use a method to keep a running tally of the ratio of high:low cards in a game where the deck is shuffled every hand. Unsurprisingly none of the people who told me that ever did well
Two things will always stick with me from card counting. 1) the statistics of it. I'm a guy who likes maths and numbers, so seeing that applied to gambling was really interesting to me, and got me hooked instantly. 2) the money you need to guarantee success. Something that wasn't as emphasised in this video compared to others was how much money you needed to guarantee success. The problem with card counting is the statistical anomalies that are guaranteed to happen to someone somewhere. Given Infinite time and money, card counting is guaranteed to produce money at a steady rate per hand played. But money isn't Infinite. So you need to get as close to Infinite as possible by having ridiculously high bankrolls that most people won't ever have in savings in their lifetime. Steven in this video scenario said he was simulating a half a million dollar bankroll. Half a million is more than what some people will earn in their entire lives.
If you can demonstrate a consistent edge, you then just need to find someone who will buy some of your action. Good "Gamblers" are smart people with good risk management skills, and they will look for opportunities to both make money, and reduce their risk. They buy a larger than normal return on your winnings, in exchange for lending you the money you need to take a seat. They just need to know you're good enough, and if you are, then everyone wins.
Tip for anybody learning (i learned the basics a decade back but never did much) carry a deck around all day and as fast as you can just flip cards and count. Then once you got that do it while going about your day (like sitting at a cafeteria table having a conversation) Or have somebody else flip and call out the cards while trying to play a video game and try to keep count. Makes the process much more natural. First and foremost you gotta learn blackjack. Once you can count while half asleep and drunk start doing it at games, the faster the dealer the better, have distractions, practice and keep track of what you would be making if it were a real game (like they did). Then take it to a real casino.
That does seem like a smart way to learn card counting and keep yourself from getting rusty. Especially since you'd get so used to doing it while acting normal that it'd probably be something you did without even thinking about it every time a deck of cards is brought out.
It's a small advantage that you probably won't get to take advantage of.. I don't even like using the word advantage because blackjack is so fast paced and tough that it's not something that you'd want to invest your time, thought, energy, and money into doing.. Way too easy to loose..
Practice practice practice, and study basic strategy. NEVER buy insurance, and remember this limerick for splits: Aces and eights are always split, Four and four is always hit, Five and five is treated as ten, And tens are never split. Good luck!
I remember having a ‘is it cheating’ convo with some friends watching football a while back, where during a penalty shootout, the goalkeeper (both sides keepers did this), have a list of where each opposition player is most likely to place the ball, noted down on their water bottles, that’s not cheating, it’s using stats. Are they always right, well no of course not, but it can give them an advantage, 4 times to the right, once to the left, none down the middle... they’re likely to go right. It’s the same as what’s being said here about card counting or poker stats etc. It’s not cheating, it’s finding an advantage and using it
Question for you. If you had a choice to allow the goalie who you knew had the stats written on the bottle to either stay in the net OR replaced by an equally good goalie who you knew didn't know or have the stats on his bottle, AND you had money on the shooter to score, which choice would you make? We all would make the switch, just like casinos do. The clip of the pit boss/supervisor telling him he couldn't cash out his chips and had to just leave isn't normal or legal. I'm not saying it NEVER has happened, but it is as likely as being dealt four aces in poker.
100% behind you there, but to play devil's advocate, I'd argue there's a case for writing on the water bottles in particular. Studying and remembering answers for an exam is not the same as writing them on your hand, despite the same result. Again though, I agree. Just wanted to throw out the difference between mental vs written aid. The stats/answers aren't the point, it's the method of acquiring them in the moment. Edit: Card counting is of course brain-only. You can ban water bottle notes but you can't ban memorization.
When it gets a bit warmer, I'm interested to see how fast you could learn to sail a 1-man boat inshore. Some people can get to where they want to go in a day or two, but others take a lot longer, so I'm interested in your strategies Getting into sailing is probably about as difficult as getting into counting cards: you need to do a few things at once. However, sailing fast takes years
17 years as a sailing instructor, I have a 5 min chalk talk that can teach 95% of people how to get from any point A to point B, ages 10-100. And that is actual field tested stats. They can sail the first time they step in a boat. Racing takes years to learn and years more to get good. Would be cool to see Mike learn sailing in the context of racing, think it would be a cool challenge worthy of his caliber.
@@index7787 Interesting. What class do you teach them in? I found that even people who have the basics down in other classes have trouble when they steer my laser vago or laser radial
I tried pro BJ in the late 90's in Vegas/Tahoe/Primm NV and it was a miserable slog. My expected winnings were $35 an hour but after almost a year my actual came out to about $10. Avoiding heat means enough compromises (limited spreads, lower average bets, staying out of the high roller room so worse rules, etc) that really put a damper on any kind of big money in the long run. And the "business" has only gotten worse since, with continuous shuffle machines, terrible rules, no midshoe deck entry so no old school team play, etc. 12 hours a day of intense concentration in a room full of distractions, noise and (back then) smoke just wasn't worth it for $10 an hour, even then.
Love seeing card counting videos! Been working in the industry for over 5 years now and seeing people crush it is the best! Keep it up you guys! Glad to see more card counters!
The one sentence that worried me was, It’s not even real money and look how happy we are. That is where addictive personalities start to have problems with gambling.
I mean, on this channel my first thought was "yeah, that's the thrill of gaining a new skill!" Then again, the entire everything around gambling feels very gross to me, so I'm not exactly the one in danger.
I have an addictive personality so I stay the hell away from gambling. Plus, I see no point in it. I’ve only ever gambled once in my life. I told myself that $50 was the only amount I was ok with losing (I was 21 working part time and in uni). The cheapest blackjack table they had was a $15 minimum. I still remember the dealer getting 2 blackajacks and a 20. Lost my money in like a minute lmao. Casinos should frankly be illegal. They prey on people’s addictions and ruin families/lives. If weed is illegal, I see no reason that gambling shouldn’t be. A close friend of mine had a father who was a gambling addict. He ended up losing everything. His wife divorced him and he kidnapped my friend and sister for a year. They were only around 10 and homeless. Very sad.
Such a cool collab. We should do one together next! I want to see how many of the skills you've learnt you can combine, like memorising a deck or solving a cube underwater, or saying pi while juggling, while unicycling, etc.
As a blackjack dealer I find this video very interesting. I've meet a lot of people who've tried to count, even teams, but they usally never win too much. I think this might be because we're having a bit diffrent rules here in Sweden and 6 decks. I really think it's impressive that you managed to count 6 decks!
@@kenbagwell8551 Ye, true count is truly an additional skill. And I figured that the diffrent rules and the 6 deck cards we're using in Sweden are to randomize the outcome more so people won't count, or that's my guess anyways :)
I was at Kingston university failing at political science back in 2012 when me and a friend started to play poker, and then over time when we were doing well in the Hippodrome Casino, we began to try out card counting together. I was good, but my friend Terry was legendary. He was able to look at dozens of cards just quickly flashed and he’d know what the count is. It was unreal, and he’d bet very big when the count was high. We’d also “Wong” it, which means to stand over an ongoing game of blackjack and bet behind a sensible player when the count was particularly high. We’d got banned from PlayBoy casino in London because they figured out we were counting their 1-deck game (the more decks in a shoe, the harder it is to get a higher count). He ran simulations and things on his computer all the time, and came up with a way to beat the side bets with the assistance of an Arduino in a shoe and a small clicker under his foot. Life was good back then. Just thought I’d share. We’d made £80k (untaxed!!) between us over 7 months but we got banned from blackjack in every casino. I still try to play but they spot me so fast it’s a running joke at the Hippodrome now haha. Back to poker.
Oh and the downswings are disgusting. Your edge was only ever 1-5%, so you gotta go in with the right bankroll management, the right betting units, and the balls to lose 10 grand knowing that it’s just a small edge.
@@yes5421 all the proper casinos have facial recognition and a 'black book' of banned individuals. To be honest, of all the places I've been caught, I've never once had a nasty or threatening encounter. The way it's always happened is the Pit boss (the guy that overlooks a small section of gaming tables) will come over and say "Sir you are welcome to play any game in the casino except for blackjack :)" and I say 'fair enough' haha and it's off to the poker.
I think gambling addiction deserves a shout out. Especially when bringing gambling to new audiences as a mean to make money. "Knowing" you'll win eventually needs to be taken with a few grains of salt and it can be a dangerous idea. A common and dangerous belief is being able to gamble your way out of debt. While you can learn to count in order to get a slight edge, on the whole the house always wins. Mistakes can be costly and you need to know when to stop as well as be able to. Always good to have a think and consider if you could be genetically predisposed to addiction or if you have a history of addiction to any substance or even video game. My mate is amazing at blackjack and counting cards but ended up bankrupt, heavily in debt to credit companies as well as family and friends. He will probably struggle with the addiction for the rest of his life. But in theory, he could win it all back right? Dangerous thought like I said. Be careful out there!
Hopefully in the video we got across the need for perfect play for this to work at all. But yes, most professional gamblers will have a Risk Of Ruin at less than 1%. But for every hundred counters with a 1% ror, one would theoretically go bankrupt. Gambling addiction is a huge problem in society. I highly recommend people do not gamble at all. And for counters, I’d never recommend playing in a casino until their game has been verified by a pro.
According to the guy in the video "While you can learn to count in order to get a slight edge, on the whole the house always wins" is false, you have an edge of 1-2%. That means you lose 48-49% of the time.
youre first issue is thinking gambling can be an income when in reality less than 11% are profitable, and that number is probably 1-2% of gamblers who can use it as main income. You should always gamble knowing well aware that is entertainment, not an money printing machine.
I used to work as a croupier and it is actually possible to make the roulette spins not random. Not that I could accurately hit a certain number every time but I could aim at a number and increase the likelihood that the ball ended up in that nearby sector of the wheel. The trick is to release the ball with exactly the same speed every spin as well as constant speed of the roulette wheel. Still a large degree of randomness but for sure enough that I could make money in the long run if I was allowed to place bets and spin the ball myself.
It’s funny you say that because that’s exactly how I play roulette. Dealers tend to throw at the same speed due to muscle memory. I’ll watch a few spins and track the relation between release and where it lands. Once I find a trend, I’ll bet groups of numbers right after the release
This absolutely concurs with my experience, I have seen it done. It is why Casinos change the Croupier so frequently, and will do so at random if Croupier and gambler are getting to friendly.
Roulette will flote the ball over numbers there's nothing to do with muscle reflexes, it's all computerized. But everytime there's a 2;4;22 will be a 2;4;22 number soon
Watching the MIT Blackjack Team doc I have to realize that the house will always win in the end. The grind you have to put in also seems so crazy and cant even imagine the pressure trying to keep the count with all the background noise of a casino. Good work
Everyone can learn every subject there is, giving the things that you learn about that topic is shallow enough. There's so much more to the world of card counting that is displayed in this video.
As someone that does some betting with similar statistics to card counting (a little above 55% winrate and almost exactly 1:1 payouts over thousands of bets) - I can say from my own personal experience, those losing days and periods suck and feel bad, no matter how confident you are in the maths and how aware that it all makes perfect sense. The main thing is that if you are confident in what you're doing and know that you're following the system correctly, you have to just weather the storm and the bad feelings, and wait for the long run where the actual returns line up fairly well with the expected returns. You can and should definitely double check what you're doing and make sure you aren't making any mistakes or leaks, but one of the worst things you can do is make drastic changes when you didn't actually do anything wrong, and just got hit by some negative variance.
@@Inmotion70 Is that a laugh because you think it's low, or because you're surprised at how high it is? A 55% winrate with 1:1 payouts is *very* good for betting. Given that something like 95% of sports bettors lose money long-term, being +value at all already puts you in the top 5%, and I'd wager a guess that having 10% EV per bet (which is what 55% at 1:1 translates into) would put me in the higher part of that 5%.
How many hours per week do you dedicate to gambling and how much money do you take in on average yearly? You've got me curious. It's a pretty cool way to make money
@@BirdTurdMemes Honestly, this season hasn't been as great as last season (last NBA season I turned 2000 into 151k; this year I've turned 10k into 20k). Typically it'll be 4 to 6 hours a day, though I massively toned that down as things weren't working and now it's about 1-2 hours per day (especially with the playoffs meaning there are far less games than the regular season). Though I did double my profit in the last 2 months of the season, so that was nice. I'm also doing promos though (bet returns, boosted prices, things like that). Good promos are very reliable because there's no question that they're positive value. With promos across 6 betting accounts I'm making about 300-400 a day on average (typically a smaller amount on weekdays and bigger amounts on weekends). The promos have boosted the profit by an extra 26k so far, and take way less effort because they're definitely +value, so you're just trying to hedge them as well as possible. TLDR: finding a system to straight bet with can be really profitable if you find an edge, but it probably would take a tonne of effort to find one, and the bookies are also putting in effort to make sure their line setting algorithms are as good as possible, so they're constantly trying to minimise your edge too. Promos, though, are consistently reliable.
This was utterly fascinating from start to finish. I can't believe how well you did in 4 days! Just shows how such a simple process can be so difficult in its application. Then all the external distractions as well on top of that... If you can win big doing this, then fair play to you. My brain would be broken after a few minutes for sure!
A great analogy I saw was like learning a new language; seeing the cards for their count is like learning the alphabet, but then learning how to bet is like using the alphabet to make words. It’s much harder to apply the count into profit then it is to simply count
I love the video man ,its what actually made start to count card and being interested in AdvantagePlay. Im doing it for a while now and its not easy but its an honest job against the evil casino
Casino dealer here. A video very well done. But are a few points which I want to add. In England is very hard to do almost impossible because in the small casinos there are shuffling machines which is a never ending shoe so you can’t count cards and in the big casinos are not many table and is easy to spot it. When the casino spots you, is easy to mess with your count plus you have only one night and after that you can’t get into.
There are more sophisticated card counting techniques, (eg counting the aces.) With every skill or art form, it requires practice, practice, practice. He did well after just three days. Good video.
Steven Bridges is the best magician I've ever seen. He's entertaining all the time and a phenomenal card mechanic. I've read a bunch of books on Magic, and I've watched the greats, Steven is one of them. I'm really looking forward to what he does in the future.
The secret to long term success and staying off of _The House_ radar is moderation. Bet moderately, increase modestly and don't win too much at one _House._ When you win, put your biggest checks in your pocket so as not to be seen as winning over all. I stop between $500 and $800, then move on the the next one. Move around. When I go to 'vegas, I spend a few days, hit three or four casinos per trip and hit each casino three times once on all three shifts. This minimizes my chances of being remembered by a dealer or pit boss. The next trip I hit a different set of casinos. Not repeating for something between 14-18 months. I can hit Reno every once in a while and stretch out my frequency. Hiding it from the tax man is a different lecture.
@@nautifella I remember the point that casinos have like 4-5 decks and never exposure half of the deck, which makes counting harder. So like play 100 cards and shuffle, so while statistics say that deck should be evenly distributed, it is only true in long term process, like hundreds of games and shuffles. If it is wrong, correct, just for insight how maths works in this case.
@@AinsleyHarriott1 no the dealer isn't playing with us for example 4 players play and a dealer for lets say an hour and after it the player with the most money wins
Crazy to see steven in this i used to watch his channel all the time for his magic tricks and such and he was one of my fav's i think it would be fun to learn card counting to mess with friends during card nights lol.
This only works on a manual deck 6 packs Also you have to join the shoe at the beginning not in the middle as the count will be a guess Also depending on the cut you have to divided how many packs are in the shoe to be played before the cut card which is placed to the value of 2 before you start .
If you think about it, if a single player knows that they have an advantage, then they'll play much more than others. It'll become a huge problem for casinos.
@@stevenbridges that series is so stress-inducing but also eye-opening and entertaining! Thanks for going through that and sharing with us. Keep doing your thing!
rewatching this video after a while and i realised that a good analogy for count counting is essentially not something like a nasa rocket math working once but an elementary math paper written throughout the entire day ensuring you get the 100% no matter what its more of a simple perfection test but with a lot of endurance to keep up that said perfection
It is easy, until you realize you're in a casino, with background noise, waitresses coming up to you, small talk, the speed of cards dealt and managing basic strategy
This is unreal dude.. every time I get into a new hobby or just try to learn something new, there you are, the same time as me, learning the same skill! Edit: great design on the T-shirt, inspo from Zeppelin?
The movie card counter put through a motion which is circling around RUclips and then we are all roped into it. Just like chess a year or so ago with queen’s gambit
Only if you use an computer or something. You think it’s illegal because the casinos want you to think it’s illegal. Funny that they can take millions hand over fist from optimistic and unsuspecting gamblers but will throw you out if you take money off them
@@benjiusofficial why should it? You are only using information avaible to everybody and your brain, no computers, no marked cards or anything. It is totally legal and will be forever, casinos are just getting up with counter measurements like always shuffling machines etc
In vegas the rule is if you won it it is yours. The kicker is no person has a right to play anything. Casinos can and often do ban people for a host of reasons. There are many peoples livelyhoods at stake here. Counting cards can bankrupt a casino.
a suggestion for a thing you could try learning is catching a coin after flipping it but without looking up to see where it is, so you only see the direction it went in when you first flipped it.
Ed thorp, a mathematician and the guy who got famous for coming up with the system for card counting actually invented(together with claude shannon if im not mistaken) something that could give you a big edge in roulette aswell. It was a wearable device that was able to calculate the area where the ball would land. Its sometimes credited as the first wearable computer
@@Max-ww7iz Derren Brown made an episode where he attempted to replicate what that machine did without the actual machine, and in a real casino. I think he did it live. Was a pretty interesting episode.
Hey Mike! Great video, but maybe consider chucking a gamblers helpline or information source in the description. With this sort of production quality and audience it just might be a good idea,cause you make it look so good.
Funny story, this statistician a long time ago ripped off casinos on roulette by targeting older, chipped and damaged wheels which land on particular numbers at higher odds. He got banned.
When the wheel has one zero, there are 37 outcomes. The "real" odds are therefore 36:1. When the wheel has 2 zeroes, there are 38 numbers in total and the "real" odds are therefore 37:1. Ratios compare part-to-part. Fractions compare part-to-whole. In either case, the payout odds are 35:1. This gives the casino either a 2.7% edge (for Europoean roulette) or a 5.2% edge (for American roulette).
Depends with roulette. There is a specific reason the croupier gets changed often. To keep them from getting into a rhythm. The longer somebody is in charge of a wheel, the more robotic their movement, meaning you can at times have a positive expectation of the part of the wheel the ball will land.
hahaha, mate we dealers are getting changed to go on a 20 minutes break every hour, it has nothing to do with robotic movements, stop watching movies 🤣
There is absolutely no way that the random elements of a roulette wheel don't totally swamp the movement of the croupier. I bet you can't back this up.
@@joshuarosen6242 Yes he can back that up. They get so mechanic that the ball lands with the same number of revolutions, so gamblers watching that and the position of the wheel where the dealer thows the ball. they can accurately predict the area where it will land
@@joshuarosen6242 I guess people forget that even players of petank don't perform same tricks always, what to say about micromanagement with small ball?
The funny thing is you do have to calculate a bit. To know exactly how much to bet you have to calculate the True count of the entire deck, by deviding the Running count with the number of decks left in the shoe. You can also choose to play not according to Basic Theorie and adapt your playstyle to the True count of the shoe. So there is a bit more to it than you think. But great video for sure! You should be able to get an edge with the playstyle they‘re executing. Sry for my bad english im from germany:)
Deviating from basic strategy based on the true count is very risky, and is where many novice counters go bankrupt. It adds a whole new layer to the game, and if you’re not playing like a computer, you’re going to forfeit your edge over the house and lose.
That was highly fascinating. I thought counting cards was a case of memorising the order of cards. I had no idea it was both simple, and equally confusing. Great vid Mike. On the subject of gambling, how about learning to throw dice? Apparently there is a skill to throwing snake eyes etc.
It would be great uf somebody could answer this question I have: Why is it beneficial to the player if the count is high and beneficial to the dealer if the count is low? I am not super familiar with the rules but this does not make sense based on my limited knowledge
I'm not exactly an expert, so take this with a grain of salt: In Blackjack, the player is the one who "controls" the hand. What I mean is, they are the one who decides if they keep recieving cards or not. With lots of high cards in the deck, a player can just check with two cards and already have a hand that's close to 21 points. On the other hand, the dealer gets two cards at the start and when everybody checks, they add cards to their hand until they either win against the players or go over 21 points. With a lot of high cards on the deck, this is detrimental because it's easier for the dealer to go over 21. Again, take it with a grain of salt. I'm sure there are many others that are more knowledgeable than me on this matter.
Hey great question charlie. I'm a pit boss for over 15 years and can answer. You have it backwards, the count being high is beneficial for the player, for multiple reasons. 1) when you double down, you are always looking for a 10 or an ace, which are more frequent in high counts. 2) you are supposed to assume that the dealers face down card is a 10, therefore when the dealers face up card is a "bust" card, they will draw more 10s and go over 21. Hope this helped!
Dealers HAVE to hit their hand when their total is 16 or less. A deck that is rich in 10s and face cards (a high count) will cause the dealer to bust often. If the deck is filled with low value cards (a negative count), a dealer that hits his 16 will generally improve his hand and players will lose more.
So this is how it works: First thing you do is to learn basic strategy. As mentioned in the video, basic strategy is the perfect way to play blackjakc. Mathematicians have used computers to calculate probabilities for each and every possible hand situation and created basic strategy to show players the move with the highest probability of winning for each hand - upcard combination. Now even if you are perfect with this, you cannot know what card comes up next… exept if you count cards. By counting carts you will know that at some point there are way more 10s and aces in the deck than other cards. At this point the count is high. Now you can adjust basic strategy to that knowledge. You can use this to your advantage by either creating a strong hand for yourself or making the dealer go bust. Let‘s say the count is high and the dealers upcard is a 6. Now ee always assume that the down card is 10 making his hand a 16y The dealer will have to draw until he has at least 17. When the count is high you can assume that he will pull two 10s making him go to 26 which is bust -> you win.
everyone should play roulette exactly once, and no more. you should bet all of the money you think you would bet over time, and are comfortable with losing at once. you also want the worst possible bet with the highest odds, which is single odds. basically, you want to do what Mike does in the intro. BUT ONLY ONCE IN YOUR ENTIRE LIFE. This is because the odds of you winning roulette are exactly zero if you never play, but if you play once your odds are slightly higher than zero (about 2.7%). Playing roulette more than once though lowers your expected winnings to an even lower number. This is the mathematical way of saying "you can't win if you never play, but the more you play the more you will lose." even then, your potential winnings will probably be small because you will only ever make a "safe" yolo bet that you can be ok losing.
There are ways to make money from roulette. There was a family who watched a roulette wheel for weeks to pick out that some numbers were slightly more likely to come up than others. Then they bet in controlled ways so that they could make money in the long term, only increasing their wagers after they had significantly increased their bankroll. It used to be that newspapers in Monaco had to report the results of roulette spins by law. And some people analysed data from that and found that there were significant biases but they ended up losing money. It turned out that the journalists whose job it was to report the results were just going to the casino bar and writing down 30 numbers each hour off the top of their head because who the hell would check.
U trusted the magician 😂😂 Steven By the way these days casinos have covered shuffling machine with several decks Is it possible to count cards these days?
Now you gotta learn the chip thingy that poker players do. You know, when they split the chips into two stacks and then combine them into one stack in very neat looking way. Doesn't actually look that hard, I'm assuming it just takes a bit of practice.
Mike and Steven: I think its important that you try to not spread misinformation; i.e. when the Count is IN YOUR FAVOR, you are not more likely to win. The odds of winning are still exactly the same vs the dealer as the dealer could easily be the one to get a better hand. MORE specifically, when the count is in your favor, the opportunity for Blackjack which pays 3:2 goes up. That extra 50% is the "Winning" factor as when the DEALER gets blackjack, they only take your wager 1:1. So to clarify, when the count is in your favor, that is when you have better opportunities to win money over time. A lot of rookie card counters are going to get rekt and wonder what the hell is going on when everytime the count is good, the dealer keeps getting 20 and they're "Supposed" to be winning more often.
Actually, (technically) you CAN get an edge on roulette, if the wheel is flawed and has a bias, but that is very rare and they can fix the flaw or replace the wheel. However, it is completely impractical to look for one.
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: ruclips.net/video/QLYsck5fsLU/видео.html
HAHA FIRST GET REKT YALL
Meeee? :O
Wooo Steven!
Hey Steven, I've wondered all along the video why you were not playing BJ online. There are some real time BJ tables with real dealers playing as it was in a land based casino. My guess is that it's illegal depending where you currently live.
I think that "please don't spend 4 days learning to count cards and then try it at a casino" should be capitalised and in bold flashing letters!
Great job explaining.
Mike secretly regretting not filming this in an actual casino and putting everything on 25
agreed. totally accurate
@Thanatoons He couldn't just cut it though... you'd see that there are no chips on most of the numbers.
Also did you notice his hand was on 25 when he spun the wheel
@@AAARREUUUGHHHH then he would've just rerolled?
@@brandonsteele2826 i doubt that. trying everything perfectly 26 times (on average) would take quite a long time.
“You have a calculator are you counting cards?”
“No I’m looking up 9+7”
I'm a casino dealer in France. In my country, card counting is virtually impossible as all the shoes have been replaced with machines that continually shuffle the cards. You are right, it is not cheating, and kicking you out is absolutely wrong. If casinos want to keep their edge, they need to invest in electronic shoes. Don't tell people they're cheating when they're not, just fix your broken game.
i was about to ask how casinos counter that since its not being mentioned in the video thanks for the info!
Most casinos in Australia use auto shufflers too unfortunately :(
So do you like shuffle all the cards between each round? Because if not then I see no problem here
@@syomchi yep, when they get to about half of the shoe, they pop the cards on the back of the machine, there is no downtime, so more hands = more money for casinos; and it counters card counting.
@@diegomastro5681 In France, you pop the cards back after every single hand.
I've been told by a friend who works at a casino in London that restricting card counting is actually of no benefit to the house. There are many more bad card counters that end up losing money than there are good ones winning, so the casinos would actually benefit from encouraging the practice. Abusing card counters the way many casinos do is actually hurting their bottom line. So even though you'd think that their main goal would be making as much money as possible, it's apparently even more important to them to be sadistic assholes.
Cool cool. But isn't the restricting card counting thingy the very one thing that makes people bad card counters? :P I mean imagine they let everyone count cards without any worry in the world that they will be backed off. No one would count cards bad in the end. And everyone would start counting cards making huge profits off it in the long run. I share ur view off them being sadistic assholes but I would argue they are smart by backing off all the card counters and not just the good ones. Because it makes it so much harder for every card counter out there to actually become a good card counter and it prevents the whole world from getting the idea to start card counting daily. it's like that one obstacle making people think nah it aint worth it. To summarise. They actually make more money because of it, in the long run : ). they are shitheads, but they are smart shitheads.
It's probably more nuanced than that. If they allow all the bad card counters to play until they get even a slight advantage, then politely ask them to leave or give them a room (if they also lose money in another game), the house will make its point and the player will have clear boundaries. If he's a legitimate gambler who loses on the regular, allowing him to count sometimes won't hurt anyone. But if they see someone who works with a team and is clearly intent on making money leave the casino, then they give that guy a rectal shoe implant because he is not going to help the casino in any way by being there. Card counters are good for casinos overall because they still lose money. But I think the tough guy routine is just an act to make sure the person stays away and tells his friends. That "sadistic asshole" is an urban legend that is an effective repellent. This conversation is the result, so I think it is working.
If they only throw out the ones making money off of them they're still winning. So that's what they do. You know it helps them because they do it. Casino's don't have morals and they don't care about you.
@@jama211 No company has morals or cares about you. If they claim to it's just to get your money. Very few businesses will make a profit by caring about people. It is a morally sound practice to remove players that appear to have an advantage other players don't have.
The point is to discourage people. When you get somebody threatening in your space ordering you to do things you know aren't right, it takes a certain kind of person to not just comply and stop doing the thing you're being harrassed for.
Thank you for finding someone who actually knows what they are talking about! There are so many people out there who claim to be card counters, but don't really understand what it actually means in a practical sense. I was concerned when I saw the shots of him handling big bundles of bills, but was relieved as soon as he spoke and it was clear that he was the real deal. Your simulation was good, and counting was hard - now imagine doing it in a room with flashing lights, loud music, people and staff chatting to you, etc etc. Great video!
Thank you! There are many, many card counters with more experience and expertise than me. But tried my best to give as accurate an overview as I could.
And you’re right, unfortunately there are a lot of gamblers that think they can count, when they can’t at all
I learned to count cards from Wizard of Odds in like 2 days. I went to a casino and it seemed to work just fine. I'm sure I was very obvious about it too but nobody said anything to me. It's really easy especially with a full table
I used to work as a poker tournament director, it's insane how many people would show up and tell me that they were going to clean out my regulars because they knew how to count cards... in poker... they thought they could use a method to keep a running tally of the ratio of high:low cards in a game where the deck is shuffled every hand. Unsurprisingly none of the people who told me that ever did well
yep. 100% accurate
Although Steven is *MUCH* better than the vast majority who claim to be counters, he is very new to it himself though.
Mike is seriously one of best creators on the platform.
Right? He’s amazing every once in a while I find a hidden gem like him
totally dude. precisely right
agreed
True
I was about to comment the same thing
it's funny how casinos happily steal all the money off your body, but the second you beat them at their own game they throw a tantrum
Yeah because they want to make as much money as possible, and try not to lose as little as possible.
no shit scherock. You just discovered economy
I mean it's a buisness so your basically robbing them
Steven's channel is one of the greatest on RUclips. His card counting series is a masterpiece
Agreed. Ever since this video launched I’ve watched every video on his channel. Definitely worthy of a subscription.
not really. his math is off
if you think a7 vs q is a hit. it's not. more than 50 percent chance to push or win
Two things will always stick with me from card counting.
1) the statistics of it. I'm a guy who likes maths and numbers, so seeing that applied to gambling was really interesting to me, and got me hooked instantly.
2) the money you need to guarantee success. Something that wasn't as emphasised in this video compared to others was how much money you needed to guarantee success. The problem with card counting is the statistical anomalies that are guaranteed to happen to someone somewhere. Given Infinite time and money, card counting is guaranteed to produce money at a steady rate per hand played. But money isn't Infinite. So you need to get as close to Infinite as possible by having ridiculously high bankrolls that most people won't ever have in savings in their lifetime. Steven in this video scenario said he was simulating a half a million dollar bankroll. Half a million is more than what some people will earn in their entire lives.
If you can demonstrate a consistent edge, you then just need to find someone who will buy some of your action. Good "Gamblers" are smart people with good risk management skills, and they will look for opportunities to both make money, and reduce their risk. They buy a larger than normal return on your winnings, in exchange for lending you the money you need to take a seat. They just need to know you're good enough, and if you are, then everyone wins.
You use kelly criterion and adjust your spread based on risk of ruin tolerance level.
I love how a magician always has to handle chips frenetically when he has them near him. Steven is great
Haha I try my best to not do it at the c aus I but such a habit 😂
@@stevenbridges I know, its hard to resist, just try to dont palm cards in casinos, I have never been on a casino but I can imagine the situation
couldn't agree more. completely true man
I genuinely think the best skill Mark has learned over this whole time is figuring out how to learn and manage adversity
he really does learn fast as hell. most of us would NOT have this result even in a month i imagine.
I do wonder if learning so many things we get better at learning. Have thought about it for a while with how he’s learned so many things
Tip for anybody learning (i learned the basics a decade back but never did much) carry a deck around all day and as fast as you can just flip cards and count. Then once you got that do it while going about your day (like sitting at a cafeteria table having a conversation) Or have somebody else flip and call out the cards while trying to play a video game and try to keep count. Makes the process much more natural. First and foremost you gotta learn blackjack. Once you can count while half asleep and drunk start doing it at games, the faster the dealer the better, have distractions, practice and keep track of what you would be making if it were a real game (like they did). Then take it to a real casino.
That does seem like a smart way to learn card counting and keep yourself from getting rusty. Especially since you'd get so used to doing it while acting normal that it'd probably be something you did without even thinking about it every time a deck of cards is brought out.
Can u explain to me how is works with the fact that u could join a game mid shoe
It's a small advantage that you probably won't get to take advantage of.. I don't even like using the word advantage because blackjack is so fast paced and tough that it's not something that you'd want to invest your time, thought, energy, and money into doing.. Way too easy to loose..
21:55 you can tell this isn’t his first rodeo hahaha. His pure joy of winning brings him to life.
Perfect timing mike, exactly when I wanted to learn how to count cards
Good luck!
agreed. totally, totally true man
Practice practice practice, and study basic strategy.
NEVER buy insurance, and remember this limerick for splits:
Aces and eights are always split,
Four and four is always hit,
Five and five
is treated as ten,
And tens are never split.
Good luck!
Yooo how did that happen?
At 2am on monday?
I remember having a ‘is it cheating’ convo with some friends watching football a while back, where during a penalty shootout, the goalkeeper (both sides keepers did this), have a list of where each opposition player is most likely to place the ball, noted down on their water bottles, that’s not cheating, it’s using stats. Are they always right, well no of course not, but it can give them an advantage, 4 times to the right, once to the left, none down the middle... they’re likely to go right.
It’s the same as what’s being said here about card counting or poker stats etc. It’s not cheating, it’s finding an advantage and using it
and still, the casino would kick you out 💀 it's a bullshit industry that preys on people with gambling problems
It's why they call them advantage players and not cheaters
that's right. completely perfect
Question for you. If you had a choice to allow the goalie who you knew had the stats written on the bottle to either stay in the net OR replaced by an equally good goalie who you knew didn't know or have the stats on his bottle, AND you had money on the shooter to score, which choice would you make? We all would make the switch, just like casinos do.
The clip of the pit boss/supervisor telling him he couldn't cash out his chips and had to just leave isn't normal or legal. I'm not saying it NEVER has happened, but it is as likely as being dealt four aces in poker.
100% behind you there, but to play devil's advocate, I'd argue there's a case for writing on the water bottles in particular. Studying and remembering answers for an exam is not the same as writing them on your hand, despite the same result. Again though, I agree. Just wanted to throw out the difference between mental vs written aid. The stats/answers aren't the point, it's the method of acquiring them in the moment.
Edit: Card counting is of course brain-only. You can ban water bottle notes but you can't ban memorization.
When it gets a bit warmer, I'm interested to see how fast you could learn to sail a 1-man boat inshore. Some people can get to where they want to go in a day or two, but others take a lot longer, so I'm interested in your strategies
Getting into sailing is probably about as difficult as getting into counting cards: you need to do a few things at once. However, sailing fast takes years
you are unequivocally right
17 years as a sailing instructor, I have a 5 min chalk talk that can teach 95% of people how to get from any point A to point B, ages 10-100.
And that is actual field tested stats.
They can sail the first time they step in a boat.
Racing takes years to learn and years more to get good. Would be cool to see Mike learn sailing in the context of racing, think it would be a cool challenge worthy of his caliber.
@@index7787 Interesting. What class do you teach them in? I found that even people who have the basics down in other classes have trouble when they steer my laser vago or laser radial
One of my old friends in med school went to the olympics mono sailing. She came dead last, but still, getting into the olympics is a reward in itself.
I tried pro BJ in the late 90's in Vegas/Tahoe/Primm NV and it was a miserable slog. My expected winnings were $35 an hour but after almost a year my actual came out to about $10. Avoiding heat means enough compromises (limited spreads, lower average bets, staying out of the high roller room so worse rules, etc) that really put a damper on any kind of big money in the long run. And the "business" has only gotten worse since, with continuous shuffle machines, terrible rules, no midshoe deck entry so no old school team play, etc. 12 hours a day of intense concentration in a room full of distractions, noise and (back then) smoke just wasn't worth it for $10 an hour, even then.
Love seeing card counting videos! Been working in the industry for over 5 years now and seeing people crush it is the best! Keep it up you guys! Glad to see more card counters!
Imo, one of the best, most entertaining, yet curiosity inducing, videos Mike's ever done!
I was hookedm beginning to end, Fascinating content.
The one sentence that worried me was, It’s not even real money and look how happy we are. That is where addictive personalities start to have problems with gambling.
Yeah for sure. Gambling is something that should handled with a great deal of care
I mean, on this channel my first thought was "yeah, that's the thrill of gaining a new skill!" Then again, the entire everything around gambling feels very gross to me, so I'm not exactly the one in danger.
that'sa me
I have an addictive personality so I stay the hell away from gambling. Plus, I see no point in it. I’ve only ever gambled once in my life. I told myself that $50 was the only amount I was ok with losing (I was 21 working part time and in uni). The cheapest blackjack table they had was a $15 minimum. I still remember the dealer getting 2 blackajacks and a 20. Lost my money in like a minute lmao.
Casinos should frankly be illegal. They prey on people’s addictions and ruin families/lives. If weed is illegal, I see no reason that gambling shouldn’t be. A close friend of mine had a father who was a gambling addict. He ended up losing everything. His wife divorced him and he kidnapped my friend and sister for a year. They were only around 10 and homeless. Very sad.
@@bear532 Na. Weed and gambling should definitely be legal.
Discovered Steven's channel a few weeks ago and was stoked when I found out you two were doing a colab. Keep up the good work guys!!
Such a cool collab. We should do one together next! I want to see how many of the skills you've learnt you can combine, like memorising a deck or solving a cube underwater, or saying pi while juggling, while unicycling, etc.
As a blackjack dealer I find this video very interesting. I've meet a lot of people who've tried to count, even teams, but they usally never win too much. I think this might be because we're having a bit diffrent rules here in Sweden and 6 decks. I really think it's impressive that you managed to count 6 decks!
You have to do a bit of division for 2, 6 or 8 decks. It's an additional skill you have to master for sure. BTW, 6 to 5 BJ is nearly unbeatable.
@@kenbagwell8551 Ye, true count is truly an additional skill. And I figured that the diffrent rules and the 6 deck cards we're using in Sweden are to randomize the outcome more so people won't count, or that's my guess anyways :)
So are we just going to ignore the fact that he has a full size blackjack AND roulette table in his office?
Yeah I was thinking the same thing lol
He might have rented them from a company that also supplies dealers. That dealer looked like a party dealer and not one with casino experience.
haha you really thought that was his
@@Liwet.
the dealer is a card counter.
Who is teaching him how to count cards
@@mangosteakI’m a little late but if the dealer was a genuinely good and active card counter, they would have blurred his face lol.
chess player: *thinks 18 steps ahead*
YOU DIRTY CHEATER!
I was at Kingston university failing at political science back in 2012 when me and a friend started to play poker, and then over time when we were doing well in the Hippodrome Casino, we began to try out card counting together.
I was good, but my friend Terry was legendary. He was able to look at dozens of cards just quickly flashed and he’d know what the count is. It was unreal, and he’d bet very big when the count was high. We’d also “Wong” it, which means to stand over an ongoing game of blackjack and bet behind a sensible player when the count was particularly high. We’d got banned from PlayBoy casino in London because they figured out we were counting their 1-deck game (the more decks in a shoe, the harder it is to get a higher count).
He ran simulations and things on his computer all the time, and came up with a way to beat the side bets with the assistance of an Arduino in a shoe and a small clicker under his foot. Life was good back then.
Just thought I’d share. We’d made £80k (untaxed!!) between us over 7 months but we got banned from blackjack in every casino. I still try to play but they spot me so fast it’s a running joke at the Hippodrome now haha. Back to poker.
Oh and the downswings are disgusting. Your edge was only ever 1-5%, so you gotta go in with the right bankroll management, the right betting units, and the balls to lose 10 grand knowing that it’s just a small edge.
Impressive stuff, and I thought you were just a TV chef!
How do they spot you? Do they memorize your face for the rest of your life?
@@yes5421 facial recogition software. quite easy to track everyone and everything coming in and out of a casino
@@yes5421 all the proper casinos have facial recognition and a 'black book' of banned individuals.
To be honest, of all the places I've been caught, I've never once had a nasty or threatening encounter. The way it's always happened is the Pit boss (the guy that overlooks a small section of gaming tables) will come over and say "Sir you are welcome to play any game in the casino except for blackjack :)" and I say 'fair enough' haha and it's off to the poker.
I think gambling addiction deserves a shout out. Especially when bringing gambling to new audiences as a mean to make money.
"Knowing" you'll win eventually needs to be taken with a few grains of salt and it can be a dangerous idea. A common and dangerous belief is being able to gamble your way out of debt. While you can learn to count in order to get a slight edge, on the whole the house always wins. Mistakes can be costly and you need to know when to stop as well as be able to. Always good to have a think and consider if you could be genetically predisposed to addiction or if you have a history of addiction to any substance or even video game.
My mate is amazing at blackjack and counting cards but ended up bankrupt, heavily in debt to credit companies as well as family and friends. He will probably struggle with the addiction for the rest of his life. But in theory, he could win it all back right? Dangerous thought like I said.
Be careful out there!
Hopefully in the video we got across the need for perfect play for this to work at all.
But yes, most professional gamblers will have a Risk Of Ruin at less than 1%. But for every hundred counters with a 1% ror, one would theoretically go bankrupt.
Gambling addiction is a huge problem in society. I highly recommend people do not gamble at all. And for counters, I’d never recommend playing in a casino until their game has been verified by a pro.
According to the guy in the video "While you can learn to count in order to get a slight edge, on the whole the house always wins" is false, you have an edge of 1-2%. That means you lose 48-49% of the time.
@@stevenbridges I knew you were legit because I have never seen you on Spencer Cornelius channel.
@@christopherarendt3531 they'll give you the boot when they see you winning too much
youre first issue is thinking gambling can be an income when in reality less than 11% are profitable, and that number is probably 1-2% of gamblers who can use it as main income. You should always gamble knowing well aware that is entertainment, not an money printing machine.
I used to work as a croupier and it is actually possible to make the roulette spins not random. Not that I could accurately hit a certain number every time but I could aim at a number and increase the likelihood that the ball ended up in that nearby sector of the wheel. The trick is to release the ball with exactly the same speed every spin as well as constant speed of the roulette wheel. Still a large degree of randomness but for sure enough that I could make money in the long run if I was allowed to place bets and spin the ball myself.
It’s funny you say that because that’s exactly how I play roulette. Dealers tend to throw at the same speed due to muscle memory. I’ll watch a few spins and track the relation between release and where it lands. Once I find a trend, I’ll bet groups of numbers right after the release
This absolutely concurs with my experience, I have seen it done. It is why Casinos change the Croupier so frequently, and will do so at random if Croupier and gambler are getting to friendly.
Roulette will flote the ball over numbers there's nothing to do with muscle reflexes, it's all computerized. But everytime there's a 2;4;22 will be a 2;4;22 number soon
@@ChaseW26 I smell bs. How do you know this works?
@@Cowtymsmiesznego wdym how do I know it works? I just said personal experience? Try reading bud
Watching the MIT Blackjack Team doc I have to realize that the house will always win in the end. The grind you have to put in also seems so crazy and cant even imagine the pressure trying to keep the count with all the background noise of a casino. Good work
I’m convinced mike can learn anything right about now
Apart from backflips!
Well, we all can learn anything, it just takes focus and commitment, he spends whole days not only a few minutes on learning new skills
@@crazycjk never gunna let him live it down lol
Everyone can learn every subject there is, giving the things that you learn about that topic is shallow enough. There's so much more to the world of card counting that is displayed in this video.
It's nice to see you learning a skill from a professional although I enjoy you going through the trial and error of learning something yourself
Man, I remeber watching Steven's tutorials and being mind blown by his magic years ago. It's a pleasant surprise to see him here. Go steve
I learned to count recently and this is the best explanation I’ve heard so far!
As someone that does some betting with similar statistics to card counting (a little above 55% winrate and almost exactly 1:1 payouts over thousands of bets) - I can say from my own personal experience, those losing days and periods suck and feel bad, no matter how confident you are in the maths and how aware that it all makes perfect sense.
The main thing is that if you are confident in what you're doing and know that you're following the system correctly, you have to just weather the storm and the bad feelings, and wait for the long run where the actual returns line up fairly well with the expected returns. You can and should definitely double check what you're doing and make sure you aren't making any mistakes or leaks, but one of the worst things you can do is make drastic changes when you didn't actually do anything wrong, and just got hit by some negative variance.
55% win rate LOL
@@Inmotion70 Is that a laugh because you think it's low, or because you're surprised at how high it is?
A 55% winrate with 1:1 payouts is *very* good for betting. Given that something like 95% of sports bettors lose money long-term, being +value at all already puts you in the top 5%, and I'd wager a guess that having 10% EV per bet (which is what 55% at 1:1 translates into) would put me in the higher part of that 5%.
@@Inmotion70 answer him pussy
How many hours per week do you dedicate to gambling and how much money do you take in on average yearly? You've got me curious. It's a pretty cool way to make money
@@BirdTurdMemes Honestly, this season hasn't been as great as last season (last NBA season I turned 2000 into 151k; this year I've turned 10k into 20k). Typically it'll be 4 to 6 hours a day, though I massively toned that down as things weren't working and now it's about 1-2 hours per day (especially with the playoffs meaning there are far less games than the regular season). Though I did double my profit in the last 2 months of the season, so that was nice.
I'm also doing promos though (bet returns, boosted prices, things like that). Good promos are very reliable because there's no question that they're positive value. With promos across 6 betting accounts I'm making about 300-400 a day on average (typically a smaller amount on weekdays and bigger amounts on weekends). The promos have boosted the profit by an extra 26k so far, and take way less effort because they're definitely +value, so you're just trying to hedge them as well as possible.
TLDR: finding a system to straight bet with can be really profitable if you find an edge, but it probably would take a tonne of effort to find one, and the bookies are also putting in effort to make sure their line setting algorithms are as good as possible, so they're constantly trying to minimise your edge too. Promos, though, are consistently reliable.
Two of my absolute favorite creators! What a f*ckin brilliant collaboration. Loved every second of it!!
I knew this video would be coming, such a Mike thing to learn haha love it !
"Alright, this is... day... three?"
Off to a great start with the count there Mike!
This was utterly fascinating from start to finish. I can't believe how well you did in 4 days! Just shows how such a simple process can be so difficult in its application. Then all the external distractions as well on top of that... If you can win big doing this, then fair play to you. My brain would be broken after a few minutes for sure!
I've been watching Steven Bridges and Mike Boyd for ages, I never expected this collab!!!!!!!! This is amazing!
15:44 - Irony: "I have lost count of the amount of times I have been kicked out..."
😂
Somehow I stumbled upon steven a few weeks ago and watched all his videos and now to randomly see him here is super cool and surprising
A great analogy I saw was like learning a new language; seeing the cards for their count is like learning the alphabet, but then learning how to bet is like using the alphabet to make words. It’s much harder to apply the count into profit then it is to simply count
I love the video man ,its what actually made start to count card and being interested in AdvantagePlay. Im doing it for a while now and its not easy but its an honest job against the evil casino
3:02 Nobody thinks you're going to walk into a casino and sit down at a blackjack table with "$10" and walk out with "10k...."
Casino dealer here. A video very well done. But are a few points which I want to add.
In England is very hard to do almost impossible because in the small casinos there are shuffling machines which is a never ending shoe so you can’t count cards and in the big casinos are not many table and is easy to spot it. When the casino spots you, is easy to mess with your count plus you have only one night and after that you can’t get into.
Do they have a lot of 6/5 blackjack in England?
There are more sophisticated card counting techniques, (eg counting the aces.) With every skill or art form, it requires practice, practice, practice. He did well after just three days. Good video.
Steven Bridges is the best magician I've ever seen.
He's entertaining all the time and a phenomenal card mechanic.
I've read a bunch of books on Magic, and I've watched the greats, Steven is one of them.
I'm really looking forward to what he does in the future.
Banned by every major casino in America 🇺🇸. I wear that as a badge of honour.
Me too! ;-)
My math teacher is actually the founder of the MIT blackjack team as featured in the movie 21. Super super cool dude and incredible life stories
Finally steven gets the recognition he deserves
Steven's series is awesome
Thank you!
I have never gambled, or probably never will.. but I still watched this 25 minute video, and loved every minute of it :D
I play poker and dont gamble either. No gambler has ever made any money. Pro gambler is an oxymoron.
The secret to long term success and staying off of _The House_ radar is moderation. Bet moderately, increase modestly and don't win too much at one _House._ When you win, put your biggest checks in your pocket so as not to be seen as winning over all. I stop between $500 and $800, then move on the the next one.
Move around. When I go to 'vegas, I spend a few days, hit three or four casinos per trip and hit each casino three times once on all three shifts. This minimizes my chances of being remembered by a dealer or pit boss. The next trip I hit a different set of casinos. Not repeating for something between 14-18 months. I can hit Reno every once in a while and stretch out my frequency.
Hiding it from the tax man is a different lecture.
I just read here that in Reno they use electronic shufflers and counting is not possible
@@fh2234 The method of the shuffle is hardly relevant. As long as still use _real_ not digital cards, nothing really changes.
@@nautifella I remember the point that casinos have like 4-5 decks and never exposure half of the deck, which makes counting harder. So like play 100 cards and shuffle, so while statistics say that deck should be evenly distributed, it is only true in long term process, like hundreds of games and shuffles.
If it is wrong, correct, just for insight how maths works in this case.
Card counting is such a fun skill to have, especially against your friends.
How would you use card counting against friends? You might be thinking about poker.
@@AinsleyHarriott1 in friendly games of course, not everyone heads to the casino
@@randomizednamme yes but you can't really play friendly blackjack considering the dealer has a 51%+ edge. Flipping a coin is friendly.
@@AinsleyHarriott1 no the dealer isn't playing with us for example 4 players play and a dealer for lets say an hour and after it the player with the most money wins
this is one of my favorites in a long time. also damn it's impressive how skillful your guest is
23:13: Mike realizing he's in the wrong business 😂
Hahaha he may not make that much an hour but I'm sure he makes a very decent living. Deservedly so
that "you did great" at 17:32, there was something there and you cant convince me otherwise
Crazy to see steven in this i used to watch his channel all the time for his magic tricks and such and he was one of my fav's i think it would be fun to learn card counting to mess with friends during card nights lol.
This only works on a manual deck 6 packs
Also you have to join the shoe at the beginning not in the middle as the count will be a guess
Also depending on the cut you have to divided how many packs are in the shoe to be played before the cut card which is placed to the value of 2 before you start .
its crazy that casinos invest so much into stopping people from getting a 1% advantage in one game style
If you think about it, if a single player knows that they have an advantage, then they'll play much more than others. It'll become a huge problem for casinos.
OMG I literally just started watching Steven's card counting videos and now he turns up in a MikeBoyd video
haha small world!
@@stevenbridges that series is so stress-inducing but also eye-opening and entertaining! Thanks for going through that and sharing with us. Keep doing your thing!
This sounds like something to learn for years to just be able to remember everything
Well done!! This is one of the best RUclips videos I’ve seen in a long time….. wow man,,, I really want to try and get good at this.
rewatching this video after a while and i realised that a good analogy for count counting is essentially not something like a nasa rocket math working once
but an elementary math paper written throughout the entire day ensuring you get the 100% no matter what
its more of a simple perfection test but with a lot of endurance to keep up that said perfection
Once he broke it down I was actually shocked how simple it is
It is easy, until you realize you're in a casino, with background noise, waitresses coming up to you, small talk, the speed of cards dealt and managing basic strategy
This is unreal dude.. every time I get into a new hobby or just try to learn something new, there you are, the same time as me, learning the same skill!
Edit: great design on the T-shirt, inspo from Zeppelin?
The movie card counter put through a motion which is circling around RUclips and then we are all roped into it. Just like chess a year or so ago with queen’s gambit
@@treasurewuji8740 never watched that movie and played chess for 15 years
18:00 bruh that background ringing caught me off guard i panicked thought my phone was ringing HAHHAH
This is probably my favourite Mike Boyd video.
When we needed him the most, the king returned
@sweet home 8 bruh
This is actually so wild to me, I definitely thought counting cards was illegal lol
Only if you use an computer or something. You think it’s illegal because the casinos want you to think it’s illegal. Funny that they can take millions hand over fist from optimistic and unsuspecting gamblers but will throw you out if you take money off them
It will be in a couple years. Thought Police gonna get you.
@@benjiusofficial why should it? You are only using information avaible to everybody and your brain, no computers, no marked cards or anything. It is totally legal and will be forever, casinos are just getting up with counter measurements like always shuffling machines etc
In vegas the rule is if you won it it is yours. The kicker is no person has a right to play anything. Casinos can and often do ban people for a host of reasons. There are many peoples livelyhoods at stake here. Counting cards can bankrupt a casino.
Casinos: Hey, come here for a chance to win money!
Card Counters: Hey, look at that, I won money!
Casinos: Get the hell out, scumbag
YUP!
@@stevenbridges exactly
precisesly
a suggestion for a thing you could try learning is catching a coin after flipping it but without looking up to see where it is, so you only see the direction it went in when you first flipped it.
Mike you should make a video about you surviving in the woods for like 2 days with all you’ve learned
Ed thorp, a mathematician and the guy who got famous for coming up with the system for card counting actually invented(together with claude shannon if im not mistaken) something that could give you a big edge in roulette aswell. It was a wearable device that was able to calculate the area where the ball would land. Its sometimes credited as the first wearable computer
That would be considered cheating, as you're relying on a computer vs your brain
@@Redesigned-d1f it wasnt back then and he is the reason they made that rule
@@Max-ww7iz Derren Brown made an episode where he attempted to replicate what that machine did without the actual machine, and in a real casino. I think he did it live. Was a pretty interesting episode.
@@notme5744 oh thanks for that, thorp skipped how exactly it worked in his books, was kind of curious about that. Ill check it out sometime
@@Max-ww7iz No worries. Yeah, it's worth a watch
Hey Mike!
Great video, but maybe consider chucking a gamblers helpline or information source in the description. With this sort of production quality and audience it just might be a good idea,cause you make it look so good.
Funny story, this statistician a long time ago ripped off casinos on roulette by targeting older, chipped and damaged wheels which land on particular numbers at higher odds. He got banned.
I was literally thinking when I clicked on this - they should interview Steven! Great video
Insane video quality man, keep up the awesomeness!
When the wheel has one zero, there are 37 outcomes. The "real" odds are therefore 36:1. When the wheel has 2 zeroes, there are 38 numbers in total and the "real" odds are therefore 37:1. Ratios compare part-to-part. Fractions compare part-to-whole. In either case, the payout odds are 35:1. This gives the casino either a 2.7% edge (for Europoean roulette) or a 5.2% edge (for American roulette).
Depends with roulette. There is a specific reason the croupier gets changed often. To keep them from getting into a rhythm. The longer somebody is in charge of a wheel, the more robotic their movement, meaning you can at times have a positive expectation of the part of the wheel the ball will land.
hahaha, mate we dealers are getting changed to go on a 20 minutes break every hour, it has nothing to do with robotic movements, stop watching movies 🤣
There is absolutely no way that the random elements of a roulette wheel don't totally swamp the movement of the croupier. I bet you can't back this up.
@@joshuarosen6242 Yes he can back that up. They get so mechanic that the ball lands with the same number of revolutions, so gamblers watching that and the position of the wheel where the dealer thows the ball. they can accurately predict the area where it will land
@@ShakaZoulou77 You haven't backed it up either. Just saying yes it is isn't evidence.
@@joshuarosen6242 I guess people forget that even players of petank don't perform same tricks always, what to say about micromanagement with small ball?
Steven Bridges and Mike Boyd the crossover everyone wanted and nobody expected. (Who else thought Collin would be coaching?)
Man just taught millions of people how to card count.
"Lets meet one" yeah, no shot. it better be Steven bridges
"my name is Steven bridges and im a card counter" OH MY GOD I CALLED IT
The funny thing is you do have to calculate a bit. To know exactly how much to bet you have to calculate the True count of the entire deck, by deviding the Running count with the number of decks left in the shoe.
You can also choose to play not according to Basic Theorie and adapt your playstyle to the True count of the shoe. So there is a bit more to it than you think.
But great video for sure! You should be able to get an edge with the playstyle they‘re executing.
Sry for my bad english im from germany:)
Deviating from basic strategy based on the true count is very risky, and is where many novice counters go bankrupt. It adds a whole new layer to the game, and if you’re not playing like a computer, you’re going to forfeit your edge over the house and lose.
Exactly, dude only mentions half of actually "counting" here.
That was highly fascinating. I thought counting cards was a case of memorising the order of cards. I had no idea it was both simple, and equally confusing. Great vid Mike. On the subject of gambling, how about learning to throw dice? Apparently there is a skill to throwing snake eyes etc.
It would be great uf somebody could answer this question I have: Why is it beneficial to the player if the count is high and beneficial to the dealer if the count is low? I am not super familiar with the rules but this does not make sense based on my limited knowledge
I'm not exactly an expert, so take this with a grain of salt:
In Blackjack, the player is the one who "controls" the hand. What I mean is, they are the one who decides if they keep recieving cards or not. With lots of high cards in the deck, a player can just check with two cards and already have a hand that's close to 21 points. On the other hand, the dealer gets two cards at the start and when everybody checks, they add cards to their hand until they either win against the players or go over 21 points. With a lot of high cards on the deck, this is detrimental because it's easier for the dealer to go over 21.
Again, take it with a grain of salt. I'm sure there are many others that are more knowledgeable than me on this matter.
Hey great question charlie. I'm a pit boss for over 15 years and can answer. You have it backwards, the count being high is beneficial for the player, for multiple reasons. 1) when you double down, you are always looking for a 10 or an ace, which are more frequent in high counts. 2) you are supposed to assume that the dealers face down card is a 10, therefore when the dealers face up card is a "bust" card, they will draw more 10s and go over 21. Hope this helped!
From my knowledge, say you get a face card(10) then a 3, then hit, and get a face card(10) you will bust
Dealers HAVE to hit their hand when their total is 16 or less. A deck that is rich in 10s and face cards (a high count) will cause the dealer to bust often. If the deck is filled with low value cards (a negative count), a dealer that hits his 16 will generally improve his hand and players will lose more.
So this is how it works:
First thing you do is to learn basic strategy. As mentioned in the video, basic strategy is the perfect way to play blackjakc. Mathematicians have used computers to calculate probabilities for each and every possible hand situation and created basic strategy to show players the move with the highest probability of winning for each hand - upcard combination.
Now even if you are perfect with this, you cannot know what card comes up next… exept if you count cards.
By counting carts you will know that at some point there are way more 10s and aces in the deck than other cards. At this point the count is high. Now you can adjust basic strategy to that knowledge.
You can use this to your advantage by either creating a strong hand for yourself or making the dealer go bust.
Let‘s say the count is high and the dealers upcard is a 6. Now ee always assume that the down card is 10 making his hand a 16y The dealer will have to draw until he has at least 17. When the count is high you can assume that he will pull two 10s making him go to 26 which is bust -> you win.
Love Steven bridges!!! The combo I didn’t know I needed
19:40 Dude called him in and got soooo giddy lmao
everyone should play roulette exactly once, and no more. you should bet all of the money you think you would bet over time, and are comfortable with losing at once. you also want the worst possible bet with the highest odds, which is single odds. basically, you want to do what Mike does in the intro. BUT ONLY ONCE IN YOUR ENTIRE LIFE. This is because the odds of you winning roulette are exactly zero if you never play, but if you play once your odds are slightly higher than zero (about 2.7%). Playing roulette more than once though lowers your expected winnings to an even lower number.
This is the mathematical way of saying "you can't win if you never play, but the more you play the more you will lose." even then, your potential winnings will probably be small because you will only ever make a "safe" yolo bet that you can be ok losing.
So all in green and never again.
There are ways to make money from roulette. There was a family who watched a roulette wheel for weeks to pick out that some numbers were slightly more likely to come up than others. Then they bet in controlled ways so that they could make money in the long term, only increasing their wagers after they had significantly increased their bankroll.
It used to be that newspapers in Monaco had to report the results of roulette spins by law. And some people analysed data from that and found that there were significant biases but they ended up losing money. It turned out that the journalists whose job it was to report the results were just going to the casino bar and writing down 30 numbers each hour off the top of their head because who the hell would check.
Worked in the past due to poor calibration. Doesn’t work any longer.
@@SPZ909 I bet there are casinos somewhere that it will work at. Like in Kinshasa or somewhere random. Not Monaco, you're right.
U trusted the magician 😂😂 Steven
By the way these days casinos have covered shuffling machine with several decks
Is it possible to count cards these days?
You wouldn't be able to count the machines. But there are still tons of games without machines 😃
@@stevenbridges roger that buddy 👍love from India.
There's a movie called 21 where a bunch of MIT students go to Vegas to count cards to pay for tuition. It's based on the actual MIT Blackjack Team.
You can win at roulette by counting the frequency of the ball landing on a particular number. Works when the wheel is fractionally off kilter.
Now you gotta learn the chip thingy that poker players do. You know, when they split the chips into two stacks and then combine them into one stack in very neat looking way. Doesn't actually look that hard, I'm assuming it just takes a bit of practice.
That hit on 2 tens was just bloodcurdling
Mike and Steven: I think its important that you try to not spread misinformation; i.e. when the Count is IN YOUR FAVOR, you are not more likely to win. The odds of winning are still exactly the same vs the dealer as the dealer could easily be the one to get a better hand. MORE specifically, when the count is in your favor, the opportunity for Blackjack which pays 3:2 goes up. That extra 50% is the "Winning" factor as when the DEALER gets blackjack, they only take your wager 1:1.
So to clarify, when the count is in your favor, that is when you have better opportunities to win money over time.
A lot of rookie card counters are going to get rekt and wonder what the hell is going on when everytime the count is good, the dealer keeps getting 20 and they're "Supposed" to be winning more often.
calling card counting cheating is like banning someone from boxing for hitting too hard
I just finished watching a bunch of Steven's card counting videos, and look at what pops up!
Actually, (technically) you CAN get an edge on roulette, if the wheel is flawed and has a bias, but that is very rare and they can fix the flaw or replace the wheel.
However, it is completely impractical to look for one.