Blackjack Expert Explains How Card Counting Works | WIRED 

Tried this at the tables. Kicked me out immediately. He never said you couldn’t count out loud.

My dad actually won a lot at blackjack in Vegas. The casino did get suspicious that they changed dealers, cards, made him go to a different table and kept a close eye on him. Thing is my dad wasn't counting cards because he doesn't know how, he was just having a really good night.

The funny thing about card counting is, if someone else is card counting with you at a table (including a dealer or pit boss), then you both know that you're both card counting. It's a crazy phenomenon.

Me after watching the video: Alright then, keep your secrets

He made it sound so much easier than I thought it was.

Got distracted by the magic

Anyone who’s been to casinos realizes how loud it is in there, and how fast the dealers move cards, and how much pressure when you have your money on the line.. anyone who pulls this off successfully is an extremely cool cucumber

So we just gonna ignore the fact that this guy is a master in the art of slight of hand??!

He must have a different set of cards to me. Mine all seem to have pictures of pokemon on them.

What makes it hard seems not to be the actual counting, but to make it appear like you're not counting. This means not moving your lips at all, barely moving your eyes and looking at the peripherals of your vision, all while constantly doing addition/subtraction and division on the fly.

Don’t worry you’re not dumb. This is just so intense

Blackjack made me a millionaire.. I was a billionaire before that..

2+2 is 4 -1 that's 3 quick maffs

I forgot to watch "how to play blackjack"

That’s why I keep losing....I thought you just wish really hard for the card you want.

Ok then , ill bring pen n A4 paper , an abacus to the casino with me.

this is probably the best 5 min overall how to count card video I've ever seen. Everything is explained clearly without making it more complicated than it has to be. The hard part is execution which takes a lot of practice. but all the info you need is here.

Quit my job today

Here's the short version you're looking for: You can't do it.

I swear to God I thought counting cards just meant “oh Jack is 10, that means I need 11 more :)”

This reminded me those bits on "The Big Short" where they had celebrities explaining Wall Street's inner works on a "water downed version" everything sounded quasi rational but in reality felt like listening to another language.

i still dont know what the fuck is going on...god damn im stupid

I didn’t understand a word of that but I still enjoyed every minute of it.

It takes a lot of practice...but there’s some pitfalls involved with counting. As Alan in the Hangover said, it helps if you have a spotter like in the movie 21. There is actually very little time when the true count is really in your favor. So you may spend hours trudging through negative counts or mostly even counts. Sometimes your deck will start off very high card heavy. Of course you have no way of knowing that, you’ve won most of your bets, but youve been min betting and now the deck is halfway done and the running count is -18. You also have to keep track of everything while small chatting, dealing with cocktail waitresses talking to you, and making the right moves. Ive been so caught up in my count that ive made the wrong move or added wrong on my total and stood when I should’ve hit.

My I.Q level went to minus 1

I sort of counted cards when I used to play blackjack, but I didn't count every single card with a point system. I just paid attention to trends. For example if there was a lot of low cards played, I knew the odds of a face card coming up increased, which gave me insight on how to bet. So I'd bet low to start every deck and just play normal, while watching for patterns, and then increase my bets accordingly. It was pretty successful for me, but would anger the other players at the table because I'd often play unconventional towards the end of the deck. For instance, say I had a 14 and the dealer had a 5 showing, the conventional method tells you to stay and let the dealer bust. But because I was paying attention to the high-low cards already played, and knew there was way more face cards played than low ones, I knew there was a bunch of low cards left in the deck. And thus if I didn't hit, the dealer was gonna get the low cards and beat me. So I'd hit and end up with like 19-20 and win, but it messed up everyone else at the table who were playing conventionally lol.

Once the running count went over 21, I ran out of appendages to keep track of it. I also got kicked out for having my pants down at the table.

That's nice now skip to the part where I can summon Exodia to obliterate everyone

Best video of card counting I've even watched !

Watching this video in hoping to get a better grasp of the game, expecting to get sufficient skills to at least boast to friends, but in the end I still get nothing but an entertaining magic performance

He lost me when he brought in my mortal enemy: division

True Story. Friend of mine is math genius. So he thought he would make a bundle by learning how to win in blackjack. He bought book and learned system. Went to casino with bunch of us and he was determined to win a bundle. All of us lost at blackjack except one. The math genius lost the most. The only one that won was drunk as a skunk . Go figure.....

I used to count cards while dealing and tell players when to raise their bets in order to increase my tips whenever I was totally bored

BUT DID YOU ACCOUNT FOR VARIABLE CHANGE?

Check out my snooker 147 on a pool table! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tZYYGRPJK8s.html

I love how he spoke slowly as he explained it, and dealt the cards like a machine 😂😭😭

The magic tricks blew my mind more than the counting!

Me during graduate school: Mastered calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations Me now: Don't know how to add

There are also deviations that come into play dependent on where the true count is. For the most part this is all you need to put the advantage in your favor but there are a few deviations that can increase your profit margins as well.

I love the card mechanics and manipulations! Very entertaining along with the academic commentary!

I bet all of the Las Vegas casinos have a picture of him in the security surveillance rooms ready to give him the boot as soon as he enters their hotels 😂😂😂

Thank you. I'll stick with the slot machines

Ok, so at 4:44 he says running count is 17, then the next hand goes (6 and 7 for +1; 8 and 6 for +2; 7 and 9 for +2; 4 and 10 for +2; 2, 2, 4, and Ace for +4) for a total of +4, then he raises it to 23. Shouldn't it be 21?

I love how you are doing slight of hand through out, lol, so much steez. love it.

His magician skills caught my attention rather than his speech

You know he’s good when the thing below his name says ‘MIT’.

So, at minute 5 when the running count was on 17, first hand was a +1, next hand was also a +1 and the next two hands were zero. The dealer's cards were +1,+1,+1 and the final card A for ,-1. How do you get 23 running count?

a simple way to beat blackjack is if you lose, just double your bet. Keep doing that until you win again and win back what you lost. Statistically, its hard to lose more than 6 hands in a row.

This is really something most people can grasp pretty decently if you actually spend a few hours on it one day (assuming you can count, add , & subtract). I’m not just saying this. It seems a lot more complicated than it is. I found this guy has done a better job than anyone explaining quickly how it’s done. I encourage anyone to read into it more. It is NOT illegal to use at a casino either. The worst that can happen is they back you off and ask/tell you to leave.

Remember that casinos are private places aka they can kick you out whenever they want. If you’re obvious and they understand you are using this strategy, you’re out. I even heard that some memory champions are not allowed in because they can count the cards that have come out (which is also why they use more then 1 deck for each play).

Video: plus 1 plus 1 minus 1 plus 1 Me: aight imma head out

I try to stick to a middle ground, more "vague" version of this (both because I suck at quick maths and also so I don't get kicked out for card counting and can still enjoy my time at the tables instead of stuck in my head), by just trying to keep track of if I've seen a 'more than average' amount of high or low cards. If you get one or two rounds with a lot of face and high cards, expect the next round or the round after to be mostly low cards. Definitely not foolproof or consistently accurate but its better than nothing.

I’m watching this stoned and have not got a clue

It sounds like he is explaining it perfect but I didn't understand a thing... gotta watch it some more times before Vegas.

I think you need to know how many decks the dealer mix in the bunch, and reset your count once you see the dealer reshuffles or bring out a new group of cards.

Me watching this before playing blackjack on gta online xd

He lost me at 1 plus 1.

Yes... I use this method all the time in the casinos and it works. However I count the aces and 2's as zero's. Which in turn makes things a bit easier. I win most of the time, but it can be a real grind when the count stays around zero. Not to mention the swings in the count can put you way ahead or way behind real fast. You just got to be ready for it if and when it happens.

i knew i wasnt going to understand anything and yet i still watched the whole thing. not disappointed

"Then you want to bet proportionately more" Proceeds to slap two $5 down.

you notice at the end he's like "You're starting to get a sense of what you need" - starting ??

Wtf why am i watching this i don't even play blackjack

does the running count reset after each play? And when should we start the count?

Your Thunderbird performance is pretty good! Great slight of hand!

He's probably talking slowly so idiots like me can understand. Meanwhile he lost me at -1

Not gonna lie, watching this before going to watch “21” for the second time

Is nobody gonna bring up How good his sleight of hand is

How long should you keep track of the running count before dividing it into the true count?

Love how they used card tricks to visually represent what was being said.

5:36 and here's how to play 52-card pickup

The magic made this video so much more fun!

i love that he uses sleight of hand for teaching

Keeping running/true count using Hi-Lo seems straight forward enough, it's the basic strategy of the game that melts me; can't remember all those plays.

Okay I’m kinda lost, so you should bet higher when the numbers are high in plus and not minus?

Nice homage to Lee Asher at 1:20 with that thunderbird trick!

I love the little card tricks everynow and then

Pro-tip: first learn basic strategy, then worry about counting.

Does card counting really give you that much of an edge when every 2-4 decks (something like that I think) all the decks are reshuffled ?

I thought this was more complex but its fairly easy, just takes practice to be able to do it without looking so focused

Great video I been play with a time limit. I go with case and a specific time to leave

Finally, im ready to lose my money

Can you ask the dealer what the count is so you don't have to follow it so closely?

Terrific explanation!!!

Okay so for the final when you divide the running count by the number of decks the lower the number the worse it is?

The issue when I've played is that there are so many decks in the shuffler and they barely ever get past 1 deck before they resuffle making it difficult to get any 'true' value.

I can count and do basic strategy separately with ease but doing them at the same time is the difficult part. Any tips to help remember the count or when to count or do I just need to keep practicing?

What people don't understand about counting cards is that it makes you lose little when you lose and gain more when you win. But even if the count is advantageous to the player you may still lose anyway.

at the table where I was at,as soon as about a deck of cards were stacked up, they would grab'em and put it into the machine.how do I get the true count if they keep doing that and how do I know how many deck of cards are in the shuffling machine ?

5:07 shouldn't the running count be 21 if it was 17 before?

Wired is so good at making videos they sub in poker footage in a blackjack video.

First of all, this video…wow! Great Job!

Great video. It was really the cardistry for me

Was paying attention to the technique then I noticed he was doing tricks n' shit.

Isn’t high low what everyone uses that counts cards?

Woah respect for the people who actually count cards

The ending math is wrong. Start with +17. 6/7 = +1, 6/8 = +1, 7/9 = 0, 4/10 = 0, 2/2/4/A = +2. Net = +4 so add this to 17 is 21 and not 23.

I don’t count and still got kicked out of the casino for being lucky

I may have to watch this more than 4 times to catch on

So how do you know when one deck has been dealt? Do you just estimate?

Casino: offers blackjack Math teacher with a gambling problem: im bout to end this mans whole -career- house edge