Not hard to understand why he's banned from so many casinos. For more subscribe to our channel - / officialderren #DerrenBrown #DerrenBrownMiracle #DerrenBrownShowman
Hahahahahaha I can picture that. I read his book (Derrens not Hannibals) and he says the same thing imagining himself in a room it seems a bit over elaborate just to get a plus or minus count on a game of blackjack. I do like his shows and he did a lot of good work exposing charlatans.
@@downswingplayer9712 he explains in that book that the imagery for those memory techniques can be used for myriad purposes. It makes sense that he'd be consistent and use it to count cards, too. It's a very effective technique, evidently.
@@Fallen5321 Counting is not impressive. Anyone with an average brain and some time to practice can learn. This video makes it sounds far more complicated than it is.... 11v5 is a DD everytime however, nothing to do with the count...
@@Fallen5321 Yes, pretty much anyone who has been to a casino should (you can get a basic strategy card) from any casino gift shop or online, 11v10 or lower (sometimes As as well depending on rules of the game) is always a double. Basically 11 you always double. This is nothing to do with counting or memory tricks, this is just the proper play based off of basic strategy. He just made it seem like he was taking some dramatic move, when 11v5 is probably the best dealt cards you can get....
I don’t understand how that logic works. You can’t remember what cards have been dealt, so to help with that you now have to remember a room full of objects and how many stickers they have, hows that any easier? That’s like me saying “oh my arm hurts, I’ll just shoot Myself in the foot as a distraction” To me you’re rebranding the problem and calling it a solution. If someone could explain it to me I’d be great full, my memory sucks.
@@jakeleggett5867 It is literally not how counting works at all.... He turns basic blackjack play into some mumbo jumbo memory room routine.... There is nothing to understand. Every move he made was just basic strategy, he did not even have to be counting to play as he did....
ooh I'm conflicted: I'm a fan of both Ketroc and Derren and though Derren started out as a card magician, I'm going to have to side with "no-pants" on this one. Thank you Ketroc.
If he could actually do what he claims, memorize exactly which cards were played, there are times it’d make sense, ie every card over 5 had been played, but yeah skeptical.
I mean he's probably just doing counting the simplest way and making it more flamboyant to make it more entertaining for TV. He's a showman first and foremost by his own admission
I've worked in casinos as a manager for many years. This looks staged. The chips in the float are not the cash chips that would be used in a normal game of blackjack. The chips in this clip are the ones that are used on a "demonstration table", which is usually used either to teach newbies or used in fun casinos. Some casinos would allow Derren Brown into a casino to have drinks at the bar, a meal in the restaurant and allow his friends to gamble, but they would never allow him to gamble as it would be too risky. He is a master at what he does and I am a fan, but he is also very good at publicity stunts too in my opinion. It's still good entertainment though and he is a great showman.
Ntm a lot of camera angles were from directly above which os a surveillance ange you can't recreate and no surveillance team would give access to footage for something like this.
You play with 6 or 8 decks. Card counting for low cards is moronic. Your odds of success are wildly reduced. Playing when the deck is stacked with high cards is profitable. Only by 1%. As the dealer shuffles even a 4 deck shoe back together with over 30 cards remaining the odds of this being genuine are too low to be profitable. As for hitting 16 vs a 6.... no way. Even pure maths shows that's a stand vs any random assortment of 35+ cards remaining.
I have heard of the use or "memory palace" as a way of remembering things. But with Darren? I say bollocks, he always makes things look a lot harder than it is. All you need to keep track of are two numbers, the number of low cards, 5s or less, dealt and how many high cards have been dealt, that's it. As you get near the end of the deck you can tell if there is an imbalance in the cards left and adjust your play accordingly. You absolutely don't need to remember the suits of the cards played or even the rank, just its value: high=10, low 5 or less. That's why casinos use four decks and usually reshuffle the played cards back in long before they get to the end.
Great Expose, Derren. The concept of "Memory Palace" is a very old and fascinating technique. In the book "Moonwalking with Einstein" (which I highly recommend), the concept is described in much more detail.
Skeptic Psychologist Point taken. The general principle (using visual association) is central to almost all memory techniques. As s magician, I have experience memorizing many things; playing cards in particular. Here an understanding of stastical Chance was applied. Derren Brown is as much a Scientist as a Mentalist. Truly brilliant.
Thom Parkin, as a magician you may therefore be aware that so often a trick is not what is revealed. There is almost a disclaimer in the introductory preamble. Derren may well be saying in other words 'If you cannot recall the details of a watch you know well, how can you expect someone to recall 52 objects in quick succession at a moment's glance, and how many red labels are attached. Additionally, even if you could recall it in short-term memory 4 rooms with 13 cards each with 4 labels on (208 data points), you would still need working-memory like a modern computer to analyse the probability of the next card being useful. If interested, there's a fairly ok basic introduction to card counting strategies at: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_counting However, you'll notice here that all methods are based upon returns over time, not perfect games without losing. Derren has done something different here. My guess is that he used a conventional card counting strategy and filmed copious numbers of games over several nights and locations, each time betting the maximum amount as he did here, until he got the run of 4 games he wanted. I suspect he made an agreement with a casino chain owner(s) that he wont take home any of his earnings or losses. The casinos would in return have free publicity and give millions of viewers the impression that their games can be beat using Derren's pseudo-method.
Dude this is just another way of card counting, with Derren's unique twist on it. People card count all the time and don't last very long in casinos for good reason, they win. Thom was simply pointing out a method Derren is doing in this situation, you don't need to completely nullify it with your simple knowledge of maths and tv in order to prove him wrong, because you're probably not 100% correct yourself. Side note, your username 'Skeptic Psychologist' reminds me of that dude Brian Dunning of 'Skeptoid' who went on the rogan podcast and made a complete idiot of himself because he thought he knew all the answers to controversial topics (lookup rogan brian dunning on RU-vid). Don't be that keyboard warrior on the internet who goes around criticizing everything you see as 'false' when you don't have all the facts either. Nobody will remember you and it's a complete waste of time to be this weird factual justice warrior. Choose a different username and start sorting your life out.
Card counting 4 decks requires insane train of thought. Not saying it can't be done, but a casino wouldn't even believe you were doing it. Especially at the point you are counting with a deck and a half remaining. That's why they play 4 decks and refresh them appropriately.
Ive always had a problem with casinos banning card counters. All you're doing is improving the odds in your favour through skill, you're not manipulating the deck or technically cheating in anyway. Its like starting a chess club and then saying 'I won't allow anyone who's studied any form of strategy.' Seems so petulant
Unfortunately casinos can ban anyone they want. If you're showing an advantage then you're not profitable to them and out you go. Makes sense as a business. Probably not so much money changes hands at a chess club though.
He reminds me of one of my friends who when he played cards we had to alternate decks between rounds and have an enclosed machine shuffle or have a shuffle booth/room as he could look at the person shuffling and work out with a 80% accuracy rate the new order if started from a know order. He also knew how to count cards and predicted that he can combine the 2
1. He made shooting in many casinos, sometimes won, sometimes lost. 2. He put the luckiest run to the show. 3. Only the luckiest deals were commented. 4. Only most positive interviews made it to the show. 5. Trick with watches in the start wasn't finished.
Is blackjack played differently in other countries? I used to deal blackjack in the US and the dealer has two cards dealt for his/her hand before the other players can hit. In this video I noticed she only had one, acted on all the players hands and then dealt her second card and so on. This completely changes the game.
Notice anything else? No chairs? Not the floor setup like a real casino? He's been debunked on everything he does. He's an entertainer/magician, everything is either slight of hand or staged.
@@stevesteve788 since the dealer is forced by the rules to draw or stay, it doesnt matter if the 2nd card is dealt immediately or later. It's always dealt down, so no new info is obtained whether it comes in order or at the end. If it was dealt up, then its one more card to count and could be useful to know.
I like to imagine Derren is constantly excusing himself mid-hand to rush up to his "memory room" to remove stickers and objects and see what's left of the undealt cards.
That's hilarious. It's the other way around, Sherlock and Moriarty both reference the technique in the original novels if memory serves (which it should as I use the loci/memory palace techniques myself) and is probably most famous as being used by Hannibal Lecter in the novels by Thomas Harris
No they needed a recognisable hypnotism technique and mark gattis knows him (guessing because through the league of gentlemen he knows Jeremy Dyson who is very good friends with and co wrote/directed Ghost Stories with Andy Nyman who helps Derren write and direct alot of his shows)
I'm calling BS. I work for John Huxley, you'll see the name on the layout. The chips are colour chips, not cash chips. There's no casino in the UK called Royale. At first I thought it was Les A in Mayfair from the outside, but that's always been called that, so it's not. He also talks about 4 deck blackjack. Blackjack is played with 6 decks, you'll find the odd 4 deck game in Vegas. Nowadays it's invariably a shuffle machine made by TCSJH or SHFL, but they've only really become truly mainstream over the past 10 years or so, but you'll still find the odd casino using shoes. On the roulette table, there's no cash chip float and there's also people sitting behind the dealer. This area would be roped off. 100% BS.
The Casino was set up for Derren. Everything else in the room is real as far as the other players are aware. Doesn't make the trick any less real. And this was from pre-2008 so as you said, the shuffle machine wasnt a common thing then.
3allz all actors mate. If they were blackjack players, they'd ask wtf happened to the chairs and where the two other decks were. I like Derren, I went to see him live in London in about 2013. But watching this is really disappointing.
So your evidence that they're all actors is because you think "they would ask where the chairs and other two decks were"? You know they're just your thoughts and dont prove anything? Im skeptical about all of Derrens work, but I think thats kind of the point. The fact I can dispute your claims in 5 minutes, whether solid or not, shows that neither me or you truly know whats going on. Say we generously assume you're correct on 50% of how he does it, it still leaves tons of questions and doesn't explain everything.
3allz I liked him until this. Now I've lost all respect. It you were experienced in a field as I am casino's, and you could call BS you'd probably be the same. This is 100% bollocks. I work for TCS John Huxley and have been to most casinos in Europe. This isn't a casino. Are you saying Blackjack players turned up to a casino that was set up? Nope. They turned up for work.
Not to mention that nonsense he gives about them allowing hidden cameras?? Are you f'ing kidding me?? And how did he get the overhead CASINO camera footage? HOW???
Ive tried creating a mind palace and found it really difficult. However i found using my actual house as a mind palace really effective. Imo its easier to count cards with a running total of high and low cards but probably not as effective. Would like a more instructional video so i can copy and make money.
Out of curiosity how long did it take you to set up that memory room you mentioned? There was 52 items all with four stickers 😂 to represent four decks??! comon Darren that's gotta be a blag surely. I've heard of memory palaces but this takes the biscuit.
There is no scam going on here nor is he memorizing every card that is dealt. He is simply counting cards at best or keeping a general feel for high card ratio that has been dealt.
Not really. Many people use this sort of imagery to remember information and it can be much easier for them. It can be taught but for many, this is just something they have done since they were a child to memorise things. Over the years if you properly make use of it you can visualise these settings quite well and easily navigate through them to quickly remember things. My mum uses this sort of visualisation with mainly numbers and so will remember sequences of numbers based on location in her setting. To recall the sequence she just goes over the locations rather than trying to remember the ACTUAL number. This imagery is probably easier to Derren because he can use this method to learn how to memorise a wide range of things, not just cards.
Awesome. I need to reread his book "tricks of the mind." If I understood the video correctly, he started with £100 and left with £3600? Without cheating. Nice...
Very nice, only it only considers half the problem... the shoe is cut randomly and he would need to have been on the table from the very start or kept an eye for far too long to not get noticed... it's the same practice as keeping a track of the true count, which is far simpler than this and easily more robust..
The royale casino doesn’t exist. It’s a play casino firm based in Bristol. They use fully trained staff but they deal with events and parties. Hence the lack of chairs and decent chips
No, the real trick is that this is fake as fuck. 1. No casino would let you film you card counting. 2. No casino would have standing blackjack tables. They want you as comfortable as possible so you stay and gamble more. 3. There’s nowhere for the dealer to take money or to take tips. 4. There’s no casino branding on the table.
Alright, it's story time. I like a read books...but being budget minded, I tend to buy most of my books from used book stores and second hand shops. Many years ago I found a "book" in a second hand store about how to win and black jack and poker. I use the term book loosely, because it actually looked like a hand-typed manuscript from an old style typewriter that was copied on a copy machine and then cheaply bound; a hand-crafted, self-published book on card games. It was all laid bare to me. It's called card counting and you have to really sharp mind and practice at it constantly. Instead of objects inside a vast room, you link a story in your head. A light switch is a 2, a stool is a 3, a car is a 4, a glove is a 5 (a light switch has two positions, a stool has 3 legs, a car has 4 wheels, a glove has 5 fingers). And you imagine cartoonish characters involved, like a car running over a SPADE shovel and getting 4 flat tires (4 of spades) or a white glove opening up to reveal a shiny diamond in its palm (5 of diamonds). You just keep adding to the visual/mental story inside your head and you can remember every card dealt in a deck, in order. I thought it was hard with 52 cards. Multiply that by 4? You have to be a mental genius.
Memorizing every card in a deck (one definition of 'counting cards') is easy enough for most people. Memorizing 2 decks is left for only the best. 3 decks is for savants only. Memorizing 4 decks would be impossible I would think, unless this memory palace thing is doable. At the Casio on the Gold Coast here in Australia they have machines that have 12 decks of cards and continuously reshuffle. No counting of any kind with those. People still beat them though, there is a great book by Kevin Mitnick called 'The Art of Intrusion'. Chapter 1 tells the real story of a group of friends who beat the casino for $1,000,000. Got to have guts and be dedicated though ..
1:12 no it isn’t, the object is to beat the dealer wether you have a higher hand or not. 1:27 most casinos use 6 decks and many use an electric shoe so card counting is impossible 2:08 best strategy dictates you should never take a card if the dealer has a 4/5/6 and your total is 12 or more. As there are more. Adds that bust than wouldn’t, dealer has to draw on 16 or less and stand on 17 or more, so there is no reason, other than you knowing what the next card is, due to dealer error, that you should EVER take a card on 16 against a dealer showing a 6. 3:40 suits do not matter in Blackjack, there is no need to memorise the suits, the amount of cards yes but by remembering the suits only adds to the amount you have to remember which in turn makes it harder to card count. 4:46 “I can see why he’s banned from casinos” he can come in any casino and they would take his money, this isn’t card counting this is made up TV bollocks, no casino would ever permit recording without permission from the manager. I have permission from the managers from the casinos I record in and the rule is that I can record as long as I don’t have video footage of any other customer in the video. Basic card counting is quite easy and most people could learn it within an hour or so, full counting takes a lot longer and requires a team to do it without being caught. As soon as you are caught you get black listed and all casinos use the same database and share information. Darren Brown talks bollocks and this is all set up for the television and for the idiots who choose to believe him, could he really do this would he really be showing everyone on TV? No he’d be playing blackjack in casinos making millions and retiring!!
The sticker thing is smart with the mindpalace. Do you use same or different color stickers? I just tried it with 4 decks and only red stickers like in the video and got always confused with the number of stickers on the objects ( haven’t i taken 1 off this object already? Or have i?...)
I've played blackjack several times and there's been more than a few times I've hit on 13/14 and gone bust, and a few of those times the dealers stuck on 18 and up first two cards. Even if he is using a very effective method of card counting his luck was still stupid good which is the only reason i doubt this.
Techniques like this do work. I can still remember answers/phrases/sentences from my GCSE revision 25 years ago. I used “similar” techniques as Derren.
Ur full of shit. No successful card counter in existence uses a full memorization technique to count. Even the math says that it's not worth it to try because the chances that ur wrong are higher than hi-lo
You don't need to memorize every card. All face cards, regardless of the suit are worth 10 and so are the 10s. That's 16 per deck. With 4 decks that 64 total. Now just keep track of the smaller suits in 2 groups. A-4 and 5-9.
that's not a casino, the men are all standing there like awkward muppets dressed in suits. Nobody is drunk, the dealer can't deal, he stupidly hit on a hard 16, his memory trick is fkn useless as black jack cards can be counted using a -1, 0 or +1 system. This is a staged scene that gives a predictable outcome to favour the story, Let's see him play in a real casino with real cards.
i totally agree with every point except the dealer can`t deal, u are totally wrong about that.i asume she is dealing for approximately 10 years. could be a few less, but she is a complete professional black jack dealer. that makes the story even more sad,. bc what she was talking was complete bullshit and she knew that. i know for a fact!
crazy fast I didn’t say I could do it. I know how to count cards with respect to the theory and how it is done, but I don’t practice it so I can’t do it. This doesn’t mean it is difficult.
Card counting is possible for anyone with average interlect and enough practice. All comes down to the ammount of decks in a shoe. Its hard to find any casino with less then 4 decks a shoe nowadays.
Hitting 16 vs 6 is something that a self proclaimed ”card counter” would do. Why would you ever hit against the worst upcard with 12-16 yourself? The ones who actually know how to do count and play basic strategy would never do that.
Anyone saying it's not true.. Yeah your right but you don't need to be saying that in all his videos saying how bad it is and how fake it is. Its obviously for entertainment purposes.
Gambling should only be done if you are good at it. Whether its cards or horse racing, don't rely on guessing. That's the problem with most people who do betting
Blackjack Army does it better, the lad hit 6 casinos in one night and took $210,000. He films his stuff too, hits casinos wearing disguises until they rumble him, they can’t legally evict him, but they can stop him altering his bet amounts at the table or “politely ask him to leave” or stop playing the blackjack games. card counting isn’t illegal as long as you don’t use devices to help. Nothing wrong with just being better at the game than the casino lol
In card counting you do win and lose a lot of hands but you statistically win more hands than you lose which is the opposite of how blackjack is with just luck. Even if you are ok at it as long as you stick with it youll come out on top. This video makes it look like he won every hand.
Or you just card count, classically it's really not that difficult and anyone could learn it. It's most likely what he is doing and the whole room thing is BS to make him look fancy.
I really don't like DB mainly because of the audience manipulation to make people think he is some sort of god, this being one of them. P&T also mentioned something like this and I am beginning to understand why. He seems a little narcissistic.
+RanDumSocksGames I agree that his early stuff was a lot more narcissistic and kinda building himself up to be some sort of prodigy, but his more recent stuff he's toned down a lot and focuses more on really clever tricks and explaining them so that they make perfect sense. I really recommend "The System", where he seems to predict 6 Horse Racing Games in a row, but the way he explains it at the end is so effin amazing, and it's obviously not fake because the trick is actually so simple. He got more into helping people and changing people's lives in that overall TV series, it's really cool. Also, memory palace isn't some fancy "bullshit", it's a genuinely effective mnemonic technique. I've used it to memorise two decks of randomly shuffled cards, only looking at each card for about a second, and I'm not at all advanced or have some special memory. It takes a bit of setup work and it's not *that* useful in real life but it's pretty cool.
Dave Haddow Just card counting? Can you tell me the true count index for hitting 16 vs 6? Can you also tell me why you wouldn't have wonged out by then?
Counting cards is a usual technique. There are actually more efficient counting systems than the one presented here. Still, counting cards can give you only a small advantage over the casino so you will only really see the effects in the long term. There is an underlying truth in this video but it is presented in a very exagerated way.
I honestly don't think this is necessarily staged. Doubling 11 has only 30% blackjack chance, and he might have stalled because more face cards had been drawn earlier, which also increases the chance of no bust over 11. So hitting a 16 is precisely the very high stakes reason you are counting cards in the first place. Derren knows this is 4 deck Blackjack, he has done memory tricks before and counting isn't actually cheating, but casinos have policies of only admitting people who don't win as consistently as a counter. However the dealer hadn't seen this before because counting is an elaborate rare enough skill.
This is very staged. Hitting on a 16 against a dealer's 6 is very rarely a good play. The dealer 6 is very likely to bust and hitting your 16 makes _you_ very likely to bust. But I'll give him the benefit for the doubt on that one. I'm more concerned with his thought process on doubling down on the 11. Despite the rare chance of hitting 21, it's still an obviously optimal play, especially against a 5. He is playing basic strategy and he's acting like he's doing something crazy. That's when I know for sure that this is fake, because he doesn't even know how the play blackjack correctly.
Casino's love it when someone makes out winning is easy, they salivate at the thought of new players (Suckers) thinking they can beat the house, the only beating that will take place is if you win consistantly they will beat on you and ban you from playing, unless?