Derren is actually one of the few showmen that uses genuine trickery, mind tricks and clever manipulation of perception to perform his tricks. I would be very ready to accept the fact he is using his memory to do this. I've been reading his book, tricks of the mind and in one section he teaches you a trick where you have to try and recall a list of 20 nouns in order. Using his technique after 5 minutes I could remember them all forwards and backwards and I still can 2 days later :) Incredible.
Being able to use his counting technique is amazing. To be able to memorize each object in the room and the amount of stickers on each item is very inspiring. He has a great mind.
omg... what im most amazed with is how he is able to visualize so clearly what cards are left in his mind. after all it is a sprawling house, and there are 52 diff cards that have 4 chances to come out.. thats just wow..
They do in Vegas for sure, but there are a lot of smaller gambling towns and locations that use the old system. Not to mention when you play at parties etc. I would love to learn to do this. That being said you are right - it is very hard to do.
I bought a book here in the US called "how to develop a brilliant memory", that actually teaches you how to memorize a deck of cards using the same technique Derren uses here. It takes some time but once you've got it, it's quite fun.
The technique Derren Brown uses was once known as Ars Memoriae--the Art of Memory. It's actually very ancient. The famous Roman orator Cicero used a similar technique to repeat rehearsed speeches verbatim without the use of notes. The techniques were almost lost in the Dark Ages, but revived by occultist, scholar, and heretic Giordano Bruno in the 16th century.
Note that in most American casinos, you'd get in trouble for using two hands to move anything at the table. A good rule of thumb is to keep one hand by your side or behind your back the entire time. Also, in many American casinos, everyone's cards are dealt face down - making it a little trickier to see everyone else's cards.
That's his specific trick that he developed when he was a kid. Other counters may use other methods. His way works for him and he was just giving us a taste of his thought process.
It's actually a well known memory trick. My English teacher in high school taught the class a very similar trick and it worked quite well for most of us. Just because it seems like it would be harder to memorise the room than the cards doesn't mean it's actually harder. Of course, different peoples brains do work in different ways too.
Yeah I tried the memorising cards trick the way he explains it. It took a few weeks, but it actually worked surprisingly well. With 1 deck I can quickly remember which cards have been dealt.
I've learnt a card trick where you don't use cards at all and you talk them through the trick and have them pick the card in their mind, by giving suggestions and gestures that subconsciously remind them of a card you want them to pick. Then you write that card on your hand or what ever and ask them if that was their card, 99% of the time it is.
In the USA, most casinos use six decks( 312 cards). Those American casinos that use fewer decks in the shoe usually use shrill ads to promote that fact - normally smaller casinos. In this video, its is only four decks(208 cards), so its easier to count, and reshuffling is more frequent.
the guy is amazing, wish I could sharpen my skills to that level. Its cool how he comes out and explains his memory process though. Ill be working on mine.
You can double down if you have not been dealt any cards yet. Doing so deals you to a single extra card(so you can't choose to stay when you double). Do it if you are confident that exactly one extra card will win you the round.
I agree. I personally thought at the start that this was pure shit but when I started putting the memory/association/location technique into practice i was truely amazed. It even scared me a little on how easy it was and how simply i picked it up.
You don't have to keep track of every card. You can simply add the values together and get a final score. Although the memory trick he's describing is well known enough, it's much easier to simply use a formula, like the actual card counters did.
He has a photographic memory and is actually able to remember every single card that was dealt. Just look for the vid where he reads an encyclopedia (sp?) for 15 minutes, is then asked to read a random page, and does so quite fluently.
He does use that room method. The correct term is the LOCI or Roman room method. The ancient Greeks used it. I was talkin to a guy, Daniel Madison, who uses a similair method at blackjack. He developed his own version with help from a guy called Andy Nyman, who is a close friend of Derren's and a producer on his show. I to can do it, albiet with one deck and quite slowly. But it works.
Card counting increases your chance by a lot more than that. I'd say that with the most common card counting method, you'd get your chances up to at least 70%.
Remember, counting cards can give you some slight advantage, but it all depends on the cards you are dealt. As a blackjack dealer once told me, not even rainman can win if he's not given good cards. You have to be able to sit through dozens of rounds before you are given an edge. Most people can't afford to do that. I know someone personally that can win thousands everytime he plays, and he NEVER counts cards. There is an easier way to win without counting, or cheating in any way. E-mail me.
my dad accidentally hit on 20 a long time ago. He was in Vegas, and met a friend from back home (we live 20 hours drive away so odds of that were quite rare), and wasnt looking at the table. He was dealt two face cards and asked what to do by the dealer. Without looking he just tapped the table. She said"hitting on 20?" and he just tapped it again. She called the pit boss over and told him to watch. By now he knew what he had done. She flipped the card and he pulled an ace to make 21! How lucky!
There is a major flaw in all card counting techniques which alerts the casino management. when you know that your next hand is a blackjack, you wager big on the table while on bad hands you wage small. the trick is to be very discreet and don't keep on winning big on the one same table or casino i think. thats why Darren walks away after winning big. Card counting isn't against rules in most places, but if caught you will be politely (mostly) asked to leave the casino floor.
The memory technique he describes is called the Roman Room. It's easily googled. I highly doubt, however, that this is the technique he used to play Blackjack. At best he's using card counting. Furthermore, even without counting cards, basic strategy tells you to hit on a 16 versus a 10, and you always double down on an 11, doesn't matter what the dealer has.
It does take months of practice to be able to do it quickly. Im on two decks now. But i do it in reverse, I ADD stickers everytime I see more then one card. In Derren's book,(trick of the mind) he goes into more detail, on how to memorize a deck of cards.
True, he should have doubled down. There is NO way he would have hit on that 16 without KNOWING that he was gonna pull a 4. In that case he should have doubled down. Counting cards doesnt mean you know what cards are coming, it means you know what cards ARENT coming, and that is a big difference!
I do it by having items on a journey (my old high school) inorder of value, so I will walk through the 2s, the 3s then 4s ect. Make up the items. Make them as silly and vibrant as possible. To be honest the items dont need have any link to a card, they can be anything, aslong as you asccoiate them with a card, it doesn't matter, but it is easier to link them with cards at the start to help you remember.
In Vegas they usually play with multiple decks and mix them quite often. Still BlackJack is the most favourable game, so depending on the rules (they differ) and techniques you use, the player can have a slight advantage. Usually not more than 3% though.
Note the colour of the chips. Plain red, white and blue. It may have been one of the top London casinos but they were certainly not using the casinos own cash chips.
Derren Brown is a maniupilator. This was in a controlled envoirnment. Plus many casinos use more than 4 decks. Counting 8 decks is very difficult. He is fooling everyone that watches his episodes. Hes good as what he does. Hes smart and knows enough about the human mind to fool everyone involved and everyone watching the program.
To read my comments read from the bottom one up sorry about that and I'm answering a reply from makemepop who said: "He has a photographic memory and is actually able to remember every single card that was dealt. Just look for the vid where he reads an encyclopedia (sp?) for 15 minutes, is then asked to read a random page, and does so quite fluently."
My favourite game I have to get back into it.Although I've lost more times than I want to remember. However I certainly remember many of my wins 1000's.
He isnt psychic, thats the point. He has great memory techniques that DO work. I suggest you see more of his work or even better read his 'trick of the mind' book which explains quite alot. Theres also more to this video which is not shown of him after it closes with the dealers. (I do suggest you find it, it shows how good he really is with cards)
Decause he has an object for each card on a deck: one for ace of spades, one for ace of diamonds and so on for each of the 52 cards. Four decks would have 4 aces of spades, therefore, 4 stickers on the object represting the ace of spades.
2) He explains his technique as if he memorizes every single card, so he seems very intelligent and talented 3) They arrange multiple casinos to film this, let's say 8 casinos. Mathematically he is quite likely to have a winning streak of 3 or more wins in at least 1 of those casinos. 4) They dont show the casinos where he lost, so you think this technique works always.
card counting techniques can, in fact, get much more complicated than simple hi/low methods youre speaking of. the most accurate system would be to actually keep track of every single card that comes out. this would be very rigorous and exhausting however, and thats why most people use hi/low, point, and other variations.
He doesn't really have a photographic memory, in that video he used a combination of different techniques to make it appear he did. What he did was memorize only that one page using a memory technique, I've done so with 20 random words given 45 seconds to memorize so lets say 400 in 15-20 mins is do-able. (there is a youtube video showing how, don't remember what it is called).
This is exactly what i do too when ever I am not at a party or on vaction with a rich friends. Ohh yeah, Derren is actally a pretty mellow guy once you really get to know him.
The famous up or down system gives the player about a 1% advantage over the house, so it would not explain why Derren won almost everytime. Traditional card counters lose alot of the time, but eventually over a long game, that 1% pays off a little.
he hit on 16 against a 6, which is suicidal even if he's counting. basic strategy has to be followed while counting cards. the only time you can take the count seriously is when you're deciding if doubling down is profitable.
I can't do this the way he does but I do like to divide the cards into groups(high med and low) and keep track of how many are left of each group. It's not perfect but I am improving. Of cource I only play for fun, never real money(which would change things).
Add a reply...never try it unless you really know what you are doing like saying what i think without even talking in my mind see how i am speaking very fluently.
Look up Daniel Tammet, he's a savant with regular human social abilities (very rare). He memorized pi up to 22,500 digits, something I doubt Brown could do.
he doesnt know with 100% certainty whats going to come out but he knows the odds could be in his favor. he knows whats left in the room but he cant predict what will always be next until most of it is out. thats why he played for higher stakes later on
In California the dealers have a auto shuffling machine instead of a shoe. So every time a hand is played, it is dropped in the machine and constantly shuffled. How can you count those than? I do not know how many decks they use.
He said at the start that he had the casinos permission, but the croupiers didn't know. The casino probably gave him footage from the eye in the sky afterwards.
@SkotchHD I think he means to say that he's a magician and in his professional opinion its possible to remember who got what cards during shuffling. Especially if you remember how many cards of each type there are. In other words its possible to figure out your odds of winning.
in the uk, why does the dealer place her last card face up AFTER all players have hit? (as opposed to the us version, where all cards are dealt, 2 to each player with the deal ending in the dealers down card being placed under their up card)
Hey what is the title of the book ive read a couple nlp and hypnotic books but not by derren brown, if don't mine telling me in pm or just on here either would be good for me.
Look up Andi Bell for starters.He once attempted memorizing 100 randomly shuffled decks of cards.There are legitimate techniques for memorizing such information (read books by Tony Buzan,Dominic o'Brien and Harry Lorayne)Though in this case I doubt Derren used them.You have to realise he was one of Britain's leading card manipulators before his career as a mentalist.
unfortunately it's not that easy for some people. It's the constant factor that they could win it all in so little amount of time that makes people gamble and some just can't realize that sometimes life screws you over. "In the end no one dies a virgin, life screws us all."
@aimforcentermass In No Hole Card games it is more advisable to Hit 11's than to Double down also. Simply put, Deck Penetration is an advantage to the player and a No Hole Card game plays a similar edge towards the Casino as does burning card(s) at the beginning of a shoe. Euro-BJ is also more commonly known to have a change in dealers more than twice over the course of one shoe when the game gets good in order to burn cards while Stateside they focus on tossing you. Different Game Overseas
It's not exactly illegal, though it will get the "We have the right to refuse service to anyone" mantra invoked. The casino is playing with the odds on their side. You are playing with your brain on your side. The fact that you are allowed to hit or stand at your discretion means you are allowed to use that brain to make the best decision. Card counting helps that decision and destroys house odds. Therefore, though not illegal, it takes away the house edge and will get you thrown out.
not to that point because he knows exactly what are the odds for each card to be drawn. Let says near the end of the deck with a deep deck penetration casino he has a 16 and he knows that there is mainly 2-3-4-5 remaining, he can drawn without much risk
early in the video he mentions that they use 4 decks.. does that mean that at any given time when theyre dealing the cards, that you may see 2, 3 or even 4 of the same exact card? for example, 2 king of spades or 3 jack of hearts?
at 3:15, he shows her the nine of SPADES, not clubs. "mistaking" her nine of clubs for the nine of spades shortly before searching for the card was obviously a suggestion.
If you win as a result. There are bad card counters, and if they are losing, they don't touch you. But if you are winning like crazy, then they politely escort you out.
@Iain1962 It matters not whether the math involved is simple or complicated. This man, Derren Brown, has won money with his gift. He is fairly certain what he needs to do to attain it, and nothing you say will deter him. As for me: I am not a gambler in the first place. Know that what you say falls on deaf, disinterested [indifferent] ears.
Bob, you would be surprised how logical this all is with practice. Just check out any of the available memory courses that quickly and easily have you memorising lists of thousends of items in any order. using association.
Some mnemonics can memorize much more than that. Some people such as Daniel Tammet have a natural savant ability, and memorizing 1000 decks would not be impossible for them. Adding more decks just spreads the odds out more evenly and throws off card counters. If a casino wants to beat any mnemonic all they have to do is have a 5 deck stack and just shuffle it every hand or two, no prediction would be possible really.
And that is the reason why they use four or even more decks (with four decks you really have to do some job to train your memory on that level with normal brains). And that is the reason why poker tournaments use one deck. They want you to calculate, its part of the game.
@TheRealRalphWiggum In this tutorial he's exemplifying HIS method of memory retention. The point of 4 stickers is because there are 4 decks therefore 4 of each card within the shoe, 208 total cards. There are other things going on in this video though that he doesn't really explain, namely the obvious Euro No-Hole Card and how that will deviate Basic Strategy. Why is it good to remember colors/suits of cards specifically? Hi-Lo vs Red 7 vs Hi-Opt II vs Zen counting. Read up.
ummm... the reason why he went against regular convention and hit with the 16 against a dealer 6 is because he was following the cards that were dealt and he was going to more than likely get a card that would help him... that's the point of his memory trick...
My point was that card counter's aren't doing anything wrong (well except winning). To be thrown out of a place based on that concept is wrong and immoral. Casino's have the odds stacked against so badly it isn't funny. Then again I do understand what your saying about trespassing.
@mypetmeatball meaning...even if when you count cards you still lose a lot of hands. there isn't a card counting system in the world that will help you win a good portion of hands. you win by betting when the count is in your favor - you still lose about half of your hands.
the way he explained how he counted the cards is bull, he only kept track of the ratio of high cards 10 jack queen king ace to low cards 2 3 4 5 6. when more low cards have been played, this means lots of high cards are left meaning you have a higher change at blackjack for him and the dealer has a higher chance of busting b/c they have to keep hitting till 17.
No, 21 was based on a true story but the story was changed SOOOOOO much. I would say its about 40-50 percent accurate. They basically took the outline of what happened and changed everything that happened in the middle. And card counting is NOT simple math AT ALL! The basic story is on wikipedia just type in MIT blackjack team. I have done way more research on this team than wikipedia and I can tell you this movie is VERY VERY VERY loosely based on what really happened.
Not necessarily, if you've gone through a bit of the deck already and many of the higher cards have been dealt already, hitting on a 16 against a 6 could become a potentially a good idea. (You've got to remember, probabilities are constantly changing as more cards are dealt) Furthermore, he could be shuffle tracking, you never know ^^
Casinos can kick you out for whatever reason they feel like. If they don't like the way you look or they think you're winning too much, they can kick you out.
@TheFinalGoose Heat from the Pit is different everywhere. There are many ways you can play. What this guys assumed problem is the same with how most beginning counters fail. Play too aggressive you put a marker on your head. Get into RFID Chip Tracing, Deck Control and other Pit Observation methods yeah, it's discouraging but not everyone who wins gets the boot, only those that do things like play a 1-4 unit spread then go in at 52 units outta nowhere, double down, win, then go back to 2.
He probably uses the same memory technique for every type of cardgame to remember the dealt cards, so as to able to remember it vividly. Think about it, remembering two sets of objects in two different rooms is harder than one room with one set.
Besides a real photographic memory doesn't help any if you know a good card counting technique, Knowing which cards have been played don't help you, the suit doesn't madder in black jack so as long as you know how many face cards, aces and tens are left your all good.
@rimrider1964 You could do this without having to count at all. All he's doing is using his memory and a bit of logic. I totally agree with you. Its not cheating at all.
