There’s also 104 in 2 packs, and 156 in 3 packs. Of course that’s not counting jokers, which I personally think should be counted. I don’t know how many there are in 4 packs but mom said we could go to the store on Tuesday and buy another one so I might update this comment then :)
I got so much heat today at the casino. the dealer flat out asked me if I was counting. then after I won my 500 dollar bet and the pit boss distracted me for a minute asking random questions. the dealer burned a card when I wasn't paying attention and a dude who wasn't sitting on the table but just watching called her out on it. she ended up pulling the burned card and dealing it to me with approval from the pit boss. it was a jack. I played that hand and walked away. that dude saved my ass so hard I would have lost that bet and been off on my count the rest of the shoe.
Please forgive my ignorance here, I'm trying to learn how to play blackjack with some kind of consistent methodology and I'm pretty uneducated at this point. What does it mean when you said the dealer "burned" a card but then soon later re-dealt it to you?
@@cowboydan8021 so before the game starts or a dealer is changed out due to them taking a break or its the end of the shift. house rules say they need to "burn" the top card from the shoe. this is just them taking it out not dealing it to anyone and putting it in the discard tray (typically you don't see the card either sometimes they might flash it and then you add it to the running count if not 100 percent sure what card you saw ignore it). when a dealer is doing that mid shoe and they didn't change dealers its not cool. you treat those cards like they are just behind the cut card in the back of the shoe but if they start burning cards every round or every other round it adds up and will make the running count way to off to make a appropriate bet based on the running count to true count conversion. its best just to stand up at that point and wait for a new game. when I first started this was easy because I wasn't taking it extremely serious and I was very relaxed. after getting the heat and noticing dealers making payout mistakes more often then I'd ever imagine its become a adrenaline rush everytime I sit at the table. I learn something new almost every time I play. like slouching in the chair on second base is a great way for the dealer to flash you cards all day when they check for blackjack if the dealer is sloppy.
Dana White got backed off after he won $2 million playing black Jack in a Casino in Vegas. Except he didn’t get backed off until the day after he played and a representative called him to tell him he’s not allowed to gamble there anymore. Then Dana White said ok, well I’m not hosting UFC events over at your casino anymore. that was a badass moment lol
@@Quackerilla Wasn't cheating. This person said that he wasn't paying attention and mistakenly hit hard 17 once. If the upcard was an ace, that's a warning sign that a player is counting cards. In a hit soft 17 game, if the true count is -4 or lower (-6 at stand soft 17 game), you are justified hitting 17 against an ace.
The fact that counting is "not allowed" baffles me. The casinos really are crying "nooo, you're meant to just gamble like an idiot, you're cant just use a strategy or math!!" Also theres no way to prove anything, it pisses me off
I mean, the whole point of the casino was made to make money from people and make people think they have a chance. They can do what ever they want as a business. It's not a "right" for you to use your skill, it's a matter of if the casino wants your business or not; regardless of what you think.
@@FinnishArmy There is no objective truth in the idea that casinos should have the right to refuse a player. There are plenty of cases where a gamble can not be refused. (The best example being the stock market) There is also no objective truth to the idea that they shouldn't have that right. "Regardless of what you think" both sides of this argument are a perspective based on values. I happen to be of the opinion they should be able to refuse advantaged players, but I am not so foolish as to think my point of view is objectively correct.
Because casinos are entertainment places not a place to earn money as a player. It’s designed to let you win from time to time but lose in the long run. That’s why casinos are extravagant places with flashy colors. They’re selling you the experience. Only an idiot would try to make a living from casinos. You should only put in money into chips that you can afford to lose.
@@peacefulwarrior9518 did you miss the whole GameStop thing? You can absolutely be refused at the stock market if your play threatens the wrong people.
@@FinnishArmy Obviously they have the right to tell you you cant do business with them anymore, its more the principle behind it. It being legal doesnt make it respectable in any way.
It's been my experience that if the pit boss jams a 10,000 volt cattle prod into your side, it's probably time to leave. Also, smashing your hand with a hammer is another good sign.
Just came back from a trip. My friend who knew I was a counter asked me what the count was in the loudest way possible. He thought the casinos were cool with it. Luckily no one important heard him ask for the count
Even arcades can try back offs. Some arcade manager banned me from his store because he saw me winning too many tickets and knew I wasn’t there for fun.
To me counting cards is part of strategy. Casino’s throw you off by cutting decks and changing rules on a whim to their benefits. It’s 100 percent okay to count cards and do things for your benefit.
If you can learn a strategy that gives you favourable odds, you're good at the game. Of course it's okay. Casinos will disagree because your gain is their loss.
@@scottrobinson4611 Yep, and it's such a small minority that count anyways. They just want to keep their profits at absurd levels, and can't handle it when someone outplays them without cheating. Thus, start resorting to cheating themselves to keep these people away from their casinos.
That is total BS. The reason these actions exist is because people did count already. What a twisted way of looking at it. The house only has half a percent advantage in blackjack when perfect basic strategy is played. A counter can have up to a 2% advantage. It's cheating. The house is entitled to its advantage for facilitating it. YOU make the bets. They pay you. They still have the risk of you getting on a lucky streak and being up on them. Some people who play only basic strategy can even be up on a casino for a full fiscal year because they got all of the right cards. I hate how counters think that what they do is justified....
I have to say, it's pretty impressive that this channel can produce so much content over such a long span of time just on the topic of blackjack and card counting.
I work in casinos, and I'll tell you right now; we *do* put people in the database, but generally, the casino's business model is to keep you inside, even when winning. And that includes card counters. See, there's more to being a card counter, from the casino's perspective, than just winning hands when you can. And, generally, your winnings won't be too big. But if you're getting heat from the casino staff, this provides a positive feedback loop on that table because many gamblers will see the table as a lucky table, rather than assuming you're card counting. Additionally, a single player being emboldened at the table emboldens the other players on the table, but that card counting player is tempering their emboldened strategy with their card count, whereas the surrounding players are simply playing bolder because they see the card counter winning.
Yea this is a key point never talked about on this channel as far as I can tell. The casinos deliberately have their games set up to allow for a low level of advantaged play. They could easily only have rule sets that are impossible to beat. But it adds romance to the game which draws people in. Its advertising. Blackjack generally is an advertisement game. It has low payout to the house not just because of the odds but because it takes up more space than a slot and requires way more overhead in terms of dealers, security, and logistics. Even at 0.5% advantage the house is almost certainly losing money on most tables. But by having blackjack tables you drawn in more people than use your slots or whatever making up the difference.
@@peterisawesomeplease They make their money on blackjack tables because the average player is not playing perfectly and makes plenty of mistakes so the small house advantage becomes much larger. You gotta think the small advantage percentages that are always thrown around are for people who are playing "perfectly". Few play perfectly, most are sloppy, and some don't even know how to play at all
@@TruthBehindTheLies That is a good point. 0.5% house advantage is still only over perfect non counting play. Its probably more like 2 or 3 percent on average. Which is lower than the 6 or 7 percent on slots but still more than I was thinking of.
Most casinos won’t kick you out over it, they will give you all options available , none that you will like. We will tell you either that you are flat bet, or we are backing you off of blackjack style games. You are free to play any other game in the casino, except blackjack. One quick tip for counters, if you get caught be someone and backed off, don’t tell the boss about the floor or shift boss the night before that had no problem with it and you liked him better, you are not doing yourself or him any favors. 😂
Lol, as a dealer, if I ask for ID(or am told to ask for ID), and they don’t have ID, I stop taking their bets. I respond with I don’t think you’re old enough to gamble.
@@dogguy8603 I don’t care that much. At the end of the day, I am there to provide decisions/hour and good customer service in order to drop a tip. That said, if they want to know who you are, decent chance they will find it.
. yep. Handing over an id is surrendering rights. Most dont know that. Answering any questions is also giving up your rights. Handing over an insurance card also.
I remember seeing a sign downtown Vegas “card counters welcome” either at the California or the Sport casino across the street. I guess they don’t really mean it.
They also make a good deal of money from all the people who come in _trying_ to count cards and doing it badly. It's not card counters the casinos consider undesirable. It's the *_good_* card counters.
I was a card counter for years but never played over $1000 a hand. I’ve had a few sessions over a $25k. I have had many pit bosses stand and stare at my play. I’ve had them switch out dealers that are super fast to try and confuse me. I have had them shuffle on me a few times. The best method to get me out is to switch out the dealer with a new sloppy dealer that’s slow and stares at the cards before placing them on the felt. I can’t deal with that!
@@derrikferguson3219 yes, and you watch their lips moving while they’re adding up the cards. Very frustrating, I even tell them just put it down and we’ll count together, ugh!
Dude I don't see how u can even say that's not a perfect analogy w/ the no shoes no shirt thing., because imo that actually IS a perfect analogy, same concept.. .. .. .. .. great video ..
9:50 we're going to call what you describe here as a "time misdirection reversal". Usually, when a magician has a little mini conversation, it's so they can be sneaky about a thing they just did. Distraction affects short term memory. But never have I heard of any magician that has used time misdirection like this, ever. Absolutely brilliant.
The only time ive ever been backed off, i wasn't even playing for 30 minutes. They had no identification from me but i had just won 50k 2 months in a row completely across the country. I figured they had put facial recognition on a database somewhere. All my heat has died down already.
here's some irony. In New Jersey as of 1979, you are legal protected from a backoff. to quote the NJ Supreme Court: "Sometimes, proprietors have a duty to remove disorderly or dangerous people from the premises. Casinos may bar the disorderly, the intoxicated, and the repetitive petty offender. If someone is not causing any of these types of distractions, then they have the right of reasonable access to the blackjack tables" Scorce: Uston v. Resorts International Hotel, Inc. 89 N.J. 163, 445 A.2d 370, 1982 N.J.
The part you are missing is, the same ruling allows casinos to combat advanced blackjack players by, limiting the player to one spot, to cut the deck in any place at least 10 cards from either end and, shuffle anytime after a hand has been completed.
I never got backed off, only that the pit boss came over and started talking to my wife and I making smalltalk to distract us from our count. We bought in for $60 each and within 2 hours we had $2000 - and we just packed it in.
Lmao I remember when a pit boss backed me off in Laughlin nevada, all I was doing was doubling up when I lose, sometimes it works well in my favor other times the casino takes me. But I was floored when the pit boss told me I could only stick to one bet and I was only stating at $5 talk about a casino desperate for money. That was within 7 hands of sitting down I just left and went to another casino.
Being nice / non-confrontation with the bit is very important. There are a few who just think they are god's gift to casinos to protect games, but most of the time they don't want to be backing you off either. Also, there is a big difference between being asked to stop playing and being 86ed. I've had pits tell me that they knew what I was doing but there shift was this time to that time and their off days were such and so forth and they didn't care what I did during other shifts. Obviously the final decision is not up to the pit, but you can help yourself a lot by handling it well. Fact is arguing / fighting / self-righteousness doesn't work anyway, so might as well deescalate the situation, make nice with them, and live to see another day.
i like how you have actual stuff for free and you actually clarify such as "it is very rare" others would just act like its a normal thing and in a couple hours i have learned more than any other youtuber much love
DE-ESCALATION! This needs to happen more often whether it the work place, classroom, grocery store, fast food line, freeway... People on both sides of the coin need to learn some good de-escalation strategies. Adding fuel to a fire won't put out a fire. Nor will it keep you from getting burned.
A while back when i dealt blackjack we were taught that if heat shows up to screw up the hand intentionally to force a push for every player so that the player cannot continue.
Been watching your videos made over 1000$ now in the past week and half I know you don't alwaya win but things have been going my way alot more thanks to ur channel thanks buddy
I stumbled on to this video by accident. Really interesting and a lot of good casino advice even if you aren't a card counter or Advantaged Player. Makes me want to head to Vegas this week. Thanks!
0:56 That's definitely still heat, and was intentional. Little distractions like that have an effect on short term memory. Magicians use that technique often. It's like a subcategory of time misdirection. We'll call it "space misdirection" for now.
In our paid video course there's a video of me playing through a full shoe, talking through my decisions. The only in-casino video footage I have is from my backoff video.
There is a video of Colin getting backed off, the pit boss wasn't that bad to be fair, but my favourite exchange was this....... Pitboss: I am letting you play blackjack anyway you want to play Colin: No, you said I can't play the way I want to play Pitboss: You can't play like that There is another channel gaining attraction called Blackjack University. They actually play blackjack at a home table. However they don't count and make out that systems work like some shitty 4-2-1 crap. It's good for practising, but they only play basic strategy. Hey Colin, quick question, do you think you could be a winning BJ player if you were made to flat bet? if you learned a count with the highest PE?
@@usefulidiot9896 a friend of mine flat bet at a very favorable game just outside of Vegas and crushed it using only playing deviations. He told me he used over 50 deviations.
It’s amazing how far a good apology goes. It’s annoying that it took so long for me to realize as a kid, cause as you know the world revolves around you when you’re young so why should I have to apologize…
I used to think I should only apologize if I’m in the wrong or if I was actually sorry... that was what I was told but then the same people that taught me that forced me to apologize even when I was in the right or I wasn’t actually apologetic. Big contradiction.
I never really saw anyone trying the coin pushers, and never bothered to try myself. I wonder if there are strategy videos or articles for those out there somewhere. Shame that most arcades these days make you use these point card things now
I use almost 15 percent of my yearly earnings to give pit bosses gifts, in most states its perfectly legal. A bribe to influence a casino employee to allow cheating is illegal, but counting isn't cheating. A few thousand in gift cards to the pit boss goes a long way.
Usually for me they just start talking to me the entire time trying to get my eyes and mind off the cards. I eventually got listed, when my players card was swiped, as a potential card count warning. I only knew because I went to get my room and it came up on the computer screen when they swiped my card. Never asked to leave
I feel like this has changed my game completely. I'm having longer session prior to learning counting. I went from playing 30 minutes of play to 4 to 5 hours a session! I'm definitely progressing as a beginner.
Yup. I started with $60 playing Spanish last month and got up around $700 playing 1 on 1 . Wasn't really counting, just paying attention. Boss came up to me and asked what I started with, knowing damn well she already knew it was $60. I played loose the next shoe and cashed out with $500.
Maybe sometimes it's in the casino's interest to let someone winning, a positive example of someone winning could encourage others to play, the feeding frenzy? That could be why they don't always stop you.
One thing you forgot to mention which I think is important is finding out or asking a dealer casualty “hey is that the shift manager/VP of table games?” If they say yes and he’s hawking your game from the podium odds are you've got some heat. If it’s a low level floor person, then you know you’re okay.
My favorite instance of backing off is Dana White. I've seen one Casino that he won $6mil from, a Casino that was scheduled to have a UFC fight hosted at. When they backed him off due to losing that $6mil, he went "that's cute" and pulled the fight out of that Casino. It's hillarious, because they got butthurt about losing $6mil, they proceeded to lose hundreds of millions of more dollars.
What if you mentioned Trip Advisor, Yelp!, Google Reviews, or Consumer Affairs? Thoughts on how the management would respond to that? I would think enough backed off players could take a casino down or hinder it on social media.
i have no idea about this game, just trying to understand the documentary i am watching on the MIT team, but you sound like a awesome teacher. Really sound like you know yorur stuff!~
I went to a casino very drunk and was betting like I was blind man, hitting when you should stand splitting when you shouldn't and doubling down when no one would. I was up big, by shear dumb luck. Then the pitboss tells the dealer to take his break, insert new dealer and I lost all my money. So even when your getting crazy dumb luck they still think you know what you are doing.
Hey Colin, thanks for the great content and sharing your experience! Just love your videos and the mathematical/statistical perspective on the game! Have you ever heard of a situation where an actual gambler got super lucky and was falsely accused of playing a winning game or card counting for that matter? How do they discriminate between someone who's actually counting cards and someone who's just being lucky if both players are generating high amounts of money over a constant period of time?
If you start to gain dough, they will start paying attention to your moves, if you change your bet amounts dramatically over one hand, thats a clear indicative that u r counting cards.
There are a few ways casinos make that determination between an AP and a lucky player. As a dealer, the biggest indicators to me are 1) selectively taking insurance on non-20 hands, 2) bet spreads larger than 5x, and 3) dropping bets after obvious negative count hands. After being tipped off, you just keep count out of a fresh shoe, and if their bets match the count, it's a pretty good chance they're an AP. 1 is probably the weirdest one, but as a dealer, it's also the most obvious. There are only two types of blackjack players when it comes to insurance: those who always take it (rare), and those who never take it unless they have 20. The (flawed) reasoning is that if they have 20, they expect to win the hand and make the insurance back, despite the two bets being separate. So when someone has like a 12 and they take insurance, that's an indication that the count is high and the insurance EV is positive (bonus points if they raised their bet for that hand). Once as an AP after I insured a 7, the dealer said to me "Wow, the count must have been high, huh?" and my heart almost stopped. I made an excuse about just hoping for a push instead of having to play out the hand, but I made sure to toke him as he left just in case I didn't sell it enough. As for 2, most casinos limit how much you can alter your spread before they automatically shuffle specifically to limit APs. I've seen places where they limit it to 4x or even 3x your first bet out of a shoe, but there are still some casinos that don't have those limits at all. Number 3 is pretty self-explanatory: everyone at the table gets a pair of face cards for 20 and the next hand has the guy at 1st base dropping his bet from $300 to table minimum? Probably knows what he's doing. Because casinos don't actually need to provide a reason for barring someone from playing, they often don't provide one at all. They just tell you that the decision was made that you can't alter your bets through a shoe, or you can't play the tables anymore, and it's final. The reason they do this is exactly because of what you've suggested; they don't want to accuse someone of counting when they just got lucky with their bet spreads matching the count. Over the course of thousands or millions of hands, it's bound to happen, and when that "lucky" player then goes on social media and blasts the casino for kicking him out, it makes them look extra bad because they not only lost a player who didn't have an advantage, but now everyone thinks they brand everyone who wins as a counter and they don't want to deal with any of that.
You know. I appreciate your skills in black jack. It just seems like a lot of trouble with Casinos. I wish I had the balls you guys have to have setting there at the table knowing you're about to get asked to leave. I got to stick to craps.
I got the pit boss 20 questions deal. Pit boss started asking questions: “where you from, what you do, why in town?” Stuff… I asked him you ask a lot of questions and why… he got defensive and said he was just curious. I then said “well I gotta a question for you?” I then asked him what the rate for a room with a winning session. His attitude totally changed and had a great night…
Being overly nice & oblivious to the subtext of the situation is actually a good life skill. That pit boss that’s acting confrontational might be doing it because it’s his job to back off card counters. Don’t assume that the guy confronting you is the person who made the decision.
Maybe you should do a video on the difference between tribal casinos and regular casinos. The law and your rights in tribal casinos are basically unrelated to state and federal law and your rights in regular casinos. You alluded to it in this video but there are a lot of ways your whole overall strategy can backfire at tribal casinos.
Have been playing regularly for only a couple of weeks and went from the lowest card level to the highest in that time. Thought I was getting backed off and it was a host introducing himself and offering me a comped room at the ritz carlton
If a player has the ability to count cards multi deck systems, they can and should. A counter should say, “nah, I’m not counting cards, just trying to win”.
I was so excited getting backed off the first time. Now I realize how much more I could have made by caring a bit more. I cant play anywhere in AZ anymore.
@Dough Boiii poker requires too much thought for me. Blackjack is simple. There is always a hundred percent correct choice. I can play BJ on autopilot.
If someone is "hawking" over you I do, as he suggests, ask a simple question to see where you're at, like "Hey I've lost track of the count is it +14 or +12?"
I had a dealer joke that I was card counting because I literally kept changing my bet not because of card counting but because a bunch of low cards came out and I knew common sense that high cards were next
That was just in the movie. In reality, you are more likely to get both hands smashed along with a trip out to the desert where you have plenty of time to think while walking back!
As someone who enjoys blackjack and consider myself a solid player i play to enjoy it!! I usually go with 2 to 3k and play 50 to 100 a hand playing these limits i rarely get any heat..... Crazy bet spreads is what brings attention
I must say, I was glad to get my Maths A- levels at the second attempt. But you are not just extremely open to so many Infos, but also a calculator not just when it comes to Cards, but also persons. Respect! Keep that up! 😁
I can agree with the apologizing. At the end of the day, casino is still nothing more than a business and gambling is their product. You take what you can and leave, if you don't you're nothing more than a common thief that's going to get his hands hammered.
I always referred to it as heat score some people give off the wrong vibe or make mistakes that make their heat score rise the secret is to know what your heat score is and the limit the casino has for heat score
Funny story about casino's In the Air Force in the late 60's in Reno, I had a woman dealer who appeared angry. She was flipping the cards so hard my way, finally one of the cards sailed by me, and hit the floor. I didn't see why I should retrieve the card, and we ended up just staring at each other. After about 30 seconds the Security Guard standing at the wall behind me who was watching both of us walked over, picked up the flying card and handed it to me. I played about another 20 minutes, got tired playing catcher, and left. As I was leaving, the Security Guard approached me and apologized for the dealer's dealing. As I was annoyed at the dealer, I also apologized to him for treating him like a flunky, which I had no right to do. Reno was a lot of laughs.
They can trespass you under the private property act set forth by whatever state the casino is in. Trust me, my casino uses it all the time 😂😂😂. And he’s right, cutting that shoe in half usually (90 percent of the time) makes people leave!
@@dylanram4653 a private business can refuse service to anyone for any reason other than race, religion, sex, age, disability etc. Youd be wasting your time in court
The no shirt, no shoes no service analogy makes sense. Broken glass could be on the floor, women would be allowed to show up topless. It all makes sense why that rule is there- if you use your brain. But Casinos are like you better not use your brain or we will refuse you service.....
I read Repeat Until Rich. I read a bunch of Blackjack books as part of my training. Seems to me that Axelrad was trying to get a movie deal. Even he calls his prose "florid." There are parts of this book, especially at the beginning, where the prose is really overwrought. Not fun to read. Difficult to care about whatever is being described. There may be some lessons to learn in this book, hard for me to tell at this point in my Blackjack game.
@@scottt5484 um gee most people don't know. Like card games 6 deck computer stacked theres a black half square reader on the table with a led number reader beside it .you see the dealer after each hand take the top card and slide it under the edge of the half square reader and then the computer tells the dealer how many cards to burn off the top before dealing .your not playing cards your pl as ing cards with a computer . And we all know slots are no longer a game of chans they are run buy a computer that is programed when to pay and how much .and most casinos the pay out is only 2% of the take . It's cheating is exactly what it is .
@@charlesyates6687 its been awhile since I’ve played Bj in a casino but in my past experience I’ve never seen this so called computer led and burning cards etc. In what casinos is this happening? I’m highly skeptical of what your asserting here! Regarding payouts on slots, of course the gaming commission regulates that. And of course it favors the casino. Anyone who plays slots knows this. Its not “cheating”.
If they trespass you, i would NOT go back in. When they tell you of the trespass warning, with or without the police. I would do 2 things. Ask how long the trespass is for, and if you can get it in writing. And NEVER give your ID. As far as the ID goes, no property owner can make you give ID. That simple, never give them your ID. Depending on the state, the police can't even demand your ID for a trespass warning. All states have trespass laws very similar and IDs are NOT required. Your "ID" will be a picture of your face on a DB with a note of a date, time, location, pit boss name of who told you to never come back. That is a legal a warning, with or without your ID. If they trespass you, even without your ID, you are still trespassed. And if you go in, they can, by law, use shop keeper rights and hold you until police come. I wouldn't be on someone's property once you are told to leave.
