A friend’s poker party had blackjack? Sounds weird
There’s a sizable minority of male zoomers into gambling in some countries, tightly related to the proliferation of small casinos in working-class neighbourhoods through a historical period where typical socialization spaces have been getting dismantled. I met a guy whose friend group’s main activity for socialization was going to gambling and his life was pretty much a mess, roughly around the same as the guy from the green text.
This started with grey-market online poker in the early 2000s. In my big lecture classes, there would always be a dozen or so people just playing online poker, and I knew lots of people who got so sucked into it they dropped out of school
Who gambles a house favoured game with pals
I guess this could be possible, but I’m just thinking how weird it be to host such event and be the house in blackjack because the house always has the advantage. It’s not really a group game like regular five card poker or hold’em would be
Lol You’re overthinking it. People organizing such nights among friends are not officially hosting the event and are not always play as the house. The person who plays as the house is rotating
I’ve never just had that played in such nights because of the house issue.
The house edge for standard blackjack is 61 cents for every $100 bet.
If the house provides snacks then they lose out.
I would’ve expected it to be way worse. Is this with perfect plays? Because when we’ve been to casino it’s always house raking in money because people are shit players and go over constantly
Yes. This is assuming perfect strategy.
You are correct to point out that any deviation increases the house odds.
I like how he went to a poker night and figured out he’s good at blackjack. Sounds like his friends wanted to gift him some money even though the idiot couldn’t even figure out what game they are playing.
I see people latch onto that detail. I find it plausible that some guys having a “poker night” might play other card games in addition to poker. Play a few hands of 5 card draw, some 7 card stud, maybe a round of blackjack or two.
Do people even call Euros, “bucks” or did he switch currency as well?
> Get beaten to a pulp outside an underground casino for counting cards.
Don’t casinos use something like seven decks simultaneously to make card counting super hard to impossible?
If you’re using a random number of decks what’s even the skill? You might as well go to a slot machine
That’s the thing, they don’t want skill to be involved. It’s gambling. The house wants to win.
Depends on the table. Lower stakes tables may use one deck.
Usually yes, but some casinos do offer low deck shoes as a way to attract players.
Because you would need to be a class 9 sperd to capitalize on the odd differential.
Not really. Counting cards is easy.
2-6 = +1
7-9 = 0
10-Ace= -1
Bet more when the running total is positive.
I’m too dumb to know if this is smart, can you expand on this?
There’s a couple of Modern Rogue (RIP) episodes that explain this pretty well.
First thing you need to know about a proper game of blackjack: the players at the table aren’t in competition with each other, they’re all playing their own games of blackjack against the dealer. It’s possible for everyone to win, everyone to lose, or some combination thereof. Second thing you need to know: the dealer is not allowed to make any decisions or judgement calls; the dealer must follow a set algorithm for how the house’s hand is played.
So because the dealer’s behavior is algorithmic, there is also an algorithm for players to follow that will cause players to lose least often. Not necessarily win most often, because the rules are tilted in the house’s favor, the house will win eventually, but…if you show up with $10 in your pocket, sticking to the ideal play algorithm will allow you to lose it as slow as possible.
What counting cards does is maybe inform you about when it’s better to deviate from ideal play, but also when to bet minimum and when to bet higher. If you happen to know there are more low-value cards in the deck because several of them have already been played, you know the dealer is more likely to bust, so the odds are in your favor. You don’t have to keep like a running tally of each individual card in your head, you can simplify it by keeping track of one integer number, called the “count.”
When the dealer shuffles the deck, start the count at zero. When you see a card in your own hand, in another player’s hand, or the dealer’s hand that is:
a 2 through 6: add one to your count.
a 7, 8 or 9, add nothing to your count.
A 10, Jack, Queen, King or Ace: subtract one from your count.
When the count is positive, the dealer is more likely to hit until he busts, meaning the player is more likely to win his hand. So possibly don’t hit at all, don’t risk it and let the dealer step on that landmine, or even if you do, bet more than the minimum bet.
If the count is zero or positive, the dealer will likely win the hand, so stick to ideal play and bet minimum.
If they suspect you’re doing this, because you’re winning too much, they may ask you to leave the table or leave the casino. To prevent this, the dealer may burn a card each hand to deny the players some info, and not deal to the end of the deck, as counting cards gives you more information toward the end of the deck. Higher stakes tables probably use multiple decks of cards at once to render card counting useless.
Fake. Counting cards (in blackjack) isn’t a good way to make money. It involves large changes in your bet size that make it extremely obvious. If you’re bad at it, places will let you do it while you lose money. If you’re actually good at it (he’s not), they’ll kick you out. It’s an obvious thing that places don’t put up with if you’re winning.
Op is counting 52 cards in a basement game, he’s found his calling, until he encounters a shoe
Or worse.
For his sake, I hope he takes his winnings so far and walks.
Clowning on a bunch of underground gambling rings is a good way to end up on a lot of shitlists of a lot of less than scrupulous people.
The good thing about underground gambling rings is that 2k is hardly an amount worth shitlisting about…
It’s absolutely possible to make good money counting cards. There’s a great series by Steven Bridges on YouTube where he goes through the process of counting cards in action, in several different casinos in different states and countries, both alone and with team-play.
Oh, it’s on youtube? Must be true then!
Literally has videos on his channel of him card counting and winning big. Consistently.
It’s really hard to do in casinos too. They often use something like six decks and shuffle well before they’re through it.
It’s not impossible to count a standard 6 or 8 deck but with dealers moving at 90mph it’s fuckin hard
I mean. Temporarily.
While the profits rolled in, so did the “heat” from the casinos, and many MIT Team members were identified and barred. These members were replaced by fresh players from MIT, Harvard, and other colleges and companies, and play continued. Eventually, investigators hired by casinos realized that many of those they had banned had addresses in or near Cambridge, and the connection to MIT and a formalized team became clear. The detectives obtained copies of recent MIT yearbooks and added photographs from it to their image database
I’d argue that getting away with it for 20yrs means they were still pretty successful.
past two months
In the OP implies this wasn’t twenty years ago.
So? I was replying to a comment that said it wasn’t a good way to make money. I gave an example of a group using it to make money for 20yrs. I’d argue that that proves it can be a good way to make money.
Oh, I meant it’s not a good way to make money now. I wasn’t speaking for 1990.
If you’re actually good at it (he’s not), they’ll kick you out.
I never understood why this isn’t allowed. Just seems like getting good at the game to me
Just seems like getting good at the game to me
Because it isn’t sportsmanship that they’re interested in it’s getting all your cash. They don’t give a damn about the integrity of the game or anything like that.
Because the whole point of a casino is to take your money.
so he played poker or blackjack
Sounds like a pretty decent job to me
My younger brother counts all 52 cards without effort when playing Bridge, he’s an ace at mental math, has zero facial expressions.
Could have gone pro as a poker player, said “you spend your whole life actively seeking out drunks and malcontents”.
Ended up an IP lawyer, I guess the pay is more regular.
1000/month? It is gambling still, anon won’t keep this up.
Geev dees maahn hees mah-nnahey.
