Card counting
[3] The myth that counters track every card was portrayed in the 1988 film Rain Man, in which the savant character Raymond Babbitt counts through six decks with ease, and a casino employee comments that it is impossible to do so.
Larger ratios between point values create better correlations to actual EOR, increasing the efficiency of a system.
One way to deal with such tradeoffs is to ignore the ace to yield higher PE while keeping a side count which is used to detect an additional change in EV which the player will use to detect additional betting opportunities that ordinarily would not be indicated by the primary card counting system.
[3] Since there is the potential to create an overtaxing demand on the human mind while using a card counting system another important design consideration is the ease of use.
Some players will stay at the table until the game is shuffled, or they may "Wong out" or leave when the count reaches a level at which they no longer have an advantage.
In addition, many casinos do not allow "mid-shoe entry" in single or double deck games which makes Wonging impossible.
The big player will then "Wong in" and wager vastly higher sums (up to the table maximum) while the count is high.
This was the system used by the MIT Blackjack Team, whose story was in turn the inspiration for the Canadian movie The Last Casino which was later re-made into the Hollywood version 21.
The disadvantages of this variation are reduced ability of the spotter and big player to communicate, reduced comps as the spotters are not sitting down, and vastly increased suspicion, as blackjack is not generally considered a spectator sport in casinos except among those actually playing (unlike craps, roulette, and wheels of fortune which have larger displays and so tend to attract more spectators).
A mathematical principle called the Kelly criterion indicates that bet increases should be proportional to the player's advantage.
Taken to its conclusion, the Kelly criterion demands that a player not bet anything when the deck does not offer a positive expectation; "Wonging" implements this.
As more casinos have switched games to dealer hits soft-17 and blackjack pays 6:5, the average house edge in Nevada has increased to 1%.
A typical card counter who ranges bets appropriately in a game with six decks will have an advantage of approximately 1% over the casino.
The deck will only have a positive enough count for the player to raise bets 10%-35% of the time depending on rules, penetration, and strategy.
[25] Macau, the only legal gambling location in China,[26] does not technically prohibit card counting but casinos reserve the right to expel or ban any customers, as is the case in the US and Britain.
[28] Monitoring player behavior to assist with detecting the card counters falls into the hands of the on-floor casino personnel ("pit bosses") and casino-surveillance personnel, who may use video surveillance ("the eye in the sky") as well as computer analysis, to try to spot playing behavior indicative of card counting.
Casinos can also subscribe to databases of advantage players offered by agencies like Griffin Investigations, Biometrica, and OSN (Oregon Surveillance Network).
[30] In 2008 all Chapter 11 payments were said to be up to date and all requirements met, and information was being supplied using data encryption and secure servers.
Plays such as splitting tens, doubling soft 18/19/20, standing on 15/16, and surrendering on 14, when basic strategy says otherwise, may be a sign of a card counter.
Software called Bloodhound and Protec 21[35] allows voice input of card and bet values, in an attempt to determine the player edge.
A more recent innovation is the use of RFID signatures embedded within the casino chips so that the table can automatically track bet amounts.
[36] Automated card-reading technology has known abuse potential in that it can be used to simplify the practice of preferential shuffling – having the dealer reshuffle the cards whenever the odds favor the players.
To comply with licensing regulations, some blackjack protection systems have been designed to delay access to real-time data on the remaining cards in the shoe.
Because CSMs essentially force minimal penetration, they greatly reduce the advantage of traditional counting techniques.
He is described in 1961's I Want To Quit Winners by Reno casino owner Harold Smith as an ace counter feared throughout Nevada.
And in the 1957 book, Playing Blackjack to Win, Roger Baldwin, Wilbert Cantey, Herbert Maisel, and James McDermott (known as "The Four Horsemen") published the first accurate blackjack basic strategy and a rudimentary card counting system, devised solely with the aid of crude mechanical calculators – what used to be called "adding machines".
Ken Uston, perhaps the most famous card-counter through his 60 Minutes television appearance and his books, tended to overstate his winnings, as documented by players who worked with him, including Al Francesco and team member Darryl Purpose.
[citation needed] In the 1970s and 1980s, as computing power grew, more advanced and harder card counting systems came into favor.
[citation needed] In the 1970s Ken Uston was the first to write about a tactic of card counting he called the Big Player Team.
Ben Mezrich also covers team play in his book Bringing Down The House (ISBN 0-7432-4999-2), which describes how MIT students used it with great success.
