Professional Blackjack Card Counters analyze scenes from Rainman, 21, Hangover & more!
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- Опубліковано 16 лип 2024
- Colin & Loudon Ofton two professional blackjack players are back to watch scenes from popular movies & TV shows about card counting. Watch as they give their professional commentary on how card counting is depicted in mainstream media.
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0:00 Intro
0:17 Rainman
2:53 The Hangover
6:56 21
7:56 Dark Matter
13:00 Learn More
"The count's still high, let's get in there!" LOL
Assuming they paused the game do the count is the same :)
Haha, I posted pretty much your exact comment. Then I scrolled and saw yours. I deleted mine. No need for a duplicate!
@@MrBrain4 post it back quick!
It baffles me… why don’t these movie studios hire a card counter to consult? 😂
Hiring a card counter would be a threat to the movie studio's bankroll.
@@djm5687 No kidding.
Because the actual reality of it would be boring to the audience
@@stevenhelgason8190 Yes, unfortunately many of the things people glamorize from movies, whether it be card counting, real estate investing, working on Wall Street, and high end scams that eventually failed, are actually more monotonous, and don't appeal to peoples' expectation that a movie have super good moments, super bad moments, and other scenes that merge well with the super scenes and the ending.
or just hire one student from bja lmfaoooo
I think the splitting 5’s was written in because it’s hilarious! Lol
There’s always a time where that’s usually scripted for a movie or a tv show, versus actually not doing that in reality.
or to tip off to security that they're just "lucky" and lower the heat
One of these days I'm gonna double flip off the eye in the sky while getting Tresspased like Bradley Cooper. BOLO this M'Fers.
Wow, never expected to see Dark Matter on a video like this
I’m very young in my card counting, so movies like 21 and although you didn’t mention it but the last casino draw my attention to black jack as a kid, which led me to Ed Thorpe and card counting. So while most of these films are fictional and entertaining, it can be used as a tool of inspiration to the actual science behind rather than the Hollywood fallacy.
The Last Casino wasn't nearly as bad compared to other card counting movies, but it did have many issues. Like Rain Man, The Last Casino, showed them winning every session they played disciplined on. Their final blackjack scene was just dumb illegal gambling with basic strategy, and it promoted the foolish Martingale strategy. Once again, the card counters were depicted as losers in the end, which was pathetic. I don't like the film depicting card counters as addicted gamblers. Save that for Josh Axelrad's story.
@@ianandersen265 no but it had a great dialogue particularly speaking about how casinos can back room you pass your rights, but you need to know them. Like all movies it had major flaws but it was definitely influential at least for me and people coming up.
I always feel like Zach Galifinakis at the table, whenever I’m playing!
I loved 21 growing up. It's a comedy now lol
I love this content. You should do more videos like this ❤️
Thank you colin ive learned alot over the past month
Love the channel. Almost ready to get out there.
Thanks guys. That was fun.
Rainman is THE image I always had in mind when thinking of card counters. It disheartened generations of potential card counters lol.
I love these react videos! Please do more.
The movie 21 was based on the mIT card counters back in the 90s. So i guess it was quite accurate with all thebeating the counters got from the managemejt
LOL, thank you for pointing out that nonsense. That seems to fly under many of the critiques of that movie.
I would make a slight correction here - The movie was based on a book that was based on a MIT card counting team. The author, Ben Mezrich, has been known to, shall we say, embellish and/or fabricate a story (such as a beating from the management) to make the narrative more interesting.
That said, the book is an entertaining read, so mission accomplished, I suppose. The movie, from what I remember, was not particularly good.
The 21 scene is pretty fair in all honesty. It was playing the cards in slow motion so he was counting at pretty normal speed I would say. The extra commentary in his head was more for the average joe's benefit than anything.
Ya that was retarded on their part. It was obviously for the audience
Keep doing these react videos! Love it!
I’m sold. Great job…. Elite membership incoming
This one is going to be good!
“Now people are dying because they are using their brains at blackjack “
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
The first "Rain man" leading to 2nd "The Hangover" but what was sorta mentioned but not that Rain man knew exactly what was left in the deck in scene leading up to the casino. With 4 decks played he could tell you exactly there are 6A's, 14K, 9Q, etc...
We've missed your content!
Getting touched by casino security is the most +EV play in blackjack
I could never be a card counter.. I tried, aint got the brains or the bankroll! but your channel sure makes blackjack more exciting!
Love how the 2nd one is basically a parody of the 1st
in the hangover alen already has experience with card counting it’s said at the beginning if the movie.
“Now people are dying because people are using their brains for blackjack!”
Hollywood can do a better service to card counters, if they made a movie on James Grosjean and Michael Russo's famous lawsuits against Griffin! If 21 the movie included a successful lawsuit scene, I would have tolerated that movie more.
do you guys ever practise in vr or on games to see how well your teaching blackjack?
I think the point of splitting 5's in the hangover scene was to show the "savant" wasn't just counting face cards but some super advanced IQ reading card counter. Clearly the movie doesn't care about the reality of card counting it is meant to be funny and I know ur just reacting as a card counter but for anyone else ^
Here is the thing about counting cards. Each deck counts out to 0. If you can count 1 deck, then you can count 20. 20×0=0
Just wondering Colin, what kind of cards do you use in your blackjack setup. I’m working on a home game board myself and was curious.
visit your local casinos gift shop for retired cards :)
in the movie 21, there was a conversation in a bar about how splitting 8's is a sucker bet against a 10 or an A. you didn't even mention it here! no one acknowledges that scene, and im starting to question reality >_
They have another video reacting to 21 and mentioned it
I have a theory about that. What they state is true for the ENHC rule set, so I think when they did their research, they stumbled upon a Basic Strategy chart for ENHC instead of North American rules
and assumed that was true for all Rule sets.
@@themomentalist i was thinking they searched up when to double down 10's and accidentally swapped it for splitting the 8's.
maybe even intentionally making a mistake so that people would talk about the movie more in blogs and news feeds. either way, and for whatever the reason, it's a shame.
@@AVERYhornyMrDinosaur Yep, could have been that too…
Hi I'm.new to this but really would.like to start learning.i don't have much access to a casino where I live to get started at basic strategy. Would a blackjack app be ok to practice on till I understand the basic strategy?
Can you plz plz plz make a version of the basic strategy song with the lyrics. Thank you!!!
I wanna thank you for inspiring me to start programming again, I made my own blackjack simulator / betting software; I still use your mobile app, since it's still more advanced.
I did the blackjack app and now developing my old game prototype project again. So thank you a lot!!! :)
knowing concept of Dark Matter, would go a long way. just saying
its not past its future..
Yeah, its in 27th century but should also mention its a scifi series with spaceships that do lightspeed, space stations, different planets, mining colonies and mega corporations controlling different parts of the galaxy.
Colin can you make the BJA app to where we could customize the bankroll to whatever we want?
I would want that and simulated play. I want to play against a table of 2, 3, 4, and 5 people so I can better practice my counting skills. 😣
literally - I was going to comment this on the cheddar video u did. Why not make a reaction video. Those are fun to watch
There's a casino near where I live but it states the following:
It isn’t the perfect choice if you’re planning on counting cards, as the dealers tend to place the cut card near the middle of the shoe. Typically you can’t expect to see more than three decks in a six deck game. That means that you won’t be able to benefit greatly from card counting here.
However, one good thing about this casino is that it has a pretty large number of tables, so you will be able to migrate and perhaps you’ll manage to find a dealer who doesn’t cut the cards as often. If you play as part of a group, you might have more success, as there is an option of mid-shoe entry at some of the tables that have lower limits. Due to the fact that the dealers are instructed to cut the cards more often, you are not likely to be followed around.
Will your technique work with the mentioned above?
Better deck penetration means better odds, so it will be less likely to get higher counts since they reset at 50%. You can still probably get to a true count of 1 at least more often, but you won't see a true count of 4+ very often or for very long.
@@leafsoup Do you count cards? I'm just learning how to but I would love to connect with fellow card counters. Right now I'm learning basic strategy and I started to count cards as well.
Hey colin, random question about running teams. Is it ever smart to run 2 people at the same table? That way if one person loses the count they can help eachother out or do you just run seperate tables? Or is it something like 21 where you have different roles?
there wouldn't be much of a point. the main reason for team play is that nobody is changing bets. you have min betters constantly at the table keeping a running count while you havr the big better going around different tables when they get a signal. 2 counters at 1 table would work buy it wouldn't have any advantages.
@@gaffagan ahh thanks
So what you’re card counting but the casino takes the first card off the shoe and doesn’t show it and places it on the card slot where all the cards that have been played every round go. Would card counting still work even though you have no idea what the first card the dealer put away?
It would still work - absolutely. The vast majority of the time there is going to be a "burn" card. And the vast majority of time the player won't see it. If you do - great, but don't worry about it - it's pretty negligible. Just consider it as one of the unseen cards behind the cut card in the shoe.
If fact, I'll step into a game with up to a half deck or more in the discard tray if I know the penetration of the shoe was excellent. You just have to add the unseen cards to your tally of decks left to play. But this is generally not worth doing if you've missed more than the first several rounds. Ideally you want to start from the beginning!
could his shirt that says, "Sometimes the lambs slaughter the butcher" be referring to card counting and getting an advantage over casinos?
I'm curious, as an AP, should you start with the same bankroll every time?
This was a fun one. Question, what if you are at an Indian casino, does that change what the enforcers can do?
In California?
I am confused. granted I haven't be trying to learn card counting for very long, but in my brief experience, the more decks you have in play, the more extreme the running count can sway in one direction or another. You might be able to go through a single deck and never get more than a +2 which can come and go in a single hand. I'm confused because wouldn't that mean that more decks potentially give a player more opportunity to improve their edge? I'm sure the math is more complicated than that, but i feel like a single deck would be really hard to play because the minute you have an advantage, it evaporates or the deck runs out.
Hey bash 21 all you want. But it's the movie that got me to see the appeal in Counting
Any chance of doing a video how "counters/pro BJ players" can maintain an advantage over continuous shuffle machines. Most casinos I visit outside of USA now use these. Some return the cards after one round of hands, some after half a deck is in the discard tray. Isn't counting finished with the introduction of these machines?
You can’t beat csm games
How can I learn cart counting? I would like to take class from you guys? Do you guys have online class? Please let me know.
Hi I have a question
Can I count card at casinos in Europe or some gangster will beat me up?
Question for everyone here. If I split tens due to a good true count and get dealt an ace would it be a good idea, if allowed by casino rules, to double down on it?
No. Don't do it. Rationale would be to not exchange a guaranteed no-loss hand for a probable no-loss hand. There is likely an index number on it but my guess is that it would be astronomically and/or unrealistically high. Making that move to increase EV would be an extremely rare occurrence. Even against that 5 or 6 which is really about the only upcard you'd theoretically do it against.
double down a 21?
Collin, I have never seen you talk about playing 3 spots With the rules of a Deck of cards going positive. Wouldn't this increase your total take by 3 times.At least 2 spots without calling The boss. Can you explain this situation Please?
What should you do if you have 16 with the dealer showing 10 but the deck is very hot (high running/true count). Should I stand because the chance that I will draw a 10 is more likely? I'm sure the answer is no but how does the math work out? Thanks!
You are correct in your assumption to stand. 16 vs 10 is one of the most common and important index or deviation plays where you deviate from basic stategy which is based on neutral deck probabilities. There are quite a number of index plays. Research them.
How does the math work out? 16 vs. 10 is about the worst situation in blackjack for the player. So sometimes you have to ask yourself with the attitude - "what is the play that would give me the least chance of me losing? Hitting that hand with a high count would be terrible. Standing would only be a slightly less terrible( regarding mathematical expectation). Surrendering, while still terrible, would be the desirable play if rules allow.
Movie - " your cheating"
Collin- "the c word"!
Most military movies have actual military consultants. Most sports movies have athletes from the sport advise them. Gambling is never that way. If they made a war movie with the same attention as card counting gets, they would all display Daisy on their rifles, yet fire flames.
They counted cards on an episode of Monk
The funniest part is where the counters killed a room full of mafia guys.
I don’t know if you guys will see this but I was with a friend playing blackjack and he was talking about a 2-1-2 betting strategy… does it work?
No
U did this years ago but with bad quality nice
What you think about Free Bet Blackjack
I think that the people that play it are the dumbest, most entitled fleas in the casino.
The game itself has a house edge of 1.04%, so only slightly better than 6:5 SD. Even with counting cards and perfect play, I'm not sure it's even beatable
First! As a practicing card counter this is 😥.
I just noticed the dealer in Rain Man is the same dopey looking actor who was dealing to Joe Pesci in Casino, "Look at this F'n beaut they sent me now." You know the scene.
Actually, splitting 5s would be the correct move if you KNOW the next card is gonna be a 5 or a 6. Maybe some complicated shuffle-tracking went on, or a dealer error gave him more information ;)
The only time splitting 5's would be correct for a card counter, is if they used a hidden, secret computer, which is highly illegal. I have read stories online about blackjack computers telling players to make really crazy plays, because computers recognize situations in real time, that card counters would never notice without fanning the discards after getting the weird command.
@@ianandersen265 like what crazy plays? I’d love to know
I just recently had one of my best shoe , it was an 8 card shoe and the running count got up to 25+ HOWEVER🤦🏽♂️ In the excitement of such a high shoe I kept dividing it by 8 and not how many decks are left🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️ I should have been betting more because the true count would have been way higher dividing by 4 decks left or the 3 decks left over the 8 🤦🏽♂️ I still Made money that night but I was just thinking about how much more I could have generated had I been getting the true count right the rest of the night🤦🏽♂️😂
Is it possible to generate EV with enough deviations if you get hit with a flat bet?
Hell no. The whole point of counting is to raise your bet when you have an advantage
Hear me out if it’s a super negative count MAYBE splitting 5s is not suicidal…. Maybe
12:25 🤣🤣🤣
9:54 Do card counters pay millions for product placement in Hollywood movies? Because, I'm pretty sure MGM and/Caesars do.
Nice Pog face there Colin
LMFAOOOO the counts still high get in there!!!
8:05 I think the splitting tens was valid. It looks like the table's rules are split up to 2 hands maximum. She was playing two original hands and split each of them once, but wasn't allowed to split any further than that. Not a common rule in the real world, but I'd say this is pretty reasonable for a TV show since many people don't know about resplitting anyway.
Erm… firstly she split tens against dealer’s 8 which you wouldn’t do and secondly you missed the fact she chose to resplit one set of tens, without re splitting the set immediately before.
That is also BS.
@@themomentalist Agreed she shouldn’t be splitting against an 8 unless this is some crazy high count and a deviation I don’t know about. But, she split each of her original hands just once, which is reasonable.
@@FishDawg you’re missing the resplit after not splitting. It makes no sense
It’s a show set in the future, who knows what rules apply.
@@themomentalist Look again. She is playing two spots and she splits each original hand just once. There are no resplits here.
Is this a viable career option for the 2020s, for someone who lives in proximity of four casinos? The Tunica, MS casinos and West Memphis one. There are some small ones, but they may not have blackjack. I am willing to put in the work if there is a future in it.
IMO, it wouldn't be a viable "career option" with just 4 casinos to work with. You'd have to travel cost effectively and have more access to more casinos. A hobby or side hustle - yes. A career - no.
I also think the future lucratively in this trade is dicey at best. But the 2 clowns on this video would probably disagree with me - especially Colin for business purposes for his UA-cam channel and the BJA gig of his.
No, it isn't viable. I tried and it failed miserably.
@@christophercarlone9945 dunno how to tag both people but I agree. I listened to every video on the channel, while at work ,and it’s very rare for him to mention that you need to travel across the country to make it work. He only says it maybe four times. I think it is viable as a side hustle though, and it does seem like they know how to teach it and have the resources to increase your chances ( list of casinos where it’s possible, list of deviations etc ).
Overall he seems like a good teacher to learn from and has resources i haven’t seen other places, but he is a bit quiet about how hard it is to make it work in today’s casinos
@@ineedtostopwatchingyoutube5211 I wrote you a lengthy response, UA-cam deleted it. If I can find the time later I'll get back to you with what I said again. Lol
@@ineedtostopwatchingyoutube5211 No question he knows his stuff. But keep in mind that teaching is his business now. And the more skillful players there are out there, the tougher it will get to exploit the game or find games that are exploitable. There may come a time when the shoe game simply goes away. I could be wrong about this - it's just my opinion.
But it's a fun challenge. And it is a grind too - not really a glamorous life.
Most important thing is that you have to have enough bankroll to withstand downturns - at least 1000 betting units or 100 times your max bet level. Losing streaks can be more severe and prolonged than you think.
I'm just a hobbyist and fortunately, I've kept my bankroll intact, but don't have enough to commit to high stakes. For instance, to play the playable games on the Las Vegas Strip, you'd need at least 50k. So, if you visit that city, best to play off strip on the 10 and 15 dollar tables if you only have 10 grand ore something like that. I don't live near too many casinos either and spend part of the year where there are none.
Good luck if you try this ( yes luck, or "positive variance" factors in too}. Don't forget the importance of bankroll management. If you can somehow keep money off the table in negative counts, that'll help over time. You know - wong in , wong out. or skip a round or two when the count goes south.
owning mahowny
This is fine you just started
I thought the MIT Blackjack Team documentary on History Channel was so much better than the movie 21.
If they get hands on and call me a "cheater" is that good grounds to lawyer up??
Should you double down on a 9 against a 2? I am getting conflicting information.
You should when your true count is +1 or above.
@Nemanja Stojadinović thx 🙏
Should've done the film 'swingers.' the realest bj experience on film to date. Except for when Homer Simpson was dealing to James Bond.
Even if one could memorize the cards that came out, you still wouldn't know the next card.
True but you would know what’s been played already, similar to normal counting
@@allieboy181 That's what it is.
Well, in single deck, if you had a plus 8 and only 8 cards left...you would know that all the cards were face cards, if you also had a side count of aces.
11:22 Is David often loud? Quite the opposite as displayed on these videos.
Well i don t get why casino's just aren't using 15 decks in a shoe and reshuffle when 150ish cards are dealt. Can someone explain that to me?
It takes time to reshuffle and start a new shoe, regardless of how many cards have been dealt. Casino loses a lot of money if they take the time to reshuffle/start a new shoe too often. So they have to balance things out. Several casinos have 8 deck games and deal only 6 decks before ending a shoe. So several casinos now have brought out CSM(continuous shuffle machines), where the cards are continuously shuffled in this machine(old cards are placed in it),so there is no advantage to card counting this way. Many blackjack(non-counters also) players don't like them, so this is one reason why they aren't used on every table.
I will never split 10s. The dealer would only have one chance to beat me; 21.
you should make a video on mickey, he says he has this baccarat strategy and he also said he won millions off blackjack but he wasnt counting cards? I would say he was lying but hes shown his tax statments and they match to what hes been saying
If they have a consultant, it's probably a casino manager or something and they want to put out bad info......first to try to scare anyone away from learning to count cards or at least make you think it's something that it isn't so you will be bad at it.
Splitting 10's against at 8?! What's the count TC+15? Just put that deviation into a hand simulator. Man I wish +15 was a common count. Lol
Uhoh Colin slipped Louden often’s real name in this video 😂
So, i have a question
Card counting is used to find out if there are more high or low cards remaining in the shoe.
You want the count to be high so there are more high cards and that is good for you (the player).
But, isnt it also good for the dealer to get high cards?
No. Because the dealer must hit to 17 and if there is a high ratio of 10's left in the deck, they're more likely to bust on a stiff hand. The player has the option to stand on whatever total he wants such as 12-16.
It is true the dealer has the same probability of getting a blackjack. But when the player gets a blackjack they get paid 3:2,
When the ratio of 10's are high, the player has the added benefit of the lucrativity of double down and split opportunities.
So there is at least 3 reasons that 10's are advantageous to the player.
How did you practice? I’d like to know please
Probably the more stupid fantasy scenes in the movies, the better it is for the longevity of this trade.
Lol the movie with the most scenes about blackjack recieved the least screentime
The real positive EV for counting cards in a movie is getting slapped so your $10,000 win turned into a $3m settlement
Ok I know this is going to make people cringe, and I’m genuinely embarrassed to ask… but if the dealer shows a 6 and you had a pair of 5’s would there be any situation where you’d split ( and double down? ) … I mean you’ve got a 70% chance of dealer bust without a count … wouldn’t a great count put this up into like 90% territory?
Stop blowing David's alias. He wants to be called Loudon Often. 😁
Have you ever seen The Last Casino?
It's a Canadian movie about Card Counting and it's probably the most accurate Card Counting movie I've seen. The only negatives I remember are
A) They portray it is winning A LOT of money very quickly.
B) The person that was bankrolling them stopped after they had a big losing session.
I'd say it's the best Card Counting movie out there though.
Stay tuned for Part 2 😉
It is just entertainment to keep the audience amused...nothing serious
They do the same, exact things in poker movies. No one does it properly…
I’m actually a beginner screenwriter. I’m glad I saw this video. I intend to make an awesome futuristic sci fi casino movie and I want to master your corse before I write that movie. I want the casino to be realistic and not bs 🤣🤣
Hey random question, how do you set up a team for this?
Find peeps that know how to count and wanna work as a team lol
@@allieboy181 alright so where do I look for them? How do I bring it up in the conversation? How do we decide roles?
@@bruce4139 honestly I really don’t know, you just need find people on forums and stuff. Or if you get lucky and find people in real life
I support card counters using lethal self defense. Go learn your Kung Fu, boys!
NEVER split tens. That's basic strategy