Tonight at 9 pm EDT on the History Channel on Breaking Vegas, the feature is Blackjack Man, which is about Ken Uston.
It will end for east coast Green Chippers just in time to join the Greenchip Chat.
I just learned that after five years of counting, I don't know what I am doing. I can count down a deck of cards in under 15 seconds easily. But I can't tell you that the last card remaining is a 7, nor can I tell you its suit.
That was the only thing that made me puke. Rest of the show was not that bad, although I notice they played down the law suits, backrooming, etc.
But about that seven of clubs? Are they really trying that hard to make card counting seem like something that is beyond most everyone? That it provides almost super-normal abilities (Rain Man type ability) or something??
Exact card, including suite. Especially after hemming and hawing for about 15 seconds.
Francesco "could live" with Uston's count of +8 when the actual count was +5.
"You can't think about anything but the count."
I counted some 5 serious flaws in the story, but at least they got the main point across. Counting is smart - not illegal.
If a shapely female stood up from a bubble bath tub, I'd probably forget the count. And everything else... :)
count you could almost tell the one remaining card at the end of the deck (not it's suit though).
bp
The UAPC counts three, fours, sixes, and sevens as +2. So, unless he was keeping four separate side counts (obviously not the case), there was no way to distinguish among those four card ranks.
And, of course, we won't even discuss the suit! :-)
Don
All of these are EDT on The History Channel:
Sunday, May 15th @ 11 pm.
Monday, May 16th @ 3 am.
Saturday May 21st @ 5 pm.
...Called the modulo 10. This follows baccarat-type scoring where all cards count face value and you subtract 10 from any number greater than 9, eg 6+7=3, 5+9=4. It is relatively simple to use accurately if you are dealing through a pack one at a time, allowing you to accurately predict the last card. I used it for a TV promo on card counting once.
It would be relatively simple to develop a similar system to incorporate suits, though ultimately, what you have is a relatively unimpressive magic trick. We are not magicians, what we do is real but unspectacular showmanship.
which counted 3-7 as +1 and 2,8,9 as 0, while tens and ace were +1. If using that count he could have said 3,4,5,6, or 7, but 7 clubs???
Arnold Snyder has a funny story about such a count. Never gave it any thought as to whether it was fact or fiction, but he had a story on his web site about it... The punch line was that while he could tell the _exact_ remaining cards, it couldn't be used in a real game.. :) Turned out to be too much information to quickly reduce to a single playing decision number...
