Posted on 10/05/2016 7:43:54 AM PDT by oblomov
My country club locker room is a fascinating 19th hole observatory where human nature and intelligence often come into conflict. Almost all of my golfing buddies are risk takers by nature and many of them are gamblers — not just in the card room but also in the casinos in Las Vegas. Having spent some time in Sin City myself in my early 20s as one of the first blackjack counters, I was, and still am, most familiar with odds and the impossibility of beating the “House” in any game other than blackjack over a long period of time.
Still, this commonsensical conclusion is not so obvious to many of my friends, who first of all, claim that they usually “break even” on any particular weekend jaunt, and secondly, suggest that they can win by using various betting “systems” that somehow allow them to claw back losses or stabilize winnings.
An absurd example of this would be to triple your bet if you’ve lost three times in a row, and if you lose that, to quadruple your bet and so on. All of these illusions are derivatives of the so-called Martingale System, which claims that it is mathematically impossible to lose, given enough money and the willingness of the casino to take the increasing bet. The latter conditions, however, are where reality meets the road. A string of four, five or perhaps 30 straight losses cannot work in the long run because the size of the bets eventually reach billions of dollars.
(Excerpt) Read more at barrons.com ...
Having spent some time in Sin City myself in my early 20s as one of the first blackjack counters, I was, and still am, most familiar with odds and the impossibility of beating the “House” in any game other than blackjack over a long period of time.If Mr.
And that’s the thing about blackjack counting. Getting out before you’re caught so you can do it over and over again.
But he just publicly stated he’s a card counter. He doesn’t have to get caught, he outed himself and that’s good enough for casinos.
I’ve owned gold for about four years. Haven’t seen the price needle move all that much. Some growth this year after a three-year gradual slide but, to me, it’s not news if it doesn’t return to $1500/oz
I started buying PMs in 1996. I have seen a big gain on those purchases, but my average cost keeps creeping higher as I make additional purchases.
“And that’s the thing about blackjack counting. Getting out before you’re caught so you can do it over and over again.”
I almost never go to casinos, so I may be missing something, but couldn’t casinos make card counting a non-issue just by using larger shoes that hold more decks, and/or refilling the shoes more often? If they don’t take such an obvious (to me) measure, aren’t they, in effect, inviting people to try to keep track of what cards have been played? It might make sense to leave card counting as a live possibility to egg people on to try it (because most wouldn’t do it well), but why then throw them out?
Casinos are absolutely paranoid about anyone who manages to legitimately figure out a way to beat the system or even get better odds than the next guy. I’m talking “Alex Jones gone off his medication for a month” paranoid. My friend’s fiance got permanently banned for card counting and she’s a 140-pound little gal in a *wheelchair*. THAT is how paranoid they are about this.
As to trying to make it a non-issue with larger shoes and such, the other thing casinos are known for besides being paranoid is not changing favorite games.
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