You have read all the books on card counting you could get your hands on and have studied and practice for endless hours. You have truly become a professional card counter and still cannot make any money playing blackjack. Counting cards isn’t hard. That’s not the problem. The problem is “End play” thinking.  
All the card-counting systems available today rely on “Endplay” thinking, but “Endplay” thinking has a flaw. Whether this flaw has been overlooked or deliberately hidden I don’t know, but, I do know it is there and there is something that you can do about it. 
When I say flaw, I actually mean two flaws. The first flaw is “Endplay” thinking itself and the second flaw is that people misunderstand just what card counting can do for them and wind up using it wrong.
Let me explain myself, anyone that plays a professional game of blackjack knows the biggest obstacle to winning at the game of blackjack is the hand that needs another card. In other words, if in your first two cards you don’t get seventeen, or more, you have to take a hit and could break your hand. This is the number one reason why you count cards; to know when the deck is loaded and you have a better than average chance of getting seventeen or more in your first two cards and won’t have to take a hit. When the deck is loaded you will win the majority of hands you play, so, you bet more and in the long run you will win more than you lose. This is the reason that “Endplay” worked in the first place and still works today.
The logic of “Endplay” thinking is, if there are so many good cards in the deck and so many bad cards, if you take out some of the bad cards that makes your chances of getting a good card better. This does sound logical, but, is in fact “Intuitive Thinking” and not based on facts. The facts are, that although “Endplay” thinking tells you, with the running count, that in the deck there are more good cards than the average, it can only help you to determine when you will win the majority of hands that you play and nothing else.
Let’s say for example there are 40 cards left in the deck and 30 of them are good. Your odds on getting a good card are 75 percent in your favor, but how do you know that the next ten cards aren’t going to be all the bad ones bunch together. The truth of the matter is many times these bad cards do bunch together and “Endplay” thinking does absolutely nothing to help you predict when this is going to happen.   This is why even with the most elaborate of card counting systems or strategy charts we still have “Negative Fluctuating.”
The second flaw is that 90 percent of the people that count cards believe that you can use card counting to predict the next card. They try to use card counting to determine if the next card is going to help their hand. or hurt it. This creates one of the biggest reasons why most people can’t win, even after they’ve learned count cards.
Absolutely none of the present day card counting systems can tell you whether to take a hit or not. The fact is not one card counting system available today helps you with what you really need to know and helps you to solve your biggest problem, hands that need a “hit,” until now. Now, there’s a much better way of counting cards and looking at how they come out of the deck. The “Flow Method” deals with these problems.
Instead of using the running count to determine the number of good cards compared to the number of bad cards left in the deck, it watches how the cards flow out of the deck and finds patterns. I know, I know, I hear you saying
“That’s impossible. The cards come out random and in no particular order,” but, they do come on in patterns and I can show you how to see them. 
  The flow method uses the running count to determine the number of good cards compared to bad cards in the next twenty cards rather than the deck. By knowing if the next twenty or ten or five cards will be a majority of good cards, we have a much better chance of determining what the next card will be and this is the basis of the flow system. It looks at the cards as they’re coming out and watches for patterns and these patterns will determine whether the majority of the next five or ten or twenty cards will be good cards or bad cards. The flow method gives you a much better idea what the odds are that the next card will be good or bad.
  If you would like to learn more about this exciting new method of counting cards, come by and see me at countingblackJackcards .com. I’ll show you a trick that will improve your game against the online casino’s and automatic shuffling machines as a gift. My name is Jim Alan and I’m the King of card counting (contractions too, obviously) and author of “Guaranteed Card Counting Secrets.”
Copyright Jim Alan 2009, you may reprint this article in whole or in part as long as credit is given to this author and the link is not removed.

Just wanted to include this one short post on a very simple means to counting cards. The purpose of counting cards is to use probability to guess whether the next hand dealt will be full of low cards or high cards. High cards are more advantageous for the player as he/she is more likely to get 20 or 21 but also because the dealer is more likely to bust.

To count cards all you do is count by ones. Cards 2-6 are low cards and count as ‘+1′ while cards 10-A are ‘-1′.  Cards 7,8,9 are neutral cards and given the value ‘0′. Any single deck, when counted through will always add up to zero.

When the house deals a play and you are counting it is better to bet high when the count is high (meaning that it becomes more likely for cards 10-A to come back into the rotation).  It is better to bet low or sit out when the count is low as it becomes more likely for lower cards to come back into the rotation. Remember, high cards are advantageous for the player while low cards are advantageous for the house.

When playing with more than one deck (the typical amount of decks is six) all you do is divide your count by the number of decks to get a “true” count. Use this in combination with the basic blackjack strategy and this will push your advantage over that of the dealer.

or...Geeks Play Cards and Get Beaten Up.

21 is a movie about THE 6 MIT students who took Las Vegas by storm. They count cards, which is not illegal but apparently could get you beaten up, or shot, or at least denied entrance to most casinos in Vegas (casinos are private property so they have the right to admit or deny anyone and most casinos in Vegas are operated under one management).

This is the movie that will make you wish you’re in college and have the brains to do what they do. This movie features Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Lawrence Fishburne, Kate Bosworth and Aaron Yoo (that guy that plays Shia La Beouf’s friend in Disturbia). Im not crazy about the cast or the plot. This is based on a book, Bringing Down the House, which is based on a true story. Apparently, these guys go to Vegas every weekend, count cards at Blackjack, wear disguises, take home wads of cash and then be back in time for class in monday morning.

 I must admit I attempted to learn to card-count in Youtube. Aparently, I failed to even count past Ace.

Overall, this is another feel-good movie.

Dopeness factor: 2.5 out of 5.0

View the trailer Below:

Bridge… the sport of old ladies! And apparently some college students.

One night my sophomore of year of college my friend Dwigget taught us how to play bridge. We were suspect at first, but honestly up for anything so we played… and played… and played. Soon there were nightly bridge games lasting hours and hours and about 8 of were in the rotation.

It really is a wonderful game. One of those games that’s about strict perfection of memory, planning, and intuition. It’s about being on the same wavelength with your partner and having a lot of patience. It’s about having a place to drink gin. It’s rather different from poker even though memory is just as important, while poker is kind of the center for showboating, bridge is completely about subtle execution. Most of the time all four people know exactly how the game is going to play out and it’s about picking the exact ways to take advantage of what might be a single opportunity to bring your opponent down.

It really is one of my favorite card games. Unfortunately, I’ve never, ever, ever met anyone else under the age of 40 who knows how to play. Y’all don’t know what you’re missing.

I <3 Bridge.

One of the most popular casino games is the card game Blackjack, which is also known around the world as Twenty-one and Pontoon since first being invented in France around the early 1700s.

They say that playing cards is a game of chance, luck of the draw. This may be true to some extent but blackjack is a game where you can take away the casinos edge and make it almost a level playing field, in some cases you can even make the odds in your favor.

How to beat the casino playing blackjack revolves around maths. An MIT blackjack team made a fortune counting cards during the 1990s before they were barred.

Obviously, we aren’t all that good, but we can still give ourselves a fighting chance at beating the casino if the cards fall right by playing what is called Basic Strategy.

Did you know that by incorporating Basic Strategy in your Blackjack play would take away the casinos edge to less than 1%

Basic Strategy is all about making the optimal play for any blackjack situation. The “right play” over the course of millions of hands will come out ahead of the “hunch”, “gut feeling” play.

For example; you’re sitting at the blackjack table on 12 against the dealers 3.

You have just watched all those small cards come out and you just know there is one more small one to come, giving the dealer a 7-8 or 9 total before that 10 gives him a score to beat you sitting on 12.

The right play is to wave your hand and sit on your 12. Despite your gut feel or hunch.

The odds are in your favour to sit on 12 against the dealers 3. It may only be marginal but they are in your favour. Over the long haul you will win more hands than you lose by sitting on 12 against the dealers 3.

It’s no different than if you did something silly like split 10s against a dealers 6.

Sure, you may double up on your winnings this time, but over the long haul, splitting your winning hand into two losing hands will cost you more than your going to win.

Learn How to Count Cards with Card Counting Secrets

Is is just me or have the local Bay Area radio stations been getting some interesting guests this week.

• Jeff Ma – Original member of the MIT Blackjack Team
  Monday, March 23rd | Alice 97.3 | Sarah and Noname in the Morning

Not sure how they got him as a guess, but my guess is that Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures’ PR teams have signed him on to promote their new movie 21, which opens this Friday (3/29). Based on the The New York Times bestseller, “Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions” by Ben Mezrich, it’s the story about MIT Blackjack Team, six MIT students that would go to Vegas every weekend to make bank playing Blackjack by counting cards during the early 90s.

The title character, Kevin Lewis was based on Jack Ma. Apparently Jack had originally attempted to pen his story but gave up quickly after writing one sentence. He then asked his friend Ben Mezrich to write the story and the rest is history.

One interesting tidbit that I remember from the show was about a site called DoublePlayTV.com where Jeff Ma has published instructional videos that teach you how to count cards. If you’re heading to Vegas soon, it’s recommended that you check it out.

If you want to hear the whole interview, here’s a link to the podcast.

Sub-note: I had first learned about the MIT Blackjack Team from a documentary about the world’s greatest heists and thieves that was included as a special feature in the Ocean’s 13 DVD/BluRay. It’s a pretty interesting feature and some of the other heists (including a woman who would steal jewelery but simply walking out of the store with it on her finger).

• Jennifer 8. Lee - Author of “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles”
  Wednesday, March 26rd | KQED Radio (NPR) 88.5| Forum

If you are a foodie with a special interest in China and Chinese/Chinese American culture, then you might want to read a new book by New York Times reporter, Jennifer 8. Lee (Yes, her last name is actually the number 8). Named “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles” the book (I hear….as I have not yet read) is a anthropological study about Chinese food in America.

As part of a fairly typical but very successful publicity/PR book tour in nine U.S. cities. While I am not too familiar with book/publishing public relations, her publicist, Cary Goldstein has been scoring some amazing media placements—NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Reader’s Digest, Everyday with Rachael Ray, Newsweek, AOL’s Home Page, Maxim, Glamour, etc.— with the book only out in less than a month and not yet in wide distribution.

Though my only thought is that it would be nice if she clip those placements and posted on her site, instead of listing them. It would be interesting to read different reviews, especially considering how diverse her placement has been and it would have saved me the trouble of trying to find all of those articles myself (click on the media outlets listed in the paragraph above to see their views on this book).

I had noted her appearance in the San Francisco Bay Area a couple of weeks ago but forgot to save the date and missed her talk at a local book store. On wells. But fortunately, I did tune-in to NPR/KQED Radio at the right time tonight and caught her interview on Forum.

Jennifer share some interesting facts and tidbits about specific dishes, but she raised a few interesting points that had never occurred to me:

• Chinese food in American is actually highly regionalized. For example, there’s a dish called velvet chicken that is very popular in the Chicago/Mid-west region but is largely unheard of in the New York region and California. Likewise, another Chinese American dish called cashew chicken was originally developed in Springfield, MO first and later grew in popularity around the country.
• Chinese Cuisines at the Tipping Point: Several listeners called in during the show to share their experience with Muslim Chinese food or Western Chinese food (i.e. not westernized Chinese food, but rather cuisine from West China) from the Kunming region. Many of them lamented that they were unable to find restaurants that served those styles in the U.S. and asked if she knew were they might be able to find it. Jennifer pointed out that these styles have yet to really become introduced in the U.S. in a very mainstream way, much like Sichuan and Hunan cuisine, though she did note a couple Muslim Chinese food in the Bay Area.
• Traditional Chinese American Cantonese Cuisine is best found in Mexico. This seemed a bit over the top, but Jennifer had an interesting explanation. The Chinese American cuisine that most Americans were first introduced to was a Cantonese style (not to be confused with traditional Cantonese food from China and Hong Kong). In the 60s and 70s, this style in the U.S. became influenced by the influx and popularity of Sichuan and Hunan food (probably coinciding with new waves of Chinese immigration). Meanwhile, the Chinese restaurants in Mexico remained largely untouched by this influence and in some sense could be considered a more traditional Chinese American Cantonese food.

If you want to hear the whole interview, here’s a link to the podcast.

Sub-Note: I first heard about the book from my cousin’s blog and have been trying to locate the book in a brick and mortar bookstore ever since. I was later told to order it from Amazon, which I will once I get around to it.

     C’s obsessions (in autism-land, these are known as perseverations), range from the entertaining to the somewhat annoying. We know enough now to realize that they generally pass in time as he moves on to something else. His first was an indicator of his hyperlexia (a savant skill related to autism in which the person is obsessed with letters, words, numbers, logos and signs). He didn’t have many words yet, but we could always tell when he came across a Fisher Price toy in his travels of the playroom. That was followed by an obsession with stop signs and street lights that nearly caused me to careen off the road and have a heart attack multiple times. A screech of such pitch and shrillness caused us to revive his earlier nickname of “Pterodactyl Boy” whenever he caught glimpse of a street light in the distance. Soon after came an interest in garage doors so intense he kept up a running commentary while in the car. “Open, closed, open, open, open,” was what we heard from the back seat. No amount of redirection could distract him from the garage doors.

     Some time later, he had more words but not enough to explain himself when he would repeat “Seven oh three Tope” on the way to preschool in the mornings. It was only months later, while trick-or-treating on Halloween, that I understood the sentence. We stopped at house number 703 on a nearby street, and the name “Tope” was mounted on the mailbox. Mr. Tope became our friend from afar. I considered knocking on his door and telling him of my son’s adoration, but I thought perhaps the one-sided affection might seem odd to an elderly gentleman who probably knew nothing of autism.

     An obsession with plumbing pipes caused a great deal of consternation at our house. Not because we didn’t want him to be a plumber if he so desired, but rather because of the places that obsession took him. Long stretches of time spent in the bathroom (at previously mentioned terrible Montessori school) gave C three severe cases of diarrhea in as many months, followed by rotovirus in the fourth month that sent us to the emergency room. “Does diarrhea happen at the beginning of every month?” he asked.

     At one point he learned the television schedule; he didn’t really watch any programs, but he knew when everything was on and what channel. “Charlie Rose is on at one o’clock on channel 8,” he told his teacher, requiring me to reassure her we didn’t plop him in front of the television for hours on end. “Sex and the City” prompted questions not about sex, but rather what city. Couple that with his asking me if we needed any condoms one day (while standing in line next to them at the pharmacy), complete with four women laughing hysterically in front of us, and one might begin to understand the potential dangers of a four year old who can read.

     Currently, he is fascinated with the caller ID on the phone and who is in what place, as if it was a race Ga and Pa or Uncle T and Aunt J might win. “You’re in 15th place,” he gleefully announced to T&J today, “but if you call us back you’ll be in first place!” He is also obsessed with Galaga 88, a video game we don’t even own, but he watches videos of other people playing it on You Tube. We don’t let him watch it nearly as much as he talks about it. My distress over this includes the obvious frightening places that can take a young child, but also the fact that he can combine the words “you” and “tube” into a phrase my parents have never even heard.

     His obsessions come and go and sometimes return, depending on what is going on in his life. Some we miss, and some we anxiously await their passing. I don’t particularly miss the recitation of the morning announcements and what classes had perfect attendance at his school that day, but I wasn’t ready for his uncanny ability to tell one’s age in coinage (I am a quarter, a dime, and three pennies) to disappear. Now if we could only teach him how to count cards so we could take him to Vegas.

Someday…. 

Here’s a another math card trick. And by “math” I mean…well…counting. All the way to twelve. It’s really not that hard a trick.

Start by taking a deck of cards (if a few are missing it’s not a big deal) with the jokers at the bottom. Have a Volunteer From The Audience pick a card, memorize it, and put it back on top of the pile. Then hand the pile of cards to The Volunteer and let them cut the deck a few times. You can turn around or hide your eyes if you want to; it really doesn’t matter, but it looks a little more impressive.

Take the deck back, and tell The Volunteer that you’re going to need to put the jokers at the bottom of the pile. Quickly look at the cards face-up, and cut it where the jokers are so the jokers end up at the bottom of the pile. If possible, when you’re holding the cards face-up and looking for the jokers, start looking from the bottom of the pile and don’t show the card that was on top of the jokers [which ends up at the very top of the pile].

Turn the pile back face down. For this next part, all of the dealing and replacing is done with face-down cards. Ask The Volunteer how many weeks are in a year. (52) From the top of the pile deal a pile of 5 cards and a pile of 2 cards. Put the pile of 2 cards on top of the pile of 5 cards, and place them on top of the rest of the deck.

Ask The Volunteer how many months are in a year. (12) From the top of the deck deal a pile of 12 cards, and then put them back on top of the deck.

Ask The Volunteer how many days are in a week. (7) From the top of the deck deal a pile of 7 cards, and then put them back on top of the deck.

Finally, take the top card and put it somewhere in the deck (you can pretend to think about it and then reject it). Take the joker from the bottom of the deck, tap the top of the deck and say, “Bring up the chosen card!”, “A la peanut butter sandwiches!”, or something equally melodramatic, and then turn over the top card of the deck. It will be The Volunteer’s card!

I found this at Card Trick Central; the original author is unknown.

200th post y’all!!

1. I cut a freaken huge paper cut…………… and it hurt twice as much as the time I cut myself with a bread knife.
2. 98.1 Math (i hate myself)
   98.3 – French (um no comment)
   96.8 – Science (woooot)

   as you can see my marks have dropped an avg of 1-3%. Why oh why?

3. PE class ran all the way to tim horton’s @ fraser highway because today was free “iced latte” day. The run there was brutal due to the horribly hot weather. When I got to tim’s I was drenched with sweat it was so DAMN hot outside. I saw 2 coworkers there and I think they’re dating hahahaaha. They saw me right when I looked/felt like a thousand bucks. The plus side is we got to walk back.
4. I want to learn how to count cards(for black jack, etc.) Must watch movie “21″
5. I don’t understand the montyhall problem. I’ve seen/witnessed it 4 times already but I have yet to understand why changing our answer before the end gives you a 2/3 chance. It should be 1/2!!!!!
6. Conditional probability makes no FREAKEN SENSE….well some of it does. The other half i’m just trying to grasp.
7. yay my book came and I’m going to pick it up tomorrow yayayayay.
8. why can’t I see angela’s blog? I want to know what’s going on in her life!!!!!!

I saw a story online about a six year old with an IQ of 176 which is one in a million as far as IQs go and higher than Einstein’s when Albert was a boy. While the video is impressive and Pranav is certainly talented I am wondering if he would recommend buying bank stocks today.  He would probably show caution and suggest that we wait and see what the plan to remove toxic assets looks like.

I hope Pranav does great things with his talents.  If he gets bored he can always fall back on counting cards like the MIT Blackjack Team in the movie 21.

Time to get to the news this week and no, I’m not talking about the UConn/Pittsburgh men’s basketball game I’m watching right now. Although, the #1 ranked team in the nation playing the #4 ranked team should count as some news. However, there are other issues to discuss.

First off, here’s a solution for banks trying to deal with customers in debt. Just a glance at the headline will probably alarm most people who have credit cards.

The article discusses how those who miss payments on their credit card payments will see the interest rates go up. Some companies have already begun charging people with large amounts racked up on their credit cards a surcharge. Some quotes from a gentleman who has credit card debt so he can provide for his family helps to put these ramifications in perspective.

I understand that banks do have troubles of their own, and they have no quick fixes for their problems either. The American consumer is the same way. I’m sure thousands of people like Louis Martinez (quoted in this article) are using credit cards in ways to just stay alive. Therefore, this will make the nation’s economic woes more widespread due to the banks trying to regain their footing. I’m no economist, but I don’t see how these measures can be good for struggling credit card holders. After all, the number of folks with large credit card debt greatly outnumbers the number of banks.

In the meantime, our new administration is doing what it can to try to right the ship for the nation’s economic woes. It’s so great to see the GOP is doing what it can to spite them.

According to the article, Republicans in the House of Representatives are taking the voting of President Obama’s proposed stimulus package to a personal level. Eric Cantor is the Republican Whip (largely in charge of managing Republicans when the House is in session) who put together a video claiming the GOP is “Back in the Saddle” using the song by the rock band, Aerosmith.

I’m all for unity in almost any forum and the Republicans have a right to free speech. So I have no problem with them making a video for these purposes. However, what they want this video to achieve is something that our nation can’t afford. Until someone comes along with a better idea, the proposed stimulus package is something that our nation needs. If Cantor and any of his fellow GOP members disagree so wholeheartedly, maybe they should put their time and taxpayer’s money towards a new solution rather than making videos for Youtube. The fact that the guy in charge of managing the House floor for the Republicans is making this video is also disconcerting.

Finally, I’ll close on a lighter note. If you’re an amateur gambler trying to figure out new ways to win at casinos, make sure you know that they’ve caught on to at least one technological advantage.

Apple has designed an application compatible with its iPhone and iTouch that can count cards. This would be advantageous to a person familiar with blackjack and how the game works. It’s not illegal, but casinos do frown on the practice.

Personally, I think it would take a miracle for anyone to master this application to the point where casinos should be concerned. We’re not all MIT students taking weekend trips to Vegas solely to win money. However, casinos do have the right to tell people to put electronics away while they’re gambling at a table in their establishment. In my case, even if you gave me uninterrupted practice with this application, I could easily still find a way to lose all my money playing blackjack.

Speaking of losing, one final news story tonight: the number one-ranked UConn Huskies have fallen to the Pittsburgh Panthers this evening. Thank you for reading and I’ll be checking in again next week.