Bringing Down the House

Doublezero8

This is a book just plubished by Ben Mezrich. It follows the true story of the infamous Boston card counting team .

If you have any interest in card counting or the world of gambling in general you will love this book. I read this book through it one sitting and just couldn't put it down !!

Review wrote:

In 1993 when Lewis was 20 years old and feeling aimless, he was invited to join the MIT Blackjack Team, organized by a former math instructor, who said, "Blackjack is beatable." Expanding on the "hi-lo" card-counting techniques popularized by Edward Thorp in his 1962 book, Beat the Dealer, the MIT group's more advanced team strategies were legal, yet frowned upon by casinos. Backed by anonymous investors, team members checked into Vegas hotels under assumed names and, pretending not to know each other, communicated in the casinos with gestures and card-count code words. Taking advantage of the statistical nature of blackjack, the team raked in millions before casinos caught on

While the book does give the basic's to card counting(Hi/Lo) method . It also mention's more advanced techniques such as card infiltration , NRS , card tracking etc... it doesn't go into how these work.

Anyone have some good links or info on the above ? Oh and by the way how many deck do the Irish casion's use ?

Oh and has anyone else read the book what do they think ?

008

Krusty_Clown

It was a very enjoyable read.. Been out for quite some time though..

Here's some more posts on the subject..

Doublezero8

Thanks for the link. Didn't realise the book had been out so long. From doing some research on google a film was to be made of the book . It has all the ingredients of a great film . Did anything come of this ?

Krusty_Clown

Well there was a Steve Martin / Queen Lattifah movie by that name in 2003, but it had nothing to do with BlackJack..

Plot Outline: When a lonely guy (Martin) meets a woman (Latifah) on the Internet who happens to be in prison, she breaks out to be with him, and proceeds to wreak havok on his middle-class life.


You might find some interestinf forums here.

DapperGent

Krusty_Clown wrote:

Plot Outline: When a lonely guy (Martin) meets a woman (Latifah) on the Internet who happens to be in prison, she breaks out to be with him, and proceeds to wreak havok on his middle-class life.

It sounds fantastic!

ionapaul

I bought that book many months ago (love blackjack, love Vegas, so I had to have it!) - very interesting stuff. Though for me part of the fun of blackjack would be lost playing as they did - I know when I sit down I will probably lose a little, but playing basic strategy and enjoying myself normally ensure that X amount of hours spent playing blackjack at a €10 table in Nevada is less expensive than an equivelant X amount of hours on the beer in Ireland...and much MUCH more fun if you are playing with friends.

edited to add: should mention I often use some basic card counting while playing higher stakes tables. Can't say it made a massive amount of difference, the days I have won the most have been down to lucky streaks and pressing my luck when it is in...

Doublezero8

ionapaul wrote:

Though for me part of the fun of blackjack would be lost playing as they did ...

Yeah that is true but if you were making the money they did playing this way i don't think you would mind too much

ionapaul wrote:

I often use some basic card counting while playing higher stakes tables. Can't say it made a massive amount of difference, the days I have won the most have been down to lucky streaks and pressing my luck when it is in...

I have tried the method they use with a Blackjack simulation game which does the card counting for you. It made a huge difference too how
much i was winning.

Dam why didn't i study harder at maths !!

008

Krusty_Clown

Off-topic, but, I've been reading various roulette strategies recently..
They make for interesting (if rather simplistic) reading..

There's a pretty good roulette simulator here that allows you to try various (pre-configured) strategies, such as Double-up (Martingale), and reverse labourchere..

Now, if I can just find a simulator that allows me to try my triple-up (Krusty_Clown) strategy.

Here's some more interesting reading (although I haven't gone as far as buying the e-book)..

Hectorjelly

This is the only roulette strategy that works; YOU CANNOT LOSE WITH IT

http://www.poker1.com/newsmanager/templates/mculib_articles.asp?articleid=164&zoneid=6

Krusty_Clown

Here's another roulette strategy that seems to work: Using lazers, measure the speed of the ball and the starting position of the wheel to determine the approximate finishing postion of the ball...

All in a short enough period of time to be able to place your bet befoer the croupier halts all bets..

Story here.

Don't ya love it when when technology is used to solve a problem?

Samson

Doublezero8 wrote:

Oh and by the way how many deck do the Irish casion's use ?

4 deck shoe in The Fitz and The Merrion if I recall correctly.

DeVore

afaics there is only one roulette system that works on a theoretical roulette wheel. Doubling your bet when you lose on red or black. You bet a euro to start on red or black and if you win, you pocket a euro. If you lose you double your bet to 2 euro and if you win, you will win 4... since you have spent 3 euro already, you have profited one euro. Pocket it.
Suppose you dont win for 3 spins... you lose 1,2,4 euro but on your 4th spin you win you win 16 euro ... leaving you a euro profit (16-1-2-4-8=1) pocket it.

Every time you win you will be one euro up. Or one hundred euro up if you play with 100 euro chips.

So why arent I the richest man in the world now? Cos the casinos are wise to this. You'll never find a wheel that doesnt have an UPPER limit as well as a lower limit to the bet. So if you use this system and you have a run of say 8 losses (pretty unlikely on a coin flip but not THAT unlikely) then you are going to lose big and wipe out all the 1-euro wins you've had.

DeV.

Krusty_Clown

Every time you lose, triple your bet... Then you're guaranteed a minimum of a 33% profit.. (until you hit the upper-limit or the limit of your bank-roll).

I prefer the fricking lazer-beams...

DeVore

The problem with tripling your bet is that you hit the upper limit far faster.
Say you have a table with a limit or 200 notes (as I think the fitz tables are). You will blow the limit on a run of 8 consequtive losses (1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,cant bet 256). If you are trippling your bet you will blow it in 5 consequtive losses. (1,3,9,27,81,cant bet 243).

Whenever you hit the limit you lose BIGTIME. The odds of a 8-long run of losses is 1:256 the odds of a 5 long run of losses is only 1:32 ... the reward is higher but the risk is higher too!

On a well run roulette wheel, there is nothing you can do to beat the house apart from the "frickin' lasers!". There may well be dealer-based biases in the results, in fact I'd be astounded if there WASNT but making money from them would require a lot of time, patience and money!

DeV.

Evil_Bilbo

Yes - the bringing down the house thing has been made into a film - well, a documentary of sorts (think it was on telly a few weeks ago).

The book is okay - its an amazing story, but its written like a fecking leaving cert student would write it.

RuggieBear

Evil_Bilbo wrote:

Yes - the bringing down the house thing has been made into a film - well, a documentary of sorts (think it was on telly a few weeks ago).

The book is okay - its an amazing story, but its written like a fecking leaving cert student would write it.

well normally this would be a rep comment... but good call on the appalling style the book is written in....really enjoyed the story but by golly was it a chore to read...