[No, Anthony Curtis is just fine, thank you. I went with the clickbait headline to go with the lede.] “Ken Uston’s lawsuit that forbade Atlantic City from barring skilled players ruined playing conditions there.” I’ve tried before to extinguish this fallacy, and I don’t hear it much anymore (today’s BJA counters don’t even known who Ken Uston was). But near extinction of the argument then incentivizes some online wise guy to sound uber-insightful by blurting it out again. So, yes, someone pissed in my morning coffee, and I will continue my fool’s quest.
Continue reading Colin Jones (S2 E7): KU Killed ACAuthor: James Grosjean
Fact-Check: Munchkin’s Claim that Asian Female ==> +$1 Million
Last time, we discussed the value of being female for an AP. Since female skill will tend to be underestimated by predominantly male casino bosses, females can be ringers at the game. Unfortunately for the female AP, that benefit is tempered by the increased visibility and memorability that they’ll have. But Munchkin’s statement was that being an “Asian female” would be worth an extra $1 million for an AP’s career. So let’s look at Asian-ness in the gambling world.
Continue reading Fact-Check: Munchkin’s Claim that Asian Female ==> +$1 MillionThe Infield Fly Rule and 6:5 Even Money
Sports aficionados take great delight in explaining the esoteric rules of their favorite sport, so much so that those rules are no longer esoteric. Sunday couch potatoes know the difference between “the call stands” and “the call is confirmed.” Olympic hockey fans know why T.J. Oshie became the Russian nemesis. And those who watch regular-season baseball games know about the Infield Fly Rule, probably the most famous “esoteric” rule in sports.
Continue reading The Infield Fly Rule and 6:5 Even MoneyColin Jones (S2 E6): The Woman at the Card Table
Nowhere in The 21st-Century Card Counter did I see the percentage of BJA members that are women, but I’m quite curious. I suspect the figure is quite low, as it is even in some other fields that do not involve a meaningful physical component—such as chess or computer science. I remember scanning the auditorium for the first lecture of CS51 (CS150 in those days), and seeing maybe three women out of 100-200 students.
Continue reading Colin Jones (S2 E6): The Woman at the Card TableSorry, Mattress Mack
For those who missed it, the Jack Casino was recently rebranded as a Hard Rock Casino, and its opening night featured Cincinnati’s own legend, Pete Rose (now a Vegas resident), to make the inaugural table-games bet. That was appropriate, entertaining, ironic, and sad. Like having an alcoholic make the toast at a wedding.
Now 80, Pete Rose is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame, despite having the record of 4256 career hits (shoutout to my boy, Ichiro, who is in that conversation). The reason? Because in 1989, Rose was banned from Major League Baseball for life, making him ineligible. Why was he banned from baseball? Did he drive 150+ mph on a Vegas residential street and kill someone? No!! Did he beat his girlfriend unconscious in a hotel elevator? Nooo!!!! Did he threaten to jam a tennis ball down the line judge’s f***ing throat? Not once. Did he get caught video-taping opponents? Did he get caught deflating balls (and then lie about it)? Did he jack up on steroids to boost his power hitting? Did he steal signals and implement a team-wide system to cheat his way to a World Series? As far as I know, he didn’t do any of those things.
Continue reading Sorry, Mattress MackDiscord Death Match 2021
[This post is for programmers, especially AP programmers. All others read at your own risk. To McDuck and Refusal2, the judges—Chief Justice Cartwright, Associate Justices Marvin and ExhibitCAA—would like to extend a genuine appreciation for your willingness to put yourselves out there. It takes some courage to expose source code to the world! We were entertained, and we learned a lot. As the freshman, I was assigned to write the opinion.]
October 16 was a typical day on the Internet. A geek lamented: “C is a pain. Python is too slow.” Amen, brother, there’s no shame in getting old, but it’s no fun! But if you’re looking for support on Blackjack The Discord, you’ve come to the wrong place! The conversation devolved into a flame war involving primitive types, mockery of the “perceived speed problem,” and technical explanations of dict support.
Continue reading Discord Death Match 2021SE Nojniloc (S2 E5): The Nit at the Card Table
In pop culture, card counters have a reputation for being MIT geniuses or Rain-Man-esque savants. Card counters roll with that, even though the reputation is entirely undeserved. Within the casino industry, they have another reputation. For being stiffs. That reputation is entirely deserved. And card counters roll with it.
Continue reading SE Nojniloc (S2 E5): The Nit at the Card TableColin Jones (S2 E4): Can’t Buy Me Love
The 1987 film Can’t Buy Me Love was one of the greatest gambling movies of all time. Millennial APs probably haven’t seen it, so here’s the IMDB summary: “An outcast secretly pays the most popular girl in school one thousand dollars to pretend to be his girlfriend for a month.” Maybe the allegory is too subtle. Replace “An outcast” with “A card-counter”; replace “girl in school” with “dealer at the casino”; replace “his girlfriend” with “impressed by his bankroll.”
Still don’t see it? Replace “pays” with “tokes.”
Continue reading Colin Jones (S2 E4): Can’t Buy Me LoveColin Jones (S2 E3): Courage
In the half century since Ed Thorp published Beat the Dealer, dozens of card counting systems have been developed and promoted. Any numbers nerd with a simulator and a couch can sit there and spit out card counting systems, complete with all the technical mumbo jumbo about the method of index generation, the true-count conversion, the optimal bet ramps, and don’t forget N0. From there the posers can endlessly debate merits of one system over another, without ever even having to suck a chip out of a casino rack.
When card counters suffer huge losses, they go back to those “experts” for an autopsy. Here it comes: Should I memorize more indices? Is my bet spread okay? What is the optimal wong-out point? Is HiLo good enough? Should I play on a card so I can get a buffet and a George Foreman grill?
Continue reading Colin Jones (S2 E3): CourageColin Jones (S2 E2): A Brain and a Little BR
In his book The 21st-Century Card Counter, Colin Jones talks about bankroll requirements. On page 81, in the chapter “Do I have What It Takes? The DNA of a Card Counter” he says this: “A card counter needs only two tools: a brain and a bankroll.” When I read that sentence, I almost threw an apoplectic fit. I thought, “Here it comes, this guy is going to perpetuate the myth that the main weapon of an AP—maybe even the defining characteristic—is a bankroll.” To my pleasant surprise, he then went on to dismiss that fallacy.
He writes that you need a brain, but he already dispelled the MIT Myth earlier in the chapter (as I did on page -3 of Exhibit CAA). You don’t need a great brain—me and my little brain will do just fine. Same with the bankroll. You don’t need $10k, he says—a little BR of $2k will do.
Continue reading Colin Jones (S2 E2): A Brain and a Little BR