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 TableTag: The 21st-Century Card Counter
SE 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 BRColin Jones (S2 E1): Pushback
If you’ve ever kicked the top off an ant mound to trigger and reveal an alarming frenzy of activity that is ultimately meaningless, then you know what it’s like to make an online post defending Colin Jones. The lurkers come out in full hater mode, trying to sting and bite everything in sight. A meta-analysis of the various websites now puts Colin Jones in a statistical tie with Jake “The Snake” Roberts, measured in terms of Villain Power Ranking. FiveThirtyEight projects CJ’s VPR to surpass Marlo Stanfield by the end of 2021.
There really weren’t any new criticisms. There are still three main categories: CJ markets easy money from counting like a snake-oil salesman; I learned on my own; CJ is killing the games.
Continue reading Colin Jones (S2 E1): PushbackColin Jones (S1 E10 Finale): The Ultimate Vindication (or, A Cover Play Made in the Forest)
Throughout The 21st-Century Card Counter, Colin Jones interviews former students who have gone off into the wild to ply their trade. There’s a bit of publication bias, because we don’t hear about the train wrecks, but that’s understandable. The success stories are still entertaining and educational, and include sufficient misery. Whenever I read those reports of extended losing periods, I send CJ a mental thank-you for reminding me—as he does throughout his book—why counting cards isn’t for everyone, certainly not someone as soft as I am.
Now comes “Joe” [not his real name], who turned $10k into $1 million! Do you know how hard that is? Imagine being thrown into prison, and digging a two-mile tunnel using nothing but a plastic spoon. Joe did it without the spoon! That result, and the four-year journey it took, makes Joe an instant authority on card counting in the, um, 21st century. Yeah, what Colin said.
Continue reading Colin Jones (S1 E10 Finale): The Ultimate Vindication (or, A Cover Play Made in the Forest)Colin Jones (S1 E9): Knockout KISS
At the Blackjack Ball one year, Tommy Hyland came up to me saying he had a question. The preface “I have a question for you” is always a little unnerving, especially coming from someone you don’t talk to very often. So then he asked me … [wait for it …]
“Why do you recommend KO?”
Continue reading Colin Jones (S1 E9): Knockout KISSColin Jones (S1 E8): Mail Bag
In this episode of my N-part series looking at Colin Jones’s book, The 21st-Century Card Counter, I’m just going to briefly comment on various phrases and sentences that caught my eye. This is like the “Mail Bag” episodes of Gambling with an Edge, or the Potpourri category on Jeopardy.
[p. 26] “I’m not going to argue whether people should or should not gamble for entertainment (though it’s my opinion that gambling is a very high-risk low-reward form of it).” From spending so much time in locals casinos, I’d say that the percentage of gamblers who are problem gamblers—by virtually any definition of the term—is much, much higher than the industry would admit. As a resort destination, Vegas is a different animal. But locals casinos are built on degenerate gambling. That said, I think there is a role for recreational gambling, and CJ underestimates how enjoyable it is for some. CJ is a bit jaded, because blackjack (and baccarat) are not inherently fun games (you wouldn’t play them for no money), and because card counting as a living takes the fun out of the game! One of my old friends came to Vegas with me, and afterwards said, “You’ve ruined Las Vegas for me,” because he could never again see the experience in the carefree, oblivious way that gamblers do. I turned it into work.
Continue reading Colin Jones (S1 E8): Mail BagColin Jones: Season 1 Episode 7
That’s a pretty dry title for this post, about as aptly dry as Colin Jones’s “The 21st-Century Card Counter.” But the movie title’s better than the book’s. “Holy Rollers”—not just a play on words, but also an oxymoron that Hollywood loves. Remember that moment when the Preacher gunslinger swaps his clerical collar for a pistol in Pale Rider? And now Netflix has brought us Warrior Nun. It’s very entertaining watching the ostensible pacifist using violence to attain a righteous end.
Christians, who are presumed to have an aversion to gambling, take on the House, trying to stick it to the Man (meaning the casino, not the big G). The result is high drama, and subsequently a blackjack factory at blackjackapprenticeship.com [to which I have no affiliation].
Continue reading Colin Jones: Season 1 Episode 7