The game blackjack is a traditional and indispensable part of the game offer in any casino, be it physical or virtual. Many amateur card players test their mental abilities in a competition against the casino’s edge using different strategies. But it was Edward Oakley Thorp who introduced card counting as one of the best blackjack systems that helps players beat the dealer. But what is card counting ? And is it really possible to count cards in an online casino?
Counting cards is the best way to decrease the casino edge and the odds of winning are almost 50%. That’s why professional blackjack players always get their best results and winnings thanks to the counting technique.
You also cannot use card counting at online casinos that offer live dealer blackjack games. It is impossible because the dealers are required to shuffle the deck as soon as half of the decks are dealt. The only possible way to count would be if the dealer does not shuffle the decks until there are only a few cards left in the deck. However, in the history of casinos there are real cases that are conclusive proof of the result more than favorable for players who manage to count the cards in blackjack.
The Massachusets Institute of Technology Blackjack Team
The best known case of blackjack players who have been successful at counting cards is that of the MIT Blackjack team , which was a group of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This group of students formed a blackjack team in the 1990s and managed to win hundreds of thousands of US dollars, thanks to the technique of counting cards.
This extraordinary story was even made into a movie in 2008, with the role of Bill Kaplan played by Kevin Spacey in the famous movie 21 . There is a rule among players that the house always wins , and in the long run the casino is really the winner. The MIT blackjack team is one of the few known cases to have successfully practiced card counting.
Legal or illegal
Card counting is not illegal in face-to-face casinos, but none of the casinos allow this effective method to be used, which diminishes the dealer’s advantage. That’s why there are always savvy players who practice card counting. A famous case of card counting is the expulsion of Ben Affleck from the Hard Rock casino in Las Vegas. The actor has been permanently banned, because the casino security service discovered his technique of counting cards in blackjack, with very high stakes.
Affleck’s name is often associated with High Roller players because he is a huge fan of card games and is often in the news for his participation in games of poker and blackjack where he sometimes manages to win large sums of money. The American star has even been the protagonist of the film Runner Runner , known in Latin America as Maximum Bet , released in 2013. The main theme is poker games in online casinos and Affleck plays the owner of an illegal platform.