MIT Blackjacks, Interesting story, please read.

[Digital Jedi]

Hi everyone. I have foung an interesting story, so decided to share with you people, please read and reply.

Source: The History Channel

Many people intended to break the Las Vegas Casinos, thousands of ways from folding the card's edges, to sand under fingernails, dropping in alcohol or water have been used to mark the cards, and tiny computers in the shoes on which person could type with his toes have been used, but no one had so far been able to break the Las Vegas casinos.

But there was a technique developed by a Maths professor, called card counting had been developed, and was an insight into the future. In 1992, a Maths professor at MIT (told as Mr.M) developed a technique to break the casinos, to develop a way to win without cheating, by the application of Maths.

The Basic Technique:
It had three major parts:
1) Basic Strategy
2) Hi-Lo count
3) Teem play

1) Basic Strategy:
As eminent from the name, it was the basic ways to play, like betting, how much to bet, game rules etc etc.

2) Hi-Lo Count:
Now the real thing starts. It is basically a technique using points counting, which tells when to raise the bet, and when to lower the bet. According to this, cards were given numbers. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 were the plus cards. 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace were the minus cards. 7, 8, 9 were neutral cards. Suppose in 5-people game, if one had a 1, and 3 card, his count was +4, 2nd with King and queen had -7 count, 3rd with 1 and 10 cards had (-1+1=0) as his count. Adding all these counts gave the game count.

Positive count means to raise the bet, negative means to lower the bet. A count of 3 or more is considered to be lucky, and with a count of 7,8,9,10 etc, one could win million dollars in a single game. It also a way to determine that which cards are left on the deck, and one can have the entire info of the game.
This is only the first technique of the Hi-Lo count. After learning it, one move to highter techniques.

3) Team play:
This is the most delicate part, as on team play, one would be abused, removed from the game etc.
Certain members called spotters played the game, bet a minimum, and wait for a good time (a high count), then they would call the main player, who would sweep away hundreds of thousands of dollars in a few minutes.

2) Assembling the team, Stretigic Investments:
Mr.M taught some of his students the techniques, they had to cram all the charts, which would mean that almost no calculation, and looking at the table full of cards for 2-3 seconds was enough for a player to know the game count. And there were books, formulae of Maths etc. Then it was practice, practice, practice and more practice in which all the techniques were applied. The project was named Stretigic Investments. And team was called MIT BLACKJACKS.

Then the final test, in which the environment of the casino was replicated, music, servers, etc and other distractions wee simulated. And a team of about a dozen was assembeled. Mr.M taught further techniques, and then they tried it out in their local casino. Finally the team was ready, and was sent to Las Vegas in the weekend. They wee playing under alias, and without giving private information.

3) The Fun Begins:
All reached Las Vegas in separate flights. Mr.M gave $10,000 to each player to try it out. Two players, Simyon Ducatch and Katie went to a casino, Katie guised as Simyon's girlfriend. The game began. All went well, but then really bad time came, with low game count. Simyon put Katie in his seat, and went to the washroom. He came back after sometime, and Katie called him when it was good time to bet. They won over $40,000 in a single game.

They became students during the entire week, and became gamblers on the weekend. One of the player won $50000 in 12 seconds. In one month, the team had won a total of above $150,000. Simyon Ducatch bought a privarte jet in a few months:eek :. Imagine owning a private jet during student life. Players had ( as concieved by the illustrations) Limos, Rolls-Royce and luxury.
And by the middle of next year, they won a total of $480,000+.

4) The downfall:
Then the downfall began. The players were being banned from the casinos one after the other, as they thought they were cheating, and they were searched, and a man known to them as the man with silver hair, tracked the players back to MIT, and even traced Mr.M. And once Mr.M while giving money to the players, he forgot a bag with $125000 in the cafe of MIT, and lost it. And members were being banned and sometime they lost money as well, so one day, Mr.M quit the Stretigic Investments project. Many members of the team also left. But they had beaten the casinos legally. No one could prove them to be playing against the rules.

But Simyon Ducatch decided to continut it, and he started to train other players. And by 1998, the new MIT Blackjacks team is believed to have won more than $4 billion:in sane:.

Please reply with your views.

[nazareth]

I've watched the "Breaking Vegas" series. It's fun to think you can get rich quick. But cheating is illegal in Vegas (which isn't far from where I live) and everywhere else. I've gambled there once and found out first hand that in real life, as opposed to James Bond movies, most casinos are full of people who can't afford to lose what little money they have. Kinda sad, actually.

I think you mean 4 million, not 4 billion.

[nn||nr]

one of the fellows at my department is a rower and he will be appearing in the movie thats currently being shot on this subject