466: Blackjack
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
I'm WBEZ Chicago. It's This American Life. Okay, here we go. Blackjack, $10 table, $10. High limit room, which no one is in. Monday, late morning. This American Life producer Robin Semien and I are in a casino that will remain unnamed here on the radio because we did not have permission to record. I did not ask for permission due to the nature of our visit. Come on, let's see over here. We stand by one of the blackjack tables and Robin does a quick scan of the cards.
What are the basics of card counting in blackjack?
What's the count on this table?
Negative six.
We were there to count cards, to play blackjack and count cards while we did it, which gives a player such a big advantage against the house that most casinos ask you to leave the table if they catch you doing it. And how did we end up here? Well, we've gotten a lesson the day before in how to count cards. We used to say that you could teach a piece of wood to play blackjack.
You just have to be able to keep your wits about you when you're at the table, and not make too many mistakes.
How does a Christian card-counting team reconcile faith and gambling?
We got our lesson from Andy Block, who played blackjack for what is possibly the most famous group of blackjack card counters, the so-called MIT blackjack team. The winnings inspired a best-selling book and a terrible Hollywood film called 21. These were real MIT students. Andy studied electrical engineering.
What happens when beginners try card counting at a casino?
There is no reliable way to know how much they won. They claim over $8 million between 1994 and 2000. After he quit the team, Andy put out an instructional DVD about how to count cards. He doesn't play much blackjack himself anymore.
Once I got known as a part of the MIT blackjack team, it became hard to play, and I would get kicked out of just about anywhere I tried to play. And sometimes I would take friends there. They just wanted to see me get kicked out of someplace. Play for a little bit. After, you know, 15 minutes, an hour, they'd come over and ask me to leave.
Now, I don't know if I should assume that you've played Blackjack or you know the rules, but if you haven't played or you don't know, here are the rules. Everybody at the table gets cards. You can ask for more cards if you want. The way that you do that is that you tell the dealer, hit me. You want your cards to add up as close to 21 as possible without going over. It's very simple. It's so simple that when you play, it feels winnable. And it seems like everybody you meet who plays Blackjack has a system. Everyone thinks they can beat it.
Yeah, I've heard a lot of crazy systems about blackjack. You know, the best myths are the ones that are based in fact. And it is a fact that you can beat blackjack. You can actually beat the casinos. And the idea that it's possible to beat the casino is what made blackjack so popular.
I think this is what makes Blackjack so special, is that you think you can beat it. But of course, as soon as you start to think you can beat it, it gets you into trouble.
What legal issues arise when a gambler blames a casino for their losses?
Here's how diabolical Blackjack is. Unlike most casino games, if you play Blackjack correctly, the casino barely has an edge. The odds are very close to 50-50. You win almost half the time. So the dream of winning is right there in front of you, just out of reach. And if you did have a system that could beat Blackjack, imagine what that would mean. It's like the money is just sitting there in casinos everywhere all over the world, huge stacks of chips and $100 bills waiting for you to take them home. No job, bad economy. If Blackjack is beatable, your problems are solved. Today on our program, we watch people run after that dream, including some fine, upright, God-fearing people, including Robin and me.
Stay with us and good luck with that ace. Okay, so when Andy Block says that you can beat the casinos, he is talking specifically about counting cards to change the odds. The mathematics of counting cards was nailed down in the 1950s and 60s. There is a way to count cards that definitively gives you an edge over the house. And you don't need to be a rain man or have a photographic memory to pull this off. A normal person can do it. So Robin and I decided that we wanted to learn.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:33
2
What are the basics of card counting in blackjack?
0:33–1:14
3
How does a Christian card-counting team reconcile faith and gambling?
1:14–1:31
4
What happens when beginners try card counting at a casino?
1:31–3:09
5
What legal issues arise when a gambler blames a casino for their losses?
3:09–6:41
6
How does the casino industry target compulsive gamblers?
6:41–9:24
7
What psychological effects do near-misses have on gamblers?
9:24–12:22
8
How did Angie Bachman end up in legal trouble with a casino?
12:22–1:02:30