Fake. Counting cards (in blackjack) isn't a good way to make money. It involves large changes in your bet size that make it extremely obvious. If you're bad at it, places will let you do it while you lose money. If you're actually good at it (he's not), they'll kick you out. It's an obvious thing that places don't put up with if you're winning.
It's absolutely possible to make good money counting cards. There's a great series by Steven Bridges on YouTube where he goes through the process of counting cards in action, in several different casinos in different states and countries, both alone and with team-play.
No it doesn't involve abnormal shifts in betting. Only idiots would move from $5 directly to $100 per hand. Average gamblers start small and get excited too.
If you do it slowly, starting at the minimum and getting "excited" when the deck is rich in tens, no one will notice or care. Play $5 to $50 and order a drink.
The average card counter is a young single dude in a baseball cap drinking a water. Wear a fun outfit, get a free drink, and talk to the dealer. No one will notice.
And yes, you can count a shoe. You just need to find a dealer that deals about 70% of the cards.
Because it isn't sportsmanship that they're interested in it's getting all your cash. They don't give a damn about the integrity of the game or anything like that.
While the profits rolled in, so did the "heat" from the casinos, and many MIT Team members were identified and barred. These members were replaced by fresh players from MIT, Harvard, and other colleges and companies, and play continued. Eventually, investigators hired by casinos realized that many of those they had banned had addresses in or near Cambridge, and the connection to MIT and a formalized team became clear. The detectives obtained copies of recent MIT yearbooks and added photographs from it to their image database
There's a sizable minority of male zoomers into gambling in some countries, tightly related to the proliferation of small casinos in working-class neighbourhoods through a historical period where typical socialization spaces have been getting dismantled. I met a guy whose friend group's main activity for socialization was going to gambling and his life was pretty much a mess, roughly around the same as the guy from the green text.
This started with grey-market online poker in the early 2000s. In my big lecture classes, there would always be a dozen or so people just playing online poker, and I knew lots of people who got so sucked into it they dropped out of school
I guess this could be possible, but I'm just thinking how weird it be to host such event and be the house in blackjack because the house always has the advantage. It's not really a group game like regular five card poker or hold'em would be
I like how he went to a poker night and figured out he's good at blackjack. Sounds like his friends wanted to gift him some money even though the idiot couldn't even figure out what game they are playing.
I see people latch onto that detail. I find it plausible that some guys having a "poker night" might play other card games in addition to poker. Play a few hands of 5 card draw, some 7 card stud, maybe a round of blackjack or two.
If you're going to be a "professional" gambler. You need to be a PROFESSIONAL.
That means ledgers, records, receipts, keeping track of travel expenses, meals... its easy to lie to yourself about how you're really doing.
Also a lot of professional gamblers lose a grip on what a dollar is worth, because this week they are $60,000 up and just bought themselves a brand new car, and in 2 months they havent hit a decent win in weeks and are selling the car to make their rent.
Also, you cant put it on your resume. About the only place that might care if you're a professional or semi professional gambler is a casino if you're looking for a job. In that case the ledgers might be able to prove that you know your ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to gambling. But beyond that you arent really building to a career. So either git gud or have a backup plan.
Managed ledger of winnings, generated X% average profit margin, completed in X tournaments, kept up with competitive strategies, etc.
Would be a decent resume for a lot of jobs, like she's, some management roles, etc. Combined that with other expertise and it's a good measure of being a self learner and being motivated,
If I saw poker player as someones last couple years of work experience I would toss that resume in the trash immediately. If they were any good at it they wouldn't be looking for a job.