Bustin Vegas

[Ashtanga 0]

Have you all heard about the MIT students who figured out a way to always win at Black Jack? They went to Vegas and Monte Carlo and walked away with $10 million.

There is a book out about it ...http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060575115/102-9514079-9517754?v=glance
...and just wondering if anyone knows what they did exactly to ensure they won.

I hear they are banned from Vegas and Monaco now. Although they have gone back as alter egos including a Russian Arms Dealers and a German Pop Star so people would not know who they were.

[Ashtanga 0]

More...

He played in casinos around the world with a plan to make himself richer than anyone could possibly imagine -- but it would nearly cost him his life.

Semyon Dukach was known as the Darling of Las Vegas. A legend at age twenty-one, this cocky hotshot was the biggest high roller to appear in Sin City in decades, a mathematical genius with a system the casinos had never seen before and couldn't stop -- a system that has never been revealed until now; that has nothing to do with card counting, wasn't illegal, and was more powerful than anything that had been tried before.

Las Vegas. Atlantic City. Aruba. Barcelona. London. And the jewel of the gambling crown -- Monte Carlo.

Dukach and his fellow MIT students hit them all and made millions. They came in hard, with stacks of cash; big, seemingly insane bets; women hanging on their arms; and fake identities. Although they were taking classes and studying for exams during the week, over the weekends they stormed the blackjack tables only to be harassed, banned from casinos, threatened at gunpoint, and beaten in Vegas's notorious back rooms.

The stakes were high, the dangers very real, but the players were up to the challenges, consequences be damned. There was Semyon Dukach himself, bored with school and broke; Victor Cassius, the slick, brilliant MIT grad student who galvanized the team; Owen Keller, with stunning ability but a dark past that would catch up to him; and Allie Simpson, bright, clever, and a feast for the eyes.

In the classroom, they were geeks. On the casino floor, they were unstoppable.

Busting Vega$ is Dukach's unbelievably true story; a riveting account of monumental greed, excess, hubris, sex, love, violence, fear, and statistics that is high-stakes entertainment at its best.

[AlexCrowley 0]

Heh I remember this when it happened. Great story.

Did you want details on the mechanics? It's actually really easy to do, it's much harder to do without getting caught.

TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

[Ashtanga 0]

Quote

Did you want details on the mechanics?

Yeah. How did they do it? I'm sure somebody on here knows that way I don't have to spend the $20 on the book.

[AlexCrowley 0]

Go in as a group. Make sure that at least two of you are math geniuses (or at least pretty good with probabilities).

One of the crew plays constantly. Their entire job is to play normally.

One watches/counts.

Through a series of signals the group decides when the probability of picture cards is highest at which point the third group member starts playing seriously. IIRC it was basically a hot/cold system and they were counting against 4 decks.

This behavior isnt illegal, but it does tend to upset the casino. Card counting wasnt unknown when the MIT group did it, but these guys did it in such a way that it took the casinos a long time to work out exactly how they were able to pull it off. In the meantime they took care of those pesky student loans :)

TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

[billvon 3,120]

I read the book. (Also the previous book from about 20 years ago called The Eudaemonic Pie.) It's an interesting application of straight statistical analyses. Basically in a card game, a knowledge of the odds of what the next card could be can help you skew the odds very slightly. In a game like blackjack, which is close to even odds already, that slight skew, in the long run, can add up to a lot of money. With four decks it's hard to count accurately, but if you can do it you can get that slight advantage.

[wmw999 2,589]

I used to play a lot of bridge. A whole lot. I could pretty much count all 52 cards, and guess where they were likely to be, based on the bidding and play. I can imagine that 4-6 decks would be a whole lot harder. But, well, if you actively practice enough, it'd be possible.

But I'd rather work for a living doing something I enjoy
Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[lawrocket 3]

It wouldn't surprise me at all if you were a member of that team.

Yes, that's a compliment!

My wife is hotter than your wife.