Movie "21" purposely created to teach incorrectly?

#1
Found this really interesting. I was looking at the official "21" website the other day and if you enter the site and click on "Bens" trailer, he goes on to explain the Hi Low counting system and says that if you see a high card you add one to the running total, and subtract one if you see a low card. Whaaaat???? Thoughts?
 

mjbballar23

Well-Known Member
#4
Dyepaintball12 said:
What's wrong with that?
whats wrong is that he says to count the high cards as +1 and the low cards as -1 and to raise your bet when the count is high and lower your bet when the count is low. Hopefully they realize this or some people could be loosing a lot of money if they follow this advice. pretty funny though.
 

la_dee_daa

Well-Known Member
#5
hahahaha.... i wonder if the whole movie they will be teaching it this way.... next thing is they will go to the 6/5 tables becuase they add up to a greater total then 3/2 according to their "math". 11>5!!!!!! they probably had the everyone thinking soooo if high cards are good then shouldn't they be +1?? yea makes sence. :laugh:
 

jack.jackson

Well-Known Member
#6
When I first learned how to count,(before reading a book) I found it natural to do everything backwards.....(yes I knew what counting was before I read a book) splitting Xs @-4 etc...before I came to realize that tagging negatives on tens had a more natural feel to it. To make a long story short, Im glad I switched.

By the way, he definitely say's to tag the tens @+1, He then contradicts himself by saying "raise your bets in positive counts? So the question is, was this on purpose or royal F^. Got me.
 

EasyRhino

Well-Known Member
#7
Somehow I suspect the movie isn't going to have a thorough discussion of risk of ruin probabilities, either.

But to be fair, I still count backwards. I just bet backwards, too.
 

Dyepaintball12

Well-Known Member
#8
I still don't get whats wrong with how he explained it.

I know some people who count Highs as +1 and lows as -1... it works the same just backwards
 

mjbballar23

Well-Known Member
#9
Dyepaintball12 said:
I still don't get whats wrong with how he explained it.

I know some people who count Highs as +1 and lows as -1... it works the same just backwards
yea but he also said to raise your bet when the count is HIGH. So he is saying to raise your bet when the shoe is depleted in Tens and Aces. Thats the problem. Its fine to count backward but then you should be raising your bet when the count is LOW.
 

Canceler

Well-Known Member
#12
:gun: Does anyone else picture
:gun: a whole new wave of counters,
:gun: whose only training is the movie,
:gun: getting mowed down?

That might be more fun to watch than the movie! :devil:
 

Bojack1

Well-Known Member
#13
Canceler said:
:gun: Does anyone else picture
:gun: a whole new wave of counters,
:gun: whose only training is the movie,
:gun: getting mowed down?

That might be more fun to watch than the movie! :devil:
You know what, no more so than all the counters that read Mezrichs books and fell in love with the false romantic notion of card counting. Some were motivated by his books to actually invest in some real card counting books and internet material and give it a real try. The majority though just learned enough from those mostly ficticious books to falsely think they had a handle on counting and faded away pretty quickly. I believe that this will be the same. Some will want to learn more by getting an interest sparked by the movie, the rest will try it for a bit, lose and go away. I personally don't think the movie is going to be that popular anyway. Aside from the blackjack community there is no real buzz about the movie, and its release I believe is only a month away.
 

sagefr0g

Well-Known Member
#14
i wonder along the same lines that people might be inspired to give card counting a shot as a result of this movie how it was back when Thorpe published his book Beat the Dealer. i mean were there hordes of wanna be's flocking to the casino's to try it out as a result of Thorpe's book?
i know for my own part my interest in card counting came about initially as a result of watching a guy hit a jackpot on a slot machine while i was on a cruise. i didn't know didely about casino's gambling or much less that advantage play even existed. it just intriqued me when i saw that guy rake in that huge jackpot. so i started playing slots, something i'd really never dreamed of doing until then. and i won a lot of loot lol and then after about a year i lost most of what i'd won. in my ignorance i at least tryed to figure out if there was a way of winning or not lol. and that's how i learned about card counting. and this was also about the time that poker was becoming so popular so i guess all that worked to make me look into this stuff.
 

k_c

Well-Known Member
#15
Dyepaintball12 said:
I still don't get whats wrong with how he explained it.

I know some people who count Highs as +1 and lows as -1... it works the same just backwards
If the shoe is viewed from the perspective of what remains, then it's right to count the highs as +1 and lows as -1. When a low is removed the count changes by -(-1)=+1. When a high is removed count changes by -(+1)=-1. If there are 20 highs and 16 lows remaining in a single deck, running count = +4 (20-16). That's the same thing as tagging the lows as +1 because as they are removed count goes up by 1.

k_c
 

SD Padres

Well-Known Member
#16
No wonder I've been losing money this whole time. I have been adding +1 to high cards!...LOL
I don't think it's intentional...I think it was just a blunder. What do they call that? Continuity...I think. They are people who get paid to look for errors and it looks like they missed this one. :cool2:
 

jack.jackson

Well-Known Member
#17
SD Padres said:
No wonder I've been losing money this whole time. I have been adding +1 to high cards!...LOL
I don't think it's intentional...I think it was just a blunder. What do they call that? Continuity...I think. They are people who get paid to look for errors and it looks like they missed this one. :cool2:
Ouch! That my explain all the Blackjacks on minimum bets....lol

I would have to agree, I think its a blunder as well.
 

jack.jackson

Well-Known Member
#18
k_c said:
If the shoe is viewed from the perspective of what remains, then it's right to count the highs as +1 and lows as -1. When a low is removed the count changes by -(-1)=+1. When a high is removed count changes by -(+1)=-1. If there are 20 highs and 16 lows remaining in a single deck, running count = +4 (20-16). That's the same thing as tagging the lows as +1 because as they are removed count goes up by 1.

k_c
It crossed my mind that this was actually what they were doing. Im just glad it was you explaining it and not me. Lord knows.
 
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