Mit Students Counting Cards
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions is a 2003 book by Ben Mezrich about a group of MIT card counters commonly known as the MIT Blackjack Team. I didn’t know the first thing about card counting but I had to find out more. I learned that the team was a legal entity – a limited partnership called Strategic Investments (SI). SI’s business plan was to recruit MIT students, teach them to count cards and then unleash them on.
- The movie ' 21 ' is the story of MIT students who 'count cards' to improve their probability of winning the card game Blackjack at casinos. Not surprisingly, this movie has a lot of mathematics in it. Most obvious is the 'counting of the cards', which is based on the techniques published in Edward O. Thorpe's 1962 book 'Beat the Dealer'.
- Learn how the MIT Blackjack Team from the movie 21 beat the casinos for millions. Features World Series of Blackjack Champion, Mike Aponte. You can learn mo.
STAFF REPORTER
Ben Mezrich, the author of Bringing Down the House:The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, discussed his newest book and held a book signing at Coffeehouse last night. He described his interaction with this covert team of gamblers.
Over a few years in the 1990s, MIT students earned several million dollars by playing blackjack in Las Vegas casinos on weekends while taking on the lives of normal college students during the week.
“I got to know them socially when we were in college. They always had cash, and were always going to Vegas. Eventually, they took me along and I got an inside look,” said Mezrich.
The basic strategy for the students was to employ card counting techniques, where they kept track of the proportion of high cards to the total number of cards left in the stack. “Based on that, they could predict hands and place bets accordingly,” said Mezrich.
Teamwork pays off big
Card counters are normally caught because they work alone and appear suspicious when they suddenly raise their bets once they predict a win.
The MIT team was different in that it employed a method of communication between seemingly unrelated players.
Mezrich described four basic roles for a team of the blackjack players. The back-spotter counts cards without playing and signals teammates when high cards are imminent. The spotter consistently places small bets at the table while secretly counting cards as well and relaying the information to teammates. The “Gorilla,” who always makes large bets, moves from table to table, guided by signals from spotters indicating advantageous positions. Finally, the position requiring the most skill is that of the Big Player, who counts cards, plays at the same time, and is advanced enough to always place high bets. Because of the division of labor, dealers could not easily spot these card counting teams.
Getting caught
Eventually, members of the blackjack team were betrayed. Out of greed, some team members sold names and faces to the Griffin Agency, which is hired by some casinos to track players who win disproportionately. The Griffin Agency compiles a face book of card counters and prohibits them from betting.
“It gets the MIT freshmen picture book every year,” Mezrich said.
Mit Students Counting Cards In Vegas
“I know of this guy who walked in, was recognized almost immediately, and kicked out before he could play at all,” said a veteran blackjack player. “Other times, especially when it’s busy, you can play for a couple hours before they pay any attention to you. You get out fast as soon as they see you.”
Card counting is entirely legal, but casinos can still get rid of counters because they are taking the casino’s money.
Former members talk
A member of the counting team who did not wish to be identified commented, “It was an interesting part of my life. I was very poor at the time and without a job. I started out just playing and learning the rules, then later joined the MIT blackjack team. I pretended to be a bimbo while spotting so that they would not suspect me and then moved on up in my roles.”
However, the game was not just about getting loads of cash and staying in glitzy hotels.
“I stopped four years ago mainly because of the stress of knowing I could get caught. It is scary; they will take illegal measures such as pulling you to the back room ... you don’t know what they can do to you there,” she said.
Another person, represented by the character Andrew Tay in the book, said, “The team recruited students who had a propensity for playing cards and taught them basic strategy. I was first skeptical when they told me about it, but later I saw what a good opportunity it was.”
When asked how people felt about their techniques being revealed, Tay said, “most people mentioned in the book were comfortable with it. They were willing to talk to Mezrich.”
“This experience of seeing a book about me and people I know on The New York Times’ list - it’s been surreal,” Tay said.
Kevin Spacey to produce movie
Mezrich has already sold the movie rights to MGM studios. Kevin Spacey is planning to both produce and act in the movie, which could come out as soon as 2004. It will be unique in that many of the MIT students will be portrayed by minority actors, as was the actual case.
“Actually, Kevin Spacey came to me about making a movie. He read the wired.com adaptation of the book and became interested,” Mezrich said. “The funny thing is filming may take in casinos such as the The Mirage and Caesar’s Palace, where the real thing happened.
Several MIT students approached Mezrich after the book signing and expressed interest in acting or being extras in the movie.
Mit Students Counting Cards
The Mathematics of the Movie '21'by Jeff Moehlis
Mit Students Counting Cards Movie
The movie '21' isthe story of MIT students who 'count cards' to improve their probabilityof winning the card game Blackjack at casinos. Not surprisingly, this movie has a lot of mathematics in it. Most obvious is the 'counting of thecards', which is based on the techniques published in Edward O. Thorpe's1962 book 'Beat the Dealer'. Discussions of the method and mathematicsof 'card counting' are described on various other websites. On this website, you can learn about other mathematical ideas which appear in the movie. I hope that this increases your enjoyment of the movie andperhaps teaches you some mathematics!
The Fibonacci SeriesIn '21', when Ben Campbell (played by Jim Sturgess) is celebrating hisbirthday, the cake says
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ...
These are the first terms in the Fibonacci Series, which was used as an example in the book Liber Abaci published in 1202 by Leonardo Fibonacci.This is obtained by first writing the numbers '0, 1', then defining eachsubsequent number as the sum of the previous two numbers in the series. Thus, thethird number in the series is 1 = 1+0, the fourth number is 2 = 1+1,the fifth number is 3 = 2 + 1, etc. The next number on the cake wouldbe 21=13+8, for Ben's 21st birthday. Clever, huh? (Hmmm, does '21'refer to Blackjack or Ben's age?) Ben will have towait until he is 34 = 21+13 for his next 'Fibonacci birthday'.
One can define other Fibonacci Series by specifying different numbers inthe first two slots. For example, the Fibonacci Series starting with'2, 5' is
2, 5, 7, 12, 19, 31, 50, ...
The Monty Hall ProblemConsider the following variation of the final round of the classic TVgame show Let's Make A Deal:
There are three doors, and behindone of them is a car, while behind the other two are goats. If you choosethe door with the car behind it, you win the car. Now, say you choose Door 1. The host MontyHall then opens either Door 2 or Door 3, behind which is a goat. (He knowswhat is behind each door, and neveropens the door with the car behind it.) Monty now gives you the choice:do you want to stick with Door 1, or switch to the other door. Whatshould you do? Or does it matter?
A similar question is posed to Ben Campbell (played by Jim Sturgess) by Professor Micky Rosa (played by Kevin Spacey) in the movie '21'. Withouthesitation Ben answers this correctly, which convinces Professor Rosa that Ben would be a good addition to their 'card countingteam'. Before reading on, try to answer this yourself.
One solves this problem by comparing the probability of choosing the car if youstick with your original choice to the probability of choosing the carif you switch after Monty opens the one door. Note that the car has an equal probability of 1/3 of being behind Door 1, Door 2, or Door 3.
First, suppose that your strategy is to stick with your original choice of Door 1. Then you only win if the car is behind Door 1, so thatyour probability of winning is 1/3.
Next, suppose that your strategy is to switch doors. We break this intothree cases:
So if your strategy is to switch doors, you win 2/3 = 1/3 + 1/3 of the time. (Remember,the probability is 1/3 that the car is behind any particular door.)Therefore, a better strategy is to switch doors - the calculated probabilities indicate that you are twice as likely to win if you do this!Ben's correct answer in the movie '21' indicates that he is a good personfor 'counting cards'. Not only does it show that he is clever,but it also demonstrates that he realizes that it is best to go with the choice whichmaximizes your probability of winning. This realization is essential tothe success of 'counting cards' for Blackjack.
In 1990, a similar question appeared in a letter to Marilyn vos Savant's Ask Marilyn column in Parade (which comes in some Sundaynewspapers). Marilyn gave the correct answer, but many readers(including mathematics professors) believed that this was incorrect.So don't feel too bad if you got it wrong when you answered it for yourself.But now you know!
Movie About Mit Students Counting Cards
The Newton-Raphson MethodYou might recall from an algebra class that the solutions to theequation
are given by the quadratic formula
Suppose instead that you want to find a value for x which solvesthe general algebraic equation
f(x) = 0.
Such a value for x is called a root of f(x). Except for special choices of f(x), such as f(x) = a x2 + b x + cas above, one cannot find the roots using algebraic operations.
In the movie '21', Professor Micky Rosa (played by Kevin Spacey)is lecturing on the Newton-Raphson method for finding the rootsof f(x). This was developed independently by Isaac Newton and Joseph Raphson in the 1600's. The idea is to make a guess for a root of the equation (let's call it x0), then to use this guess to generate a value for x (let's call it x1) which is (hopefully) even closer to the root than the original guess. This isdone by drawing the tangent line to the function f(x) at x=x0, and takingx1 as the value for x at which this straight line goes through zero.(For those of you who know calculus, you will recognize that this tangentline is determined by the derivative of f(x).)By iterating this procedure over and over to generate x2, x3, etc, one (hopefully) obtains values which are better and better approximations to the root. I keep saying 'hopefully' because the Newton-Raphson Method isn't always successful, although it is more likely to be if you make a good initialguess. This figure illustrates the method:
This method was developed well before computers existed, but turns outto be ideal for implementation on a computer: one uses a loop to generate successive values of xn.
Counting Cards