How exactly did the counting system in the movie "21" work?

Question

I'm not a gambler (I'm not legally old enough, anyway) so I'm not too familiar with blackjack.

I studied it in statistics, however, so I know the general basics of it.

I loved this movie, but I'm confused as to how their system actually worked. I got the general idea, but I want the structure to it.

How did the codes for the numbers (like "sweet sixteen" & whatnot) come into play, how did the first person discover it, how did this help the incoming player, ect.?

I found it extremely interesting.

Thank you :]

Answer 1

the first guy on here explained it pretty well. they used code names like "sweet sixteen" to tell the big better person what the count was. those terms were easy to learn and unsuspicious to the dealer. counting cards gives you an advantage but you are not guranteed to still win all the time. like the other guy said it is hollywoodish, it was a good movie but it never showed them actually losing any. the system just gives the ppl better odds of winning so they no when to bet big!

Answer 2

2-6 count as +

ace, ten cards count as -

when the count is a high + number, that means all the low cards are out of the way. the big ones are on the way, that's where you want to increase your bet.  they said those codes so the big bettor would come in with the count in their favor, and bet big, because the paint cards are coming.

i try to count best i can in AC, some dealers move slow, some are fast, but you get better as time goes by.

Movie was a little hollywoodish

Answer 3

Blackjack is beatable because of several overlaying factors that cooincidentally all happen at the same time when cards of one type are removed from the deck.

For starters, the dealer plays by a fixed set fo rules when it comes to hitting and standing, there are based on the predictable nature and composition of a standard 52 card deck, and it happens to work out for the casino such that the house has an advantage.  Its a rather large advantage actually, fortunatly for the player, they have the option to split, double down, and get payed 3:2 for blackjacks, this is so beneficial to the player, that it almost entirely wipes out the house edge in blackjack alltogether leaving it so tiny, its almost non exhistant.

As cards are dealt, they are removed from the portion of card being dealt from and into a descard tray untill the shuffle.  After each hand, the cards played previously are effectively removed from the game untill the shuffle, this means that the card being drawn from no longer compromise what was previously assumed to be a 52 card deck composition.  The removal of cards form the game has an effect on the house advanatge, some cards have the effect of making it larger, and some cards have the effect of making it smaller, card countign systems will seperate those two groups of cards and assign them point values, positive numbers for the cards that help the player when removed, and negetive numbers for the cards that hurt the player when removed.  They will sometimes go further to assign larger and smaller numbers so some cards to better reflect how large of an impact they have on the game when they are removed.  

Since each card has a tiny effect on the house advanatge eitehr negetive or positive, the point values work as a representation fo the alteration of house advanatge either negetive or positive.  A card conter will add the point values toogether as the cards are dealt, and the sum of all point values represents with a very surprising level of accuracy how much the house advantage has been altered.  Based on computer simulations the card coutner will know the ACTUAL alteration in the hosue advanatge is, and combining it with the known exhisting hosue edge for the game itself, will be able to detect when the alteration is so large that it negats the hosue edge altogether and the edge actually lies with the player, they will then begin to place bets.

Since all information can be derived from the count, the mit blackjack team conveyed the count to eachotehr so that other members knew the neccesary information to play the game with an edge.  The used code words to avoid saying things like "HEY x*x the count is x*x you need to come over and start placing bets" casinos are fully aware fo what card coutnign is and this woudl certainly be a ticket to being shown the exit door.

The first person to discover and impliment a card coutnign system is unknown.  It WAS NOT Edward thorp as almost everybody i know beleives, Edword Thorp was however a great mind in the developement of blackjack advanatge play, most importantly, he was the first person to write a publication on it, a publication that became likely the most famous book probibly in gambling history, which is why it is so widely beleived he was the first advantage player in the game of blackjack.