This group of gifted young students was formed in Cambridge, on the banks of MIT, the most famous science university in the United States, and focused on a very specific issue: casino games, blackjack specialty. They realized, something known by the experts that blackjack is the only game we can beat the casino.
Blackjack gives an advantage statistically low at home compared to other casino games. In addition to the basic strategy that indicates when to hit or stay, players can use a combination of strategies wagers, card counting and shuffle tracking monitoring to improve their chances. Card counting is a skill difficult to acquire, but since the 60′s many techniques have been published to facilitate it.
The possibility of earning large sums attracted the attention of these students mathematicians from MIT. The University of clubs playing card, but these students decided to develop their hobby. The group has combined the advantages of the individual player with a team approach of counting cards to maximize their revenues and disguise their behavior. The team leader, Johnny Chang, said in an interview in the magazine in 2002 Blackjack Forum , in addition to counting techniques, the group used methods for monitoring the mixing of maps and tracking aces. While the techniques of card counting can give an advantage of 2%, the mix used by the MIT team gave them a 4% advantage over the casino. However, Chang admitted that they had difficulty maintaining this level of advantage in the game real casino, and that their best results came from counting cards
The core team recruited students using flyers distributed on campus. The team tested the interested students to find suitable candidates, and if they were, they were dragging.
The team was built on the biggest innovation since Thorp’s book on card counting: the division of labor. While it is very easy to detect a single card counter, who rises and falls according to its latest count in progress, it is much harder to detect meter team working together, dividing roles and counting game between players who seem to have no relationship. With the preparation of the right strategy at Mahirqq site, the number of winnings is increased with the team. The team will work together at the casino for defeating the platform to increase the bank account. The use of the skills and excellence is done to get the potential benefits at the platform.
The MIT team was recruiting new talent in the pool of mathematicians from the university to change the faces of those who won. In addition, each player had a false identity to escape the surveillance of casinos.
It Y’avait three main roles in this team: the detectors (spotters in English), gorillas (Gorilla) and the High Rollers (Big Players). The detectors were players who did not earn, who played at a table counting cards while betting always the minimum. When a count became positive, ie beneficial to players because the ratio of high cards in the deck is large, the detector will signal the gorilla or the Big Player. Gorillas did not count at all: they simply played big bets when they were told to do so.
High Rollers were developed Gorillas, who had with detectors when they were called to a table and managed to thwart the attention of the casino by varying their bets. In each case, the important thing was to play big hands ($ 1,000 or more) without behaving like a card counter. And as the Gorillas and the High Rollers were not on the table when the shoe was ‘hot’ (good intake of high cards), they could be accused of counting cards. Obviously the management and supervision of the casino were being abused, not imagining that an organization of card counting can exist.
The Back-Spotter (Detector Hidden)
The Hidden detector can count cards without being seated at the blackjack table. When the account is burning, it reports to the team.
The Spotter (Sensor)
The player counts the cards in the playing table. Casinos detect card counters by watching for increases or decreases in paris, a sure sign that the shoe has become hot or cold. When it’s time to bet big, detectors inform their teammates.
The Gorilla (Gorilla)
The Gorilla ultimately count for nothing: he only bet big, all the time. Typically, he adopts an attitude of millionaire drunk that money to chatter. Sensors ensure that the gorillas have hoofs to their advantage by telling them good food.
The Big Player (High Roller)
The Big Player appears as a well known type of player casino: The player who bet large sums for fun, the hours that squanders his money despite his skill gaming In fact, a detector with a Gorilla wallet. He does not just cards, it also follows the mixture of high cards. The Big players always play on a good shoe, so you do not have to lower its bets.
Players reported hooves warm and counting with different signs. Thus, the detectors crossed his arms to signal that the table was hot, then from the Big Players sit until the shoe is depleted or becomes cold … the statement was directed, using special words:
When the shoe becomes cold, the sensor passes his hand over his forehead and big player goes to another table.
The end of the MIT team
The security company that tracked the counters (MIT and others) was called Griffin Investigations. These young people playing for hundreds of thousands of dollars have become suspects, is much more than what a student should play. Finally, after a few weekends losers, the original team was disbanded for itself, as new teams of young students took up the hand. The story says that many students were banned from the casino, the supervisors who bought the Who’s Who (books identifying university students with their photos), and having recovered well.
