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It has taken a while but I have finally watched the mover “21” with Kevin Spacey. I think as with all movies that surround technical fields like sports and games, there are going to be numerous things that are not accurate. Today’s video shows the preview for the movie and has been selected by me because it sort of fits in with what I have been saying about blackjack.

At the end of the day, anything that has been written, spoken or filmed about the game of blackjack rightfully takes its place in the blackjack world whether people agree with it or not. It is inevitable that Hollywood will do their stuff and change what the MIT team did just for dramatic effect.

So we have a situation where reality and fantasy merge. Even when I wrote my book “Princes of Darkness: The World of High-stakes blackjack”, it was difficult to get across the reality of it and I was the one who was writing the book. In fact I have to confess that I slightly inflated and dressed up certain things in a minor way and I think that is kind of inevitable during the process.

I remember a few years ago watching Rounders with Matt Damon and even though that is probably the best film on poker ever made due to its accuracy, I found it very clichéd and done in a way that still didn’t depict true reality. Watching the movie “21” will not reveal how to run a successful blackjack team although it will reveal useful tips if you zoom in on them.

But things like using two big players on the same table isn’t needed for instance as this just brings too much heat down and tipping is not something that a professional blackjack player does on any great scale simply because the edge is so small. By all means watch the movie if you have never watched it before but do remember that you are watching Hollywood at work here.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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Do you recall me saying to you a while ago about the Derren Brown casino roulette trick, well I have attached the video here so that you can see for yourselves what I was talking about. The high profile roulette wheel that was in operation inside this casino are very rarely used. They are perfect for visual prediction simply because the ball once it falls
simply stays where it is a large percentage of the time, take a look.

There are several key dynamics with regards to being able to do this. Your first objective is to ascertain the speed of the wheel. If the dealer is keeping the speed constant all the time then this is a big assist. You can use the green zero number as a point of reference to ascertain how many revolutions the wheel is going.

Then you need to ascertain the ball speed, this isn’t as difficult as it sounds and many dealers will be constant in their delivery of the spin on a regular basis. This was possibly a reason why Derren Brown kept this a secret as to when he would do the coup. Going into mainland Europe could simply have been a play to escape detection as he would be far less known in other countries.

We used to practice this as dealers and anyone who has read my book Killer Roulette will be aware of how many dealers find it possible to actually do this. The modern low profile wheels make it harder but a skilled dealer or punter can affect the house percentage by a considerable margin. Obviously this is not something that the gaming industry would wish to be made public but these are facts.

While this may have been a show and a very well put together show at that, the mechanics behind what Derren Brown did are all too real and rightfully take their place as highly effective methods of casino gambling.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson