Did anyone catch Friday's 1/13 episode of "Numbers" ?
A card counting team's members were being murdered.
They actually did a mostly accurate job of describing card counting, shuffle tracking, and casino heat.
If you didn't see it, look for it in reruns.
> Did anyone catch Friday's 1/13 episode of
> "Numbers" ?
> snip: For a program that apparently went to considerable trouble to represent card counting rather authentically, I didn't like the way they predominantly referred to card counters as "cheaters".
I thought the references were made by the casino side in interviews with the FBI agents.
The math wizzes on the show never thought it was cheating.
I like the scene where they wonged onto tables ("Table 8 has a plus 14.") and cleaned up which told the general public viewing the show that you could win using math to beat the game.
The unrealistic part of that scene was the casino gave them no heat even though they had piles of blacks in front of them.
The reason one of them gave up blackjack years ago is because "one should work the math" and he found playing blackjack "the math was working me." I hope I quoted it somewhat accurately.
Hopefully it will rerun this summer if they don't replace it with a reality show.
> For a program that apparently went to considerable
> trouble to represent card counting rather authentically,
> I didn't like the way they predominantly referred to card
> counters as "cheaters".
I remember the professor was very adamant that card counters were just playing the game fairly. It was refreshing to see that portrayed on TV. I remember watching that show Las Vegas not too long ago when James Caan?s character said something to the effect of ?We call metro to come get the card counters.? I was appalled.
I liked Numb3rs, but I thought they tried to cram too much information into one show. The one-sentence description of shuffle tracking was very condensed while they spent quite a bit of time explaining how the Hi-Low system works. Much of the information was too simplistic to be effective in the show. Then again, that?s a lot of information to try and squeeze into one show. I was just about to give up on that show too!
-Sonny-
i was really happy to see a very accurate portrayal of card counting, but while there was a very clear explanation of it not actually being 'cheating,' the show definately bought into some overhyped sense of dread and card counting being at least somehow morally reprehensible, despite it being legal. The main character who talked about 'the numbers running him' spent the greater part of the episode ashamed over his former association with advantage play, for some unknown reason. At one point he yelled at his former teacher something along the lines of 'how could you? how could you teach those incredibly gifted young people how to gamble?'in some fake moral outrage.
what a ploppie.
another interesting note -- for all its accuracy, the card counting team in question was making a hit on a No Bust Blackjack game at the Bicycle Casino in LA -- a spot (& game) no self-respecting AP would be caught dead at!
-holly d.
very well done and entertaining.
I thought it left the impression that counting was not cheating but that gambling, AP play, can indeed become destructive to one life, I believe THIS is what the one gent kept referring back too. Anybody here want to argue that point?
I sensed right away that more was going on here than counting, especially with the index matrix, but when I saw the practice room I knew immediatley that they had cracked the shuffle machine! Why would they have a machine in their practice room, way out of place unless.....
In the end we did find out that they were cheating by using inside information to break the machine.
What they should have showed is a true "BJ Human Machine", playing at optimum performance, at a fine game and still losing his ass!!! Now that would be a reality show.
Regards,
Ouchez.
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