Ben Affleck is an Extremely Talented Casino Gambler
Ben Affleck is not only a famous actor, but also an extremely talented gambler. He refers to the category of gambling people, which play casino games wisely.
How it all began? Affleck was playing blackjack in the high limits room at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. After a time was told he was “too good” at the game, and while he was advised that he was welcome to play any other most popular table games and slot machine games, he was not no longer welcome to play blackjack.
In this case, celebrity and gambling turned into dangerous mix. Ben plays poker very well. In 2004, Affleck successfully played in the Californian poker tournament State Poker Championship. Of course, this tournament in scale does not compare with the world WPT, but still, the actor managed to bypass 90 people and take the main prize – 356 000!
In 2014, in Hard Rock Casino there was just an incredible story. The actor came with 20 000 dollars, and won in blackjack 800 0000! At the same time, they say, the actor was somewhat tipsy, and the lucky dealer got 150,000 as tips. This is the story of Ben and gambling does not end, because at Hard Rock Casino he was immediately suspected of counting card in blackjack.
It was such a big scandal. As a result, in 2014, Affleck was banned from playing blackjack at Hard Rock Casino. However, the actor was offered the casino’s auto-transfer at any time, and invited to play any other game but not blackjack.
Later he was asked to stop playing at a casino in Canada when he was in town filming Batman Versus Superman.
Unfortunately they just came up and said, ''We can't let you play blackjack. But we have other table games. We have Chinese poker.'''
What is counting cards in blackjack?
In blackjack, you are dealt two cards. Based on seeing the dealer’s up-card you have the option of taking more cards or not. The goal is drawing as near to 21 as possible without going over. The dealer plays his hand according to a set of house rules. The highest hand wins and the money moves accordingly. The guesswork and risk and passion of the game revolve around that next card coming out of the shoe. What will it be? Will it make your hand and double your money? Will it bust you? Will it make the dealer’s hand, or will the dealer bust and have to pay the whole table? Your instincts will start to bend your mind in one direction or another in that moment, searching for a justification to hit or stay.
If a raft of low cards have just come out, it seems reasonable to assume a big card is due, and vice versa. A guy named Ed Thorp had those same fragile instincts. Using early computers, Thorp examined whether keeping track of the cards could lend itself to gaining an advantage over the game. Thorp was a numbers man, and he arrived at a startling discovery. With some basic mental gymnastics, you can gain a clear advantage over the game. His conclusions were published in the book Beat the Dealer in 1962, marking the birth of card counting.
Let’s break it off, by which I mean down. Essentially, when more small cards have come out and there are more face cards and aces still in the shoe, the advantage starts to slip out of the casino’s hands and into yours. There are different tracking methods, but odds are that Affleck was using the most prevalent counting method, called Hi-Lo. As the cards come out, the player gives the low cards (2,3,4,5,6) a value of +1, and the high cards (10, jack, queen, king, ace) a value of -1, while the middle cards (7,8,9) are assigned no value. So you do a lot of adding and subtracting ones, and when and if that number starts climbing into higher positive territory, you start to gain an advantage over the casino.
If you bet the same amount every hand, it’s all a wash, BUT if you decide to keep the bets low when the cards are not in your favor and then raise your bets high when the advantage is yours—bingo. Over time you win—not more hands, just more money. Why aces and faces? Aces favor the player because when you get a blackjack, you win three dollars from the casino for every two that you bet, but when the dealer gets blackjack, she only gets to take your original two dollars. More faces mean that the dealer is more likely to bust. Remember that while you can stop drawing cards at any time, the dealer is compelled to keep taking cards until she has reached at least 17.