I was watching The Casino tonight (nothing else on), and I watched the Card Counter story line. I heard the name "Andy Bloch" and I knew it sounded familiar. I Yahoo'd (or Google'd) his name and found his blog. Interesting note

Tonight at 9pm Eastern/Pacific I'm going to be on Fox's reality show "The Casino." (This time for real!)

Back in December I'd been introduced to the casting people for the show. (Yes, they use casting people for reality shows!) At first, they seemed very interested in having me and a team of card counters on the show, but lost interest -- either because the legal department decided it might violate their contract with the Golden Nugget, or because word got leaked to the casino owners and they nixed the idea. I asked my contacts on the show if I should try to play anyway and they said yes (unofficially).

In between some poker tournaments I had a weekend free and invited a couple of MIT Blackjack Team alumni to play with me. I told someone from the show to look for me that night. Trusting them was probably a mistake! We'll see in a few hours.

Andy Bloch is a well-known poker player, which is where I heard his name from. I believe he has participated in the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour. He is now advertising (with many other players) Full Tilt Poker (I think I got that right). Interesting that they actually go after real card counters considering how fake everything else is.
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<== A Missionhockey21 creation

• RE: Andy Bloch,mmm_link, 07:58 AM, 08-03-04
• MIT Blackjack team,Bucky Katt, 10:10 PM, 08-03-04
  • RE: MIT Blackjack team,Smooth23, 03:20 PM, 08-04-04
    • RE: MIT Blackjack team,Bucky Katt, 07:04 PM, 08-04-04
      • RE: MIT Blackjack team,janey, 03:21 PM, 08-05-04
        • RE: MIT Blackjack team,mistyrose52, 02:52 PM, 01-12-08
          • DO NOT TEST HERE,Bebo, 02:38 PM, 01-13-08
            • RE: DO NOT TEST HERE,kidflash212, 12:31 PM, 02-26-15
              • RE: DO NOT TEST HERE,Agman2, 06:19 PM, 03-05-15
    • RE: MIT Blackjack team,Agman2, 06:20 PM, 03-05-15
• RE: Andy Bloch,Agman2, 02:29 PM, 02-22-16

It was too obvious when cameras followed him around a casino (supposedly a place where people don't want to be filmed) catching your every move. I thought the idea of the guy losing $1,000,000 and only paying back $200,000 was hiliarious. An $800,000 haul was not bad for one night. No wonder those guys are idiots at running a casino.

I don't understand how come I have not seen one person with an "out of focus" face on the show. Any sort of serious gambler would not want to take the chance at getting any face time.

I recgonized him from poker too - although I didn't know he was originally from MIT. I just finished reading a great book about the MIT students who took Vegas for a few million in the 90s. It is called Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich.

What I don't understand is why the GN doesn't just get automatic card shufflers. Most of the casinos around here already have them. It serves two purposes, it prevents card counting and it eliminates the down time that occurs when dealers are shuffling.

"How 'bout a birdy? I got a little birdy right here."

Shuffling the cards wont eliminate card counting

An automatic card shuffler will. After two or three hands the dealers put the discarded cards into the shuffler - thus there is always at least 5 of the 6 decks in the shoe. Card counters get a big advantage only when more low cards have been shown then high cards and there are few decks left in the shoe.

"How 'bout a birdy? I got a little birdy right here."

If the GN wants to be "old Vegas" they better stay away from the card shuffling machines, which have caused much bad publicity for the casinos that have them.

Testing

Do not post tests of pictures - that's what the preview button is for.

you tell her, Bebo

Darn right....He!! ya

No, only Smith and Wesson can do that!

That's not who Andy Bloch is!