Either way, would we call him a cheater since he was able to obtain information that other players weren't privy to?
Don Johnson himself said he did it without card counting. He played basic strategy, after making sure the game was arranged before he ever started playing to give him an edge over the house of 0.26%, and worked out maximum win and loss per day figures to guarantee a profit. He also admitted knocking the dealers off their games by causing trouble at the tables. It was a really spectacular piece of playing.This thread ask "can you win without counting cards" and the pure answer is no you need to have information to beat the game. Do you really think he played without counting?
Again, his play was to get an advantage over the money, not beat beat the game, he beat the casino with rebates and appearance money. This is so rare and unavailable to the masses that it is not a statement of "another way to beat blackjack".Don Johnson himself said he did it without card counting. He played basic strategy, after making sure the game was arranged before he ever started playing to give him an edge over the house of 0.26%, and worked out maximum win and loss per day figures to guarantee a profit. He also admitted knocking the dealers off their games by causing trouble at the tables. It was a really spectacular piece of playing.
I completely agree with you @Stealth and anyone claiming that Don won unfairly isn't being realistic. Who doesn't fancy it when a player beats the house? A man who won nearly $6m in a single night surely deserves some applause. Interestingly, he claims not to remember the exact cards.So, the perspective is that the casino made these offers innocently and with no expectations. Let's be clear, the casino made these offers because they thought they had a whale and could fleece him out of large amounts. They were just stupid about understanding the game and its math. They made a mistake.
Don benefited from their mistake. You think he should give back the money? Do you think if he lost the casino would give back the money?
Don did nothing illegal or unethical for that matter. He merely beat them at a game they set up, made the rules for and agreed to the playing conditions.
This thread ask "can you win without counting cards" and the pure answer is no you need to have information to beat the game. Do you really think he played without counting?
If you really can't count cards, there are situational betting techniques like Leon Dubey's which rely on key indicators in play.
There are a few alternatives, but most of them depend on players having basic strategy down pat to work. If you really can't count cards, there are situational betting techniques like Leon Dubey's which rely on key indicators in play. The problem with these are that it is really easy for a dealer to tell if you are using them, and it doesn't give the same degree of advantage as most card counting techniques.
Everyone seems to talk about card counting as being essential to winning at Blackjack. Are there any alternative strategies out there that can be used instead of card counting and actually work?
The best betting of casino Blackjack is likely to be betting a good defense algorithm using a minus three true count basic strategy in Round Robin Rotation using cumulative bank resets.