#687 - Steven Bridges - The Most Dangerous Stories From A Professional Card Counter
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Hello friends, welcome back to the show. My yesterday is Stephen bridges. He's a professional gambler and mostly legal card counter. If you you seen the movie twenty one, you'll know that it's possible to count cards while playing blackjack in a casino to actually beat the house. But this isn't just limited to the movies. Stephen is part of a team who takes on the biggest casinos in the world using hardcome maths disguises and secret signals to win big.

Expect to learn the details of how a team of players is needed to take on a casino, how Stephen chooses which casinos to count out, which are the best and worst places to play blackjack in vegas, the most money Stephen has made and lost in a single session, how he deals with losing absurd amount of of money, just how difficult IT is to actually count cards without getting caught, and much more. I love Stephen's youtube channel, and the algorithm served IT up to me. And I fall on, got addicted, and invested into his teams, little missions that they do out all over the worlds to try and win hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And i'd like the fact that we get to see behind the scenes of what it's actually like today, very different sort of episode. This is super, super fun. So yeah, enjoy this one. But now, ladies and gentleman, please welcome Stephen bridges.

How do you describe what you do for work when you meet somebody?

Yeah this is something which frequently comes up. And it's really tRicky to explain because I think the most common thing I say is, have you seen the movie twenty one? Because they've seen that movie, they already have a basic understanding of at least the attract version of what car counting is. And if they haven't seen that movie, I just asked me know what car getting is and a lot of the time people don't know. And then i'm in a really tRicky spot because when you trying to describe professional gambling, you do sound a bit and saying.

right? Yeah, I keep track of the cards at casinos and have a complex system of friends who have money bank ruled by anonymous huge donors. And we try we try rip casinos off.

Yes, essentially I does sound like a criminal and to put like them, but yeah, actually you put IT really well. Actually, just keeping track of the cars is quite an accurate way of doing IT because most people think that you're memorizing all of the cars you see, which is way harder than what we're actually doing, even though what we're doing is relatively cool.

So keeping track is like a nice wave of summarizing IT because are actually assigning each car of the deck with a different point. Point value separates its point in the game of black jack. And then we're keeping track of that running total, which we're using to get advantage of the house basically.

Dude, I love your youtube. I think your blogs that you're doing with hidden cameras as you go in and take these casinos for everything that worth until you get found out and rumble and then escorted off the premium es, I I actually love them. I think that fantastics everybody should go and check out, check out your logs once they finish. Listen to this, but talk to me about how somebody begins the apprentice into the world of professional casino riper of a yeah.

yeah, yeah. So car counting falls under the bracket of advantage play and an advantage player. Essentially anybody that can be a casino game. In this case, legally, there is a difference between car counting and advances by in cheating.

So cheating would be, you know you snaking extra carding or you maybe using technology where it's illegal to use software to on a computer algorithm to cranch of us to beat the game. So with advantage play, you're just playing the game within the rules with the same information that everybody else has in the casino. In theory, you're just using IT in a different way.

So if you want to get into car counting, it's always something that I really don't recommend for most people because the actual lifestyle IT can be quite brutal. And the way that I have IT is I play for a bit, and then I have a quite large break. I think the time I was most stressed in my life, and I was playing six hours a day, essentially like a night.

Well, not quite ninety five, but I treating IT like a ninety five job playing six days a week. And even though you're playing with an advantage, you can just lose so much money. And even though you know you're going to win the long term, the psychological impact of losing the money is really, really strong.

Essentially someones to learn how to to count count at this books resources. There's online websites now and you just go through IT like you would. Any other skill? I don't think it's particularly way harder than the average skill. It's just that with car counting, you have very, very little margin for era. So you have to master each element of car counting and get fact because your .

edge is reliant on your mind being completely correct when the margin edge that you have is only slightly above fifty percent. Any method by the brain dragged that back for sure. yeah.

Which is why also we need like tons of money to even do IT because we're playing with such a small edge. You can still have a losing streak that could go on. One of my teammates had a three hundred hour losing streak, and it's just insane.

So if you don't have loads of money to buy the amounts that were battling, which is, you know, in the thousands per hand, well, well, the low thousands, like you know, OK K A half. If you don't have one hundred twenty four thousand dollars, then you could just burn through all that on a bad run. So there's a lot of stuff that he should be taken into consideration as one of the biggest mistakes that lot of new car counters will make.

They will master how to count cards. But then when IT comes to the actual bank of management and the risk management of IT, they won't pay attention to that. They'll blow through that banker in a very short amount time and then be i'll be yet i'll be bankrupt from accounting. So careful .

who is IT not specifically, but where is IT that you're finding half a meal to fund a trip to go and travel around the U. S.

yeah. So the way that I actually started was incredibly recall the, you know, I collor ate with another youtube, or who he's count, count. He teaches people to count, count called call gering.

And I got in touch with him, mainly because I thought this would make a really first, I would just like a bucket list like him. I thought I really want to do this. And I also had A A small youtube channel doing magic tricks.

And I thought this would make a really cool vlog series. So I got in touch with him and I thought maybe he bank rome, have ten k or something, or maybe I I don't really have any money at the time. So I wasn't sure how is going to sort the money thing at the time.

But then one day I was moving house, and I had a friend that was just helping me move house, and I was telling in what I was getting up to, and I was going to go to amErica for a months and count cards. And then he just shot me a message later, wrong going, hey, can I invest in you and I was just like, sure. And I think he offered to put something like ten to fifteen and I can t remember the exact number broth of my head.

But then as we kept chatting, he just up that and eventually just said that he d put two hundred k in in pounds, so more than them in U. S. D.

And that's the money that I played with. Now at the time, I misunderstood how the risk of cardin, like the actual numbers on country, how long IT takes you to get to guaranteed profit. So I didn't realize how risk y this was.

And it's extra bad because he was actually, he actually gave me his mortgage. So I was playing with money that he couldn't afford to lose, which is insane by all accounts, and goes against what every professional gambler would say all professions. Gambler would like you'd to have you bank for that separate.

If you lose that, you ve got to be OK. But we are essentially all in. And IT would have probably ruined his life if i'd lost all of that money. And also the crushing gill I would have found. So I don't really know where you get two underground to count cards, have a friend that has a mortgage and then he gives .

you the money for A A reckless friend.

Yeah, but nowadays, as your network with car counters, car counters tend to have money and because it's like a profitable thing to do and then you meet other people that want to invest in card count and you build up your network that way. And now it's relatively straighforward. If we're going to do a trip, we can just send a couple of text and what APP and then raise three, four and a care whatever .

IT is that we they take a cut of some kind yeah.

essentially. So the way that we do IT, different teams do IT differently and the percent split, uh, are different. But the way that we do is we have it's kind like you form a company just for one project, then you dissolve IT at the end.

So you got the windings at the end and you divide those fifty percent will go to the investors and fifty percent will go to the players. And Normally with the players, you you'll pay them up based off playing time, not based on how much they actually won. Because the only thing of this within the car counts control is showing up and counting cards, whether not they actually win, provided that game is good, which we test to have a time, is not upset.

So we could have a car counter that's put in loads of hours and got the most hours, but they actually made a loss. Or as we can have someone that played at least hours in the made of profit. But we don't judge IT based off results.

We just get off time that goes in. So we expect IT proportionately like that sometimes is you have a manager and the'd take a manager cup because it's quite a complicated logistical thing to manage. So manager might take ten percent or something, but then the rest of IT usually split fifty, fifty with the investors in the players.

Talk me through a typical team, people that have seen twenty one. You've got a variety of people, but like probably not a previous bank robber. I can't remember the movie, but what the typical adventure assembled that you take on these trips .

will the the actual, the makeup of the team is in the people. IT is a complete mixed bags of people. This maybe some car count serotypes.

Like being White and being in twenties is a little bit more common, but india will. Our team is quite it's quite A A wide range of people. We've got like a court team and an extended team, and it's not always exact same people playing on a trip.

But the ways that the actual team forms for a trip is that you have two main approaches, either what we would call solo team play, which is when all the car counters are playing individual, individual casinos in different parts of america, where are wherever else it's gna be, but they are all sharing a banker. And that can be really useful because it's one of those things where the what's the phrase the sun is the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, that kind of thing. Because if you have one car counter with ten thousand dollars and another another car counter with ten thousand dollars and know both playing, they can play with a certain level of bets and they can make a certain hour rate on average.

But if you put those together and combine the resources, it's not the equivalent of that twenty k to by by two. It's actually like one car counter with twice the money playing twice as fast. So it's really advantages for accounts to team up and work together because IT just IT gets you to the mathematical long run quicker.

You can have you can place bigger bets, you can win more money in theory. And that's kind of how that worked. So that's solo team play.

The other type of team play, which is like the movie twenty one and the version that I find the most fun, but there are very few card counting teams that do this is what we call big player starter team play. So one of things which makes car counters get caught is that we have to bet we're set playing back like everyone else. And there's only certain moments where we have the advantage over the house.

That's when the count is high. So sometimes i'm playing in vegas or forever, I might be betting twenty five dollars a hand and then the count goes up and i'll get a grand a hand and not a huge jump. And any surviving ds persons pay attention that will know that most people, if they are playing black jack and have that kind of money, aren't betting twenty five dollars sometimes and a grander other times.

They they might vary a bit, a bit, a bit, but never that much. So that can be a huge red flag. We can get caught that way.

So with team play what we do, he will have different spotters. So car counters that are SAT at different tables, just batting the table minimum theyll be keeping the count. And when the count gets high, they'll do IT a secret signal to get the attention of the big player who is also account.

And his or her job is just a bat really big. So let's have signal. The men I went is, you know, IT will be less.

There will be more super than just waving. But I just come here. They will come over.

I will either to tell them what the count is via code, word or logic, use more signals to tell them what to do, how much to back and how to play the hands and just commode the table middle through the shoe and start batting big. But they'll leave when the count drops because i'll tell them to go. So it's really cool because everybody's consistent.

All of the spotters are playing the minimum on close of the minimum. And the big player is only ever batting a grand a hand, roughly, whatever it's gonna be, which makes IT more difficult for surveilLance to catch the actual big player in the team saying nowadays, because of movies twenty one, that system becoming more popular. Who knows if IT really gets you more time, but it's definitely more fun.

yes. So what you're trying to avoid is any one player changing the amount that they beat, so the variant that they bet shouldn't be much more. okay. So going back to the solo team play or solo play generally, how do you how do you increase your bed when the deck is hot?

When you want your own, we just do IT you just have to do IT and sort of hope. It's kind of a weird thing because surveilLance are only looking for car counters. They ve got a heck of a lot to do.

Checking to your dealers make pay out mistakes. You a lot of money, the checking to make sure that people are trying to steal that that drunk guy is walking around isn't about to punch someone or grab some chips from the trade. So when is got a really hard job? And they're actually some of the most underappreciated, definitely the most underappreciated casino staff that exists like they get a really radeon in general as a little chat.

So the main thing is that surveilling, you've got other things to do. So then i'll always watching me play black jack. So the'd have to see me, watch me, see me change by that.

And only then if I do that a few times, maybe start working a pattern, maybe theyd decided to have to run my game down. But in general, the way that I play this isn't how all car counts play, but the way that I play is pretty aggressively. So i'll trying that as a little as I can when the count is low.

And as much as I can when the count is high because that maximizes the amount of money that I have the potential to win per hour. And it's those little the best that you're bedding when you don't have the advantage. That costly quite a lot over time. So we just go for IT. And now I spoken to quite a few of them of people just because theyve reached out to me, which has been really useful. And I think that in general, a relatively aggressive approach doesn't really lose you much more time than playing really conservatively and trying to do all this, what we call cover play when you might make a little mistake with your play so that you don't look like you, you know what you're doing. These things, I don't know if they help more than they harm in terms of your actual hourly you know expected value, the money that .

you are when you're doing the big player team stuff. Each different person must have a not necessarily a cover story, but they're projecting a particular type of person when they go in there. So what what sort of a person to you? And then what's your ideal big player persona?

Yeah, all big player is an absolute left. I'll get him in a second yet. So for me, when i'm a spider, actually, i'm more concerned with just not growing any attention to myself, especially given the having the youtube channel makes me I can get recognizing casinos. So I try to keep a relatively low profile when i'm spotting because I want to be the weak link that gets the team butted.

But in general, on a spot, i'll just sit that quietly and beat the minimum, trying not to really draw any attention to myself, which is very different to how play when i'm not a spot when i'm doing solo play like we were just playing in vegas and I was playing various different characters with different elaborate guises. And I would really lean into being an extrovert or being super. Notice we've had lots of with stuff we did a stack to.

So what's the american party? Bachelor party, where we were all wearing t shirts the same. And acting, acting drum can just going around and being incredibly loud and signal over the B.

P. In those cases was literally, I come here. I was a little different strategy. So sometimes this a case of standing out to and but our our big player, we played with a couple different big players, and they all have a different style and is not really a right way.

But I think one of the elements is just i'm looking comfortable with that amount of money if someone's new as a big player or new to cart cutting and then just betting you thousand dollars a hand or a couple k hand can be really daunting. But our a big player that we most commonly use is called irish p that's what he goes by. And he just plays this very loud of noxious, I don't extrovert, kind of aggressive, angry gamblers.

So whatever he's losing, he's kicking off such a first and just being like just cursing constantly and just complaining about the cars he's been dealt. Not really taking out at people, but taking out a card that he just plays this role where he's so annoying yed that people are a little bit scared of him, which I think you know why you can buy a small time because they're not looking at him through the lens of the car count is trying to blend in. They're looking at him, mike, oh, this angry gambler that we kind of wanna right from.

right. Obvious question. What's the legality .

of all this yet? It's total legal in general. I mean, we could get into real specifics. Team play technically could be deemed maybe illegal in certain state, in certain states perhaps, but there's a lot of ash risks is on that.

I just because I don't want to speak to definitely, but in general, car counting is fine because you're just using the same information that anybody else has. The way that I describe this, can you imagine that you're playing high level chess and you are like one of the best chefs in the world and the tournament manager comes over attack on the chilling guys. Excuse me, we actually have seen what we can tell that you're thinking four moves ahead.

And in this tournament, three moves ahead as the max, it's just deemed not fair. IT would just be ludicrous. All we're doing is using our brains the same way that anyone else could.

We're not yeah we're not cheating. IT doesn't legally classified cheating and therefore it's legal everywhere as well as anywhere. The only way of not exactly exceptions but the certain countries like the U K.

Is actually wait to count cards because you don't really have a lot legal recall. If you get kicked down, they can potentially just withhold the money. And there's been stories from other advantage players like fl.

I ve did this whole thing with the IT wasn't black jack. He was playing, but he did this Savannah play. He went to court. He didn't get paid out. Remember that correctly? So this is weird stuff, whether is a person in, I come over the island on northern island that played, ruled and then did Peter. They weren't even, they weren't cheating or doing advantage, but they just were playing like one a load of money and then I was deemed that they were ah it's a private business so they can do what they want. So the certain places where you might have more difficulties than others, but legally speaking, it's not cheating and is perfectly level.

right? So this, to me, kind of jade, and not as if I thought casinos were basins of ethical so hyun ly intrusions ness. But what I did think was if somebody does manage to beat the house that they've done IT fairly, and if it's not illegal, the could not should take IT on the chin given that they are fleecing every other non advantage .

player in there. Ah it's absolutely wild because really we don't even get that bottle line and most of the time they know that I think they just have a aten detach against car counters because we actually don't the way that we get treats sometimes, you know, i've had police called on me, multiple security guards is just intimidation tactics or then refusing to cash you out and let you show I D just not a legal requirement.

All these kind of weird things that they'll do for what essentially won't. Didn't the average casino's bottom line is so rare that we'd make any kind of impact, especially like these big casinos in vegas. So funny, the length that they'll go to, to stop you counting when it's just sometimes they will they will ruin a black chat game to make sure. So it's not countable and it's just what you doing.

How would they ruin IT?

Well, there are some things that they can do. For example, if you played a regular shoe game of blank chat, where you ve got maybe six steps of cards, shuttle together, theyll have a cut card that goes towards the end. So when you hit that cut card, they know, oh yeah, we've got a shaffer now.

But if you move that cut card further forward. That means that you might only place, say, three of the x before a shufu or two of the x if you are going to be absorbed d but the further for that gets the, the, the fewer cards or less cards that you going to play before a now the less coding going to play. That's bad for car counter because our information gets more useful, more active towards the end.

So they're sometimes put the cut card more forward so that IT stops car counters. But the cost of that is actually they're losing a lot of time in rounds per hour. The other non car counters would be playing and people have crunched the numbers.

And even just moving at a couple cards forward costs the average casino a ridiculous amount of money per year. So they do all sorts of things. I just describe IT as they drop a nuclear bomb on a house to the candle. Yeah, stop car canas, but cause themselves so much damage in the process.

So do you see the process of this largely just being a race against the clock to be discovered, to be rumbled? And what would you say is the percentage time that you actually manage to get in, do the thing and get out having not been recognized or noticed? And how many times do you get in there and get kicked out?

I think most of the time that ends with being kicked out. Well, that's kind of the goal in a way not that we want to be kicked out, but there's a phrased in car counting. Could don't back yourself off from a casino, back off being just a term for being asked not to play that jack.

And if I leave a casino because I think they might kick me out soon, then what? What's that a check of job left on my wife say them play another hour before they're actually kick me out. So I Normally will play until the back off on the trip.

I just did no in vegas. I was trying short sessions and going from casino casino trying to leave before back off. But then as soon as I compared my my hours played with another teammate who was just playing until back off, he got way more time and sometimes will feel what we call heat, which is just suspicion.

We can tell when they are on to us will feel that. And we think, oh, maybe we should leave. But if we actually just keep playing, IT might take them an hour or another two hours to actually get the go ahead to back of a car council.

So in general, the approaches that mean my team make usually is just to keep playing until we get back off. So which case the vast majority the time will get back off. But that depends on the casino.

Sometimes I could last. The shortest was about twelve minutes. And this is prey youtube videos, but someone just do IT looks like a car counter called surveilLance. And then surveilLance were watching me, from the very first hand, played, and very quickly figured out that I was counting. But then I had nine hours in the casino in a shifting gone back the next day, and sometimes just weeks at one casino before they actually caught me. So IT really varies, but we play aggressively until the back off.

How do you choose the particular caso that you're going to go and take on? Because if I was a hollywood movie, IT would be because of the data that the guy's current x wife is now dating the owner of that particularly casino. I guess it's probably most strategic than .

yeah little bit, although there is A A small element of revenge sometimes in that I think a lot of casino staff think that if they give the cod counter a really hard time and back them off and make IT really hard them to get their money at the cage and send their photo everywhere and and just be really aggressive, but the car counts will go. That was horrible.

I'll tell all my accounts of friends how bad this casino was all avoid, but the exact opposite will happen, like the cockpit will tell all the people I had this really hard time at this casino. And then the the come out, the telling will will be lie right? Where is that I want because it's a sense of that's not right so much.

Well, prioritize that. But in general, we'll play any casino that offers a good blackjack game. Not all black jack is created equally. There's different subtle rule changes that can affect how much we'd win the certain elements of the game, which might affect how risky is or how long we'd have to play to guarantee that were going to be up. So but in general, if if there's a casino with a good blanch chat king ball plant, okay.

vegas is vegas a genuine hot spot? You ve mentioned IT before, but surely they'd ta be shit hot when IT comes to security.

They they probably got the best of an apartment in the world, but also that the most used to car counters. So the back of tend to be tends to be quite chill. I say I am thinking of lawsuits so that going on against favors because but in general, they tend to be pretty, tend to be pretty chill, but they are very, very fast.

So we play vegas made me because we really like IT, and it's so casino dense as all these casinos that you just have this what feels like unlimited options and because it's so fast moving, IT feels like even when the shift changes, it's like a whole new casino. So there is a lot of opportunity in vegas. A lot of car counters hate vegas and they think it's really bad. And IT might be compared to other places, but also kind of weird charm to IT that just makes IT a food place supply methow.

Is that too dangerous? Go cover and get taken by the C. C. P.

yeah. I I know I IT was on my list of places to try, but I think I spoke to a car and friend and he said that they don't have any shoe games. I don't know that's true. But nowadays it's becoming more and more common that we'll be this machine that is constantly suffers the cars.

So you play out a handle or to pick up the cards to put them back in the machine and IT constantly shuffles and those you can't count because, I mean, there's nothing to count when they are constantly. And i've heard that macao is just as that, which is a shame, because I be well up for IT, and there's a couple places on my list that countries that are probably won't name, but that I want to go trying. But yeah.

do I have my house flaBellarian fun or stressful? Like talk to me about the felt sense of either being part of a team and being a spotter or or or doing solo play? Like what's the actual felt sense of IT? Is IT a grind?

Yeah, it's it's a combination of things. IT can be a grind for sure, especially on those seven hour bunch k sessions. I know I keep referencing the last trip, but just because I just got back, but there was one time when I was just so tired and wanted to break, but I haven't been back off, so just catch going and I was stop begging the casino internally to back me up like you don't take a break.

You just don't want to give up this opportunity because who knows if the stars going to line the my business of the business is written you off, not from something you did and they think he's not a cow. Councils, you don't want to give that up and that can be a real ground playing the same card game because also the thing is you're not making decisions in the same way that the average player is the average by plane. Black jack get sixteen verses at ten and they might think, oh, should I hit this time, or should I not hit? And they get to sort of play the game.

But all we're really doing is we've term like a decision tree that we've memorized and that, that changes depending on the count. But we ve just got a preset memorized formula and we're just pressing go on that formula. So not really making any decisions is very much like an automatic process.

So that can be a bit tedious in germ, although it's more of a thrilling than IT is anything else you are still getting the same, I guess, dopamine hit from gambling except you know that you have an advantage, which is a very saffy saffed thing and IT does feel like a massive adventure. But it's it's like such a way, accommodation motions, it's super stressful. IT can be really stressful, especially some of the times when we've been back off now, not pour our money or be incredible aggressive, but the overall experience is incredibly rewarding.

And as soon as I come back to the U. K. And sort of thankful I get a bit of a break, but then i'm sort of itching to play again because .

of that combination of things. Yeah what what is some of the worst backhoes s that you've had career?

Yeah the worst one I had was, I think, been a couple of contenders is recently. But I think he lay up casino in washington state. People, people have asked me, why are you call these places out? So go, that's the exact name.

Do you look in wh ingin? That gave me the worst. I think I was playing there.

And in essence, i've been backed off from their sister property. Well, they thought forcibly. I did me and i've left and they chased me out the casino. So I was playing IT to la la. And I just had this point where I got came to and I turned around and I knew I was a back off, and I did the thing that you probably shouldn't do. I acknowledge that the guy, you know, was back me off.

I just said, OK, I get that no more blank check because I want to alleviate any hostility before that you can happened but he said then, no, I want to see your I D I said, I don't really. I'm happy just to go. I am good.

I just want to cash on and leave. And it's important for me to know here that a lot of people think that when you're in a caso, you need to show I D, or you need to have an I D. Now yeah, if you're going up to the table, you sit down and they ask you for an I D and you don't show IT, they have the right to not let you play or they could I D with the door and turn you away.

You don't have an I D, but if you've played black jack, have your chips, you then have the legal right to cash them out and you don't need to show an ID couple of other tricks is if it's over ten grand changes things but you don't need to show I D however, casino will often try and force you to show idea so that I can get your name. Upload IT to their little system, right? Their little report, maybe send IT to other casinos. And as a car count, you don't want to give your idea for the most part. And presumably .

using fake I D would then be a federal crime. Yeah.

exactly yeah I am not sure if this maybe some way ly poles in that, but it's not something that me or anyone of my team is ever experimented with. But yeah is good phrase. I think it's from malay's game if you're seen that movie.

But I think it's the phrases don't break the law when you're breaking the law, which is something I always think about when when car counting. What we're doing is not illegal, just IT feels like a crime, but it's not quite a crime. So that mixing a crime like fake.

Yeah okay. So this guy.

right? Yes, so he comes over and he's just a major. He's got this such this sort of I don't even know how to describe that with this.

He's kind of match o alpha energy where he's decided that he's getting my a and he's a mege is demanding IT and i'm declining IT and then he just escalates and he is i'm going to play games with you, even show me I D or you get out. I just only grab your chips, get out. You can't even cash out, which was the first time i've been in that situation where the casino was denied me a cash out.

And i've been advised by cark out of friends that if I just stand my ground, eventually they will cash me out. So that's what I decided to do and I just wouldn't leave this casino until they cash me out. And they immediately brought over extra security.

A gaming commission person who once again, the gaming commissioner should be impartial. But when it's I mean, it's a whole host of other politics regarding that stuff, often the gaming commission isn't impartial. There are bit by wards, the casino.

So this is the gaming commissioner, multiple security people of the casino staff. And this whole big argument breaks out. Well, i'm just basically shouting that I just want my chips.

All of this is I got on hidden camera and they just, what do IT they say that they are onna call the police. They call the police. And then they all started kind of leave me alone.

At this point, they started just sort of leave, maybe except one guy. And i'm a bit concerned because this casino is in sort of tribal land, which was on an indian nation. So the law regarding indian reservation is a little bit different regarding the rest of U.

S. law. They have like tribal, so they can have their own laws that are a bit independent.

So in a they can have tribal court. And obviously, the casino is bringing in all the revenue. So in a way, because there is funding these things, maybe not directly.

And the whole thing is just a little bit, a little bit different to what i'm used to. And that goes the police force to, I thought, the police essentially paid for by the casino. Don't true or not, that's kind of, how is reading situation to time.

So I was a bit worried that the police would immediately cycle the casino. And I like A A very bad situation. So I started slowly walking towards the door, not wanting to leave, but at least if the police came in, then I could say I was just leaving.

If they came with radio gresh energy, as i'm getting to the door, the police arrive, and they immediately tell me to sit down, ask me what's going on and they asked my I D. I gave IT over. I wasn't really familiar with the with the laws regarding when a police officer can have your I D but I thought that suspecting me of a crime, which they weren't, I was a great thing I gave over the idea.

We had this whole thing, and they in the end just escorted me to the cash desk and got me, got my chips, cash down. And they may have given no my idea or not. They said they wouldn't, but you never know.

But I was actually really relieved that the police decided with me, I had other situations where the police have just taken in the media. No, we don't. We don't want you here.

We don't help you. Uh side. And also gaming commission is that was totally useless. So but that was a kind of a scary situation because of just how aggressive the tone wars and how many people that were and how earlier was in my card counting journey and the fact police recalled. So I was pretty bad one, but this been so many that quite simmer .

yeah that especially if you're tired and stress and i've been playing for a long time, keeping your cool as your being pushed away from a game that you know is taking every other person SAT in this casino's money and the fact that you have managed to spend end of time to be able to learn a process that gives you a what's the edge fifty? What is IT is .

like percent is like tiny is a really, really small. Yeah, you should say out there because it's been two instances that that really bank is up. One time also in washington, IT was a guy was at my table so drunk he couldn't stack the chips up properly, and he was just playing and just pushing the chips in a pile.

No idea was doing losing hand after hand after hand. IT was tapping the dealer every hands, like twenty five books I just made that I contact with the dealer just all said, is he OK and the dealer totally just found the office he is five and then twenty minutes later, all I get backed off. I just thought you're letting this person play that's clearly not in of sound mind to play because IT benefits the casino.

Where's here? I'm being kicked out of playing the game honestly. And another thing that happened when I was in vague, that isn't in a video yet, but I found out that there was a player at my table and he was, I think, at seventy seven year old woman, she's been playing for over twenty four hours, and SHE hadn't eaten or sled.

And I thought spoke to a couple of members of of staff about this. I asked, I mentioned IT to a day as, hey, she's been playing for, know this long, you think, you know, like, is there something? And the deer laughed off and then spoke to a pit boss.

Same kind of thing at this point. I knew that they were running my game down. I knew that I was, my time is limited. So making a bit of spectacular wasn't really going to cost anything. And each person I boat to, in essence, was just totally fine with this woman continuing to play.

And it's just one of those things where I get that everybody makes their own decisions and has a right to do what they won. And I guess and I get that there's high ups in the casino that are setting these policies about how they handle people that have gaming problems. But I also was just left thinking, isn't there like anybody that's just sort of gonna? Hey, maybe take maybe take a ten minute break, maybe you have a sandwich and just see. Just not like, what point is IT just .

a human decency thing? If if you are going to casinos in the hopes of finding some ethical decency, I fear that you may be looking in the wrong place.

I know, but still, casinos are made up of individual people, right? When I look at them as institutions rib, but they still like perfectly noise, members of staff that i've made in casinos. Yeah, this kind of thing happens. I mean, recently there was, I ve just been told, I was told by a someone that works in casino industry, that a casino in vegas being sued or being so because somebody died at the black chat table and the the deal that kept dealing the card, they had a heart, they had a heart attack and they only realized when the when the dealer switched .

and IT was a new dealer and .

this it's .

why I was watching a story that might have been a Sunny v two video about this chinese millionaire, li millionaire, lost in the space of eighteen months, two years in vegas, was flying back in fourth and lost ninety two hundred million at the same casino and yeah was just propped up on a cocktail. I've saw the stuff for the entirety. The time is I think he's is playing .

black jack too yes, wild like surely the whole because i've seen what lunch I can be when it's fun and when people are having a good time. But there are rare occasions where the whole table is losing money as as is gonna the case, but everyone still having a good time. And I like, oh yeah that I can exist in this space, which isn't like completely depressing. But so much of the time there's no this just just seems that there's no actual care of people playing, which really like .

how do you deal with these sessions where you end up being lots of money down and how how much can that get and how much can that get across the team as well in a day?

Yeah, we can lose tens and tens and tens of thousands. I think the biggest lost that we have on record for our team in one session. I think that was probably like three or four hours was one of my teammates called syntax.

He played and lost forty two k which is, I mean, he posts we have like a little results group chat. He post the group chat. This is the result. And we all just immediately feel IT because it's it's so much money no matter what the context is outside of that, no matter what you are up at one point or anything, it's still forty two grand. Your brain automatically thinks how many years rent is that or how IT is just it's crazy.

So the the times of the worst are when you're losing nonactive a huge amount, but it's repeatedly session after session after session and you're on what seems like and never rounding losing streak. The first time we played in biggest in twenty twenty, we won. I think there was something like ninety thousand k in two or three days, which is the best thing ever.

And then in the next couple days, we proceeded to lose one hundred and ten from that point. I just the way down. It's not fun because each time you're thinking someone's gone to have a win and then but maybe there's a couple case, someone wins, but then someone else loses ten.

You just like IT has to stop. And I remember I had A A session where I lost thirty k on that downswing and I just went into the into the rest room. And just so I had to space water on my face and trying to pose myself. And then I went out. There was a bunch of security I was waiting for me.

which was lovely. Yes.

and just what you need. IT can be really tough. And I think IT IT sort of takes more than IT gives in a way you I you have to happen. It's a certain kind of person to be a car counter just for like I don't mean who's capable of of that.

I think a lot of people can learn IT, but the actual lifestyle, having to go through those losses and having to lose that money and not change what you're doing, you can't chase your losses. You just have to keep playing like a machine. This time, I really want to leave because i'm down a lot of money and I just want to break, but the count still high.

You've just got to keep going and you're buying and you're losing and you're buying and you're losing. And the deal that keeps getting black checks and you're just like this is. Why the od to this, but you still have to just keep going and that those are some .

of the hardest times that the reason why play time is so important then because you need to be able to access mute, knowing that given a long enough amount of time, you'll going to be one or two percent up, which means across infinite time you would win. And therefore, if you have two short of a bunch sessions, just straight up variants allows to chip into you and chip into you and chip into you. And despite playing the right way, even on hot tables, you can still lose or I can just the count can just never get to know where you needed to be and you will continue to walk away, which means that's why IT needs to increase. You need tough a lot .

of time for sure. Yeah, it's all about getting those hours in quality games can also you know, affect the amount of ours you need. But general, yes, just all about a thousand because in the short term you are not just flipping.

calling the typing for the best. All right. So what about good games? Want have been some of the best ones that you ve been a part of?

H if I, if I mention them, they might make them worse. Yeah, i'd be actually really cautious about saying this places got the best bunch .

chat came because I genuine like what days what days of you or what sessions have you done?

H, right? Which are the days which just that we can't lose? yes. yeah.

I think some some of the team sessions which have ended in what we've been doing, team play, that they've just been, you know anything want to say anything above like the k win feels like fantastic no matter what stakes for playing at. So yeah 3K4k winds are always really satisfying。 Yeah just been sessions. I think I had a 50 and my one of my more recent trips， which maybe doesn't sound like a lot in the scheme of what we've lost at times, but something just so safed about even just waiting ten ground to ground and knowing that you're going to post that in the chat and everyone is going to see that, that's incredible, satisfying. So yeah, we all look at IT in trips as supposed to days, but we had some very, very successful trips that have just been really, really big wins in the six figure range and that that for being a couple weeks work is is pretty good, even a few hospital .

IT between a lot of people. Yeah, how you've mentioned ten thousand dollars. Anything above that is difficult to get cashed out without giving your idea. So do you purposely know when you're read about tang grand and then stop?

Yeah, that is a strategy. So just I will have to make the super clear in case that sounds like i'm promoting a legal conduct. If you have brought in or have got essentially ten case worth of chips generally and is a currency transaction report that because you know has to fill in and if you are cashing out five k one cage and then go into different k you come out five k you could dodge that that report because they might not realize you have the ten k that is actually a crime called structuring. So if we hit that ten k mark forever reason, then we have a hard rule where you just go in cash out, you give out of the I D and maybe you don't know. So I need to cash out there and then depending on the circumstances. But in general, you still have to show, 所以 i session provided you not midway through a shoe because you never wants to leave when the count is high。 That would be very, very bad because you throwing my money yeah you up known k in the session and understand the shoe and you realized if I went one one k ball i'm going up to hand over my idea probably not going be worth giving over the idea so then we will just leave but we'll never actually physically dodge those checks if we legally have to do them all right?

And how the fuck you get six figures back into the U. K.

Yes, this is widely a question that no one really asks, which is like no one really asked about the actual cash management. But yeah, we have like so much cash, we have to move around. Airport security is .

always is in cash, right?

Oh yes.

hundred and thousand dollars come from IT.

literally, is that. So we just we each have just money outs filled with money, and we have to just go through. So tell me when you go to the apple, if you're transfering more than ten grand in U S.

Currency, you have to sort declare IT. So we just goes to those. And now we feel out the form you got to fill out of the form again. Maybe when you get to the get to the airport, even the airport staff don't often know what you have to do.

And we have to really insist we have to speak to a board of control officer before we go through airport security or we're in a real bad spot. Oh okay. Well, um I guess if you go down stairs and not onna do so there's when things like that. But yeah, we just take IT and sometimes it's just these awkward conversations that we have to have.

Do you tell them .

what it's come from? Well, yeah, I mean, the the origin is honestly gambling is just IT doesn't sounds very probable and IT sounds like the perfect it's like the kind of thing you will do if you watch on to london money or move money so like the honest answer is not super reassurance. So sometimes I go through my phone not like, look.

here's all these photos of us in the caso chased charity .

exactly yeah. But this is the thing illegal about taking cash around. The thing that we're really worried about, or I am concerned about, is a law in the U. U.

S. Called civil four future. Have you ever come across these youtube videos? So it's absolutely insane. So someone, i'll get pulled over by a cup for whatever reason, and then the cup might go all germany, firearms or currency in the car, and the person might go, well, actually, yeah, i've got some. I happen to have my life savings.

This one galley just didn't trust banks he had like, I caught me how much he was, but I think IT was in maybe the low six figures. So we have a significant about money and then the police officer has the legal right to just seize that money. If they're not convinced of where it's come from and that is legally held, they can just take IT and have IT.

And as far as i'm aware, IT can be really difficult to get that money back. That money can be used within the police force or something weird. But just one of these laws that, that seems so backwards where they can just take the money from you and that's IT you'll get a little but getting IT back to the whole the thing.

So i've often worried about, what if I get pulled over? You don't want to lie to a cop either. You don't want to say I have no right? It's A A different set problems.

But yeah, that's the thing I worry about the most is just being honest, just police in the us regarding regarding the cash. Of course, being moon stuff is still a concern. In fact, just on the I was playing in the, we're playing in the bahamas recently.

I was in the bahamas.

I I went to the.

so I went, I went to the bahamas for two days and before I went was a wedding in north k. Virginia.

And this is when we'd confirmed this episode and i'm watching some of of logs and stuff and i'm like a talking to this guy and this guy was a part of the navy, this wedding, right? He was saying to do you gamble? I know a guy that does actually um well i'm about to speak to a guy that does and he says, do the sls and paradise island two casinos that you've got in the bahamas is that the dealers they haven't got a clue. The airport, the caso security on that tight and a blah blah so I remember thinking at the time I might be able to toe Steven something. No, but IT seems like you beat me to the punch.

Yeah, that's really funny. I mean, I wonder through that at the same time, but I I believe that and we just have a situation where we this is like a wead agent story. But we were playing at this casino and I was just me and irish. They were at the casino and we ended leaving the casino together.

Normally we wouldn't be seen with each other, but we will have got so lost in the casino and didn't have like sale service that we ended up just indian walking out, hoping that the cameras and scenes, so we left this casino, finally find a bit of road we are really shed. We got so lost in this massive building, and the taxi pulled up, and we we got into the taxi, and the taxi started driving. And then the as a little bit concerned that IT wasn't a real taxi, but I wasn't sure, and the'd been another taxi driver that told me that taxes and behaving a chill.

So I wasn't like, super worried. But then the taxi driver start offering us like prostitutes and drugs. And I maybe this guy isn't a legit taxi driver 的， so driving, and he said, you're gna need to give us directions because I don't have a SAT now or GPS of a wird flag for a taxi driver 问 OK。

And we've got between us, I don't know how much I was, but fifty, sixty k something, a lot of money and then the taxi guy says, by the way, i'm just going to need to stop off at the strip club to pick up some food that i've voted like this is foreign ning or whatever and IT just sounded like the most sketchy thing. We're to be mugged cover. That's how I felt, right? And I I thought we were like, no, no, no, we'd rather you just take us home he goes, it's on the way.

This guy doesn't even know he does not know the address so it's on the way and he says, no, I have to already picked IT up and I messaged irish saying and you worried that we're about to get mug yeah long sorry show as we actually go through these quite area of the bahamas. And bahamas is like super chill, but there's obviously going to be crime maras in every place that you go and and then he pulls up outside the building, which didn't look like a strict club and the like heavy outside the building. And he gets out and he goes inside, which maybe feel a bit Better because he's left us alone.

But i'd like been shoving my my cash down. My trousers is the sort of just holiday because I was like. Being moved is one thing, but being moved and robed like fifty, sixty case another and and then a guy, one of the heavy, said, don't worry, i'm a cop and this guy was stone was mind flash this bad and because I ve known this guy for years, well, if you've known the guy that, you know, proposition, like trying to sell prostitutes and drugs, I don't know.

I feel this is a great character reference, but the whole thing in the end was just like a false alarm. And the guy got in with his takeout, the story club from the strip club, which, okay, and drive a drive B N B. But I was just like the first half of that story was the story where you get mogg, and then we luckily didn't have the second half, but it's moments like that where you get itself in these situations where you're in some street, you don't know and you've got a lot of cash on you and then you don't really know to do.

And has been times in the in the U. S. I've looked up afterwards where i've been and gone out. This is an incredibly high area placed to .

say not should not have been there.

Yeah, on the map, this is the red part for crime. And yeah, one down .

my pants.

Cash in the car once in in west ilda a and that was done, but we just left the back pack in the car we forgot about with cash. And I just thought the next day that he was going to be gone, but IT IT was there as was a ticket on the car. But i'll take that any day.

You can use the cash in the backpack to pay the ticket.

That's on the car. Exactly right? Yeah, unfortunately wasn't a team exam.

so I had to pay that. But me so you must be having to do more elaborate disguise as and covers given the fact that you've got a youtube hn with half a million people on IT. And it's not gonna any easier you and this episode me either. So I guess you the detAiling of your experiences and the difficulty of your experiences are inversely correlated to each other.

Yeah, weird. It's like on my own worst enemy because of my each channel goes up that my car counting is harder. Like I I start the series, I obviously you that this could happen, but I the way I looked at was, well, either the series is kind of simers and IT doesn't really do any harm, in which case i'm cp counting and it's fine, or IT does really well, in which case is like a luxury problem which is over right now.

But yeah, had to get all in on disguise. Is some of the previous trip I just dead, which isn't H, B, I, I. We d design these different looks, you know, using beard die and changing my beard to getting go to, and fake tattoo that like the ones that they use a movie, so they look quite real.

And I even went to a place called fans effect, which make sort of fake teeth and change how your jaw sets for actors in movies. And I didn't get fate in the end, but I got like these jw fellows that just would push out the side of my face and an upper bit of my face that change so of how my face looked. So we're just doing everything that I could, pulling out all the stops, and I really work as well. I mean, I got backed off and I got caught. Eventually we find out who I was.

and not because you see bridges.

Well, yeah, exactly. IT only takes one person in us to be like way the second guy and then and that's IT. But IT IT absolutely bought me so much more time.

And yeah, I got me way more time. So I was really helpful because I was keep in track of different looks in different casino chains. So I like now, okay, this casino chain are still clean with this look. So I just how about this casino chain until I get back off? You know, I was mentioning before how I had to step seven hours, whatever.

I just was praying about me off because I wanted to stop sprayed my goat with die every day when I got up and having to, like, make up White all the such a not getting done my mouth, I just like, please let me changes the skies. But I was keeping track of the lucking surveilling people that will send me information, super hand. I was, I was gna say.

so you've got this network of fans who work actually in the casino world, and you also probably have even larger, newly of enemies that work in the new world. But you is like A F, B, I most wanted do not admit under any circumstances known advantage player list. So if there are some places that you're never going to be able to go back to now like IT are some change that are just completely boxed off for you?

Yeah not necessary. Some chains because in a way, it's not like every person that works in all these casinos knows who I am by look right. But all of the casino chains will know who I am.

And i'll be a description of the voice of me in the database. And there will be a case of if you see this guy back off and and play. However, if I go to a new region in the U. S.

That I haven't been to for you ever, then there's no it's not like they're looking through this list of like no advantage players for every single person in the thousands of of people that are unwanted players for whatever reason. So IT has to be the first. Someone has actually spot me for the first time, and then that's all goes to the top of the list and then IT can become a bit of the problem.

But yeah, this this maybe some casinos where i've played before and because i've done a huge video, i'll be extra. Maybe everyone in the cassini we've seen IT because hey, we're in this in this video, in which case I probably struggling out to those. But I don't think there's a chain that I wouldn't want to play apart from the U.

K. There is no caso. I go in the U. K. unfortunate. In the U. K, you gotten gotta be a member to go in nine, nine cent because I, of course.

what are there any of the games? I mean, you know, it's so funny to think about using a professional gambler, but if not you a professional black jack player, not is this ah a whole panoply of different games that you could play in this visit of ods charlie chocolate factory? Way to lose money and you just play one like you. I do the black jack advantage, please speak to the, I don't know what i'd like the fucking backards advantage players or they brew let advantage players yes。

So this sort of this larger community of advantage players and and the other forms of advantage players kept pretty lock and key. And I basically only do carking part of for a few reasons. But the main one being is that I wouldn't feel comfortable doing other kinds of advantage play on youtube.

Cut counts. The thing that exists in basically every casino you could go on account count, where is other forms of the advantage play tend to be very select lue poles that might get patched. So if I try to light on something that's possible in one game in lizida and that would get passionate, would exist anymore.

So this is a certain kind of degree of stuff that I wouldn't really want to tackle on youtube. So I just thought to stay in this lane and get really hard on this line. But there is like a i'm not gonna as far saying any game could be beaten, but there's lots of different ways that you can exploit various different games that people have figured out.

right? And has IT ever been the case? Have you ever been in a casino and seen some other advantage? Play, either playing blackjack a or playing game, have like multiple teams crossed streams at some point.

Yeah I don't think I really how the situation with two teams with big place for us solute the night at the same caso, that's never happened. But there's been lows at times, whether has been other car counters, not that these lows of car counters, but I SAT down at the table before start playing.

And then when I raised my back, somebody else is raising my bed and i'm like, wait a second and then you're watching how they play and you're waiting for a hand like soft eighteen, you know, eight, seven. Because there is the kind of hands that that non car count is tend to play wrong. So you wait for him like that.

Then you see, oh, they played IT correctly. This part is either really lucky with their timing of their bets or there a car counter. So if that happens, the attitudes who ever got that last will lead the table bible sometimes.

And it's just A A nonverbal signal that's unwritten to the rules of the degenerates of the like.

Otherwise it's like singing. And I swimming right IT just becomes really obvious when I raised my bed to the ground at the same time of the else raised of their bed. And then we both love R E.

At the same time of IT. IT just looks IT can look super obvious. So that can be an issue. I ve also had time multiple times where I, Steven, good to see you and just give you this.

But even with that, like if they know that you're there to count cards like they are just gonna follow what you do. I don't know you are all the time.

the counters.

right? okay.

So I be like, do you like to play alone? That since .

yeah yeah yeah now I .

can be funny. I kind of encourage you know, if it's a non cot count, i'll be like take insurance when I take insurance, which is no way that if the deal got jack, I just have a little table or something that if they asked me a question about like well, I wouldn't there was also in times with the dealer where you know, if you're playing and the dealer knows you're counting and then let's say gonna tip the deal, you go, oh, show me to tip IT to you.

Show me to play IT so you can do the single you put the chip in front of your your your own back and then that gambling with you, right? So be a time like, yeah it's just a common thing, right that's done in not come to everybody so you would like, oh, I I might say, do want IT or should I bet IT for you and okay, what do you think? And if I can't ago, I think you should definitely .

bet IT too. Yeah I mean, you must have had the amount of dealers that you've spent intimate time with, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours know of time with these dealers. What's the experience, I guess, that you're trying to remain under the radar. So maybe you don't speak to them so much, but like what's your insight about the life of a typical U. S black jag deal person.

I mean, they very as much as regular people vary. I think my experience with organic staff is is a complete mixed bag. There has been some people when dealers are.

I just think these people are so fun. I want to be friends of them in real life. And then there are the people that just on very nice people.

So it's hard to sort of really give a to sort of trying paint like a brush or kind of give an idea of the typical person that works in a casino because they very so much, I mean, certain security people can be a bit power trippy at times. A lot of pit bosses can be quite power trippy, but some of them are really nice. It's kind of hard to sort of give like the architect of a deal.

I think yeah, I mean, i've met a lot of dealers are really nice, a lot of dealing counting and they haven't dog mean. So those people are nice and they have they could have just make things really difficult. But then I also gone into met dealers, gone and pointed me out when I walked in the door.

After driving six hours, they gets the casino. So yeah, a real mixture. But yeah, you can actually really nice, interesting chance. And actually the deal is being tok. Ative is one of things, keeps me going on this trip. If it's not a team trip where where i'm with the team, you're away for whatever IT is two, three weeks, you don't know anybody and you're just driving around. And your only human interaction that you get is when you order a coffee, buy some food or playing at the bunch table and as an extrovert, being able to talk with the dealers is one of things which actually kept me, keeps me like sane on this trip. So yeah, really nice when you get a deal that's not having a little chat.

Yeah, I didn't think about that. I didn't think about how know that sounds old, romantic and fantastic, tic and cool and sexy. But the reality of IT is remembering plus one d one or zero in your mind for six hours and then goes bad and then getting up and doing IT all over again for a couple of weeks.

Yeah, IT mean IT can be such a true. I mean, after trips s where the amount of time spent driving has basically won to one ratio, the amount time playing, so for every hour, play our driving, because is so much, just got to go to this, the next co, and you can, you can.

It's not like exaggeration to say you can drive six hours to the nearer ino because you had to leave the town where that town with the five casinos of all called each other and told them what you look like. So you burn out that time when you just got there. You drive six thousand and gets to the next place and you walk in and someone of my days recognizes me. Or may be you just get a quick back off off and it's just those times just, bro, because you get back in the car and you right drive another three or four hours of the next place.

Now and more about logistics then IT is necessarily about mathematics.

Yeah for sure. yeah. The actual math that you're doing isn't that complicated is just a bunch of relatively simple components that get quite tRicky to do together, but the math gets about as complicated ors.

You have to look at the this card, try whether cards are, estimate how many cards are as the nest half deck and then you divide your count by that number. That's about guess, but even that you're rounding down all else you know trying to keep the conversation going or not look like you concentrating a law. But yeah, Stephen bridges.

ladies and gentleman, Steven, I love your youtube channel. Everyone should go and checked that out. Where else should people go where you want that to go on the internet to to look at your stuff?

Thank you so much. Yeah, I mean, I am many on you cheap, but also all instagram and x and threads kind of, I guess. So yeah, you can find me is just Stephen bridges, whatever those .

Prices are, Steven. Good look with what if you do next.

Jesse?