CARD COUNTERS BEWARE, CASINO SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS ARE WATCHING!

A pit boss and his disciples will approach you and thank you for playing in the casino, but could you please play another card game rather than blackjack? Well, there’s nothing you can do but take note that there are surveillance cameras around.

Sharp subterfuge at the gaming tables

Card counting is not illegal, but casinos do not condone it. You will be shown the door and thanked for patronizing the casino. How they are quick at separating the chaff from the grain is thanks to surveillance cameras, which you camera counters have correctly suspected.

Card counting is as old as man’s desire for other people’s money. The lucky few who are gifted with sharp memories are the only ones who can stack up their chips as high as the ceiling.

Despite the distraction of sexy waitresses, the pinging of slot machines, and the talk at the tables, they can keep count of the cards dealt and accurately guess the high cards left on the deck.

What’s the card counter’s game

When the cards dealt are low cards, the card counter will start to bet low and when the remaining cards are distributed, he’ll starting betting like there is no tomorrow. In all appearances, the card counter is not as obvious as peering into the card stack or making overt hand signals.

The action is in his mind. How the surveillance cameras can detect his subterfuge is in the growing pile of chips. But the floor masters and the pit bosses are only chancing on their instinct and not on hard evidence to bodily throw you out of the door. So they’ll smile and invite you to play another card game.

A card counter learns the tricks of the trade by sheer force of will. It is not so much as memorizing all the cards that have been played. The card counter actually keeps tabs on the deck composition and checks his composure when he knows that the next cards to be played are going to be high value cards.

When casino surveillance cameras watch him, there’s nothing unusual. He looks just like any regular card player: chatting, sipping his beer, or ogling the waitresses in their skimpy costumes. But underneath the cool exterior is an agile mind tracking the ratio of low cards to high value cards.

How to count cards

If you’re an aspiring card counter, here’s what you should do. Use a mental sliding scale. Aces and 10 value cards are minus 1 and low value cards from 2-7 are worth plus one. Each time a high card is dealt, subtract one from the current count, do the reverse with a low card – adding it to the current count.

Things You Should Know Before Buying A Digital Camera

In a traditional camera, the lens was king. If the lens delivered a decent image, exactly that image would be recorded on the film. As the original image size was limited by the film size (35mm having become the standard), you would then have to enlarge it to get any size of print. If the original was at all blurred this would be exaggerated by the enlarging process.

The more light the lens let in, the ‘quicker’ it could take an image – hence expensive traditional cameras had wide lenses.

What electronic cameras have done is to downgrade the importance of the lens. Computer software can supply the missing light, and sharpen the image. What you need instead is memory. A 1 megapixel image enlarged to 6×4, is barely acceptable. Above that size, it is a waste of print, but, funnily enough, can be viewed at larger sizes on a computer screen with little loss of quality. A 4 megapixel image can be enlarged to A4.

So, here are the rules. You will see that, as with most electronic purchases, it is very important to analyse what you want to do with the camera. For example I saw a neighbour’s new system with which she was so pleased, but I was not impressed. There were so many things ‘wrong’ with it, in fact, her ‘camera’ was the primary motivation for writing this article. The quick answer is: If you do exactly the opposite to everything in this article, the result would be you buying the camera she did – designed to be as small as possible, so, although expensive, it had too little power, too little memory, an inadequate lens, and fiddly to use.

If you want to buy the right system for you; Don’t just go out thinking the sales assistants can help you, they may well have pleasant and helpful manners, but most won’t know much about anything, do your research first noting the following pointers:

1 Pixels:

If all you want to do is to post images on the internet, the pixel count becomes less important, 3 megapixels is perfect.

If you want to print images to 6×4 or 8×10, however, go for 4 megapixels at least.

If you have a computer and are prepared to use photo editing, pay extra for additional pixels, and don’t bother with the features that replicate the computers ability to manipulate your photos.

If you will rely on printing your images direct from the camera, make sure it comes from a manufacturer who links to a good lens maker (eg Kodak, Canon, Olympus, etc.).

2 Export/Printing:

Next, how do you get your pictures out. There are 2 ways – taking the memory out of the camera, and slotting it into a print device, (either a home printer, card reader or a machine at a photo printers), or by way of a cable.

If you are comfortable with computers, either method is straight forward. If you want to be able to do this without thinking, make sure your camera comes with a removable memory card (and upgrade this to the largest size you can,) and buy one with a docking system.

It is worth noting that some people counting camera people don’t even have computers, they simply take their storage media to Tesco or any up-to-date photo processing unit and get their photos printed as they always have!

3 Power:

Electronic cameras use batteries. The more mechanical parts one has, the faster the battery is used. Optical zoom is a mechanical process, and the camera will flex its muscles each time you turn it on, so there is constant battery drain. Avoid it, unless you need the zoom (see below). If you do, consider a non motorised zoom (ie manual or digital).