Bottom line: A successful card counting system--and there are many--will shift the odds in the player's favor.

FORBES: Playing to win

Card counting isn't for everybody: It isn't illegal but casino management looks very unkindly on the practice.

FORBES: Playing to win

The most important point is the way probability works when basic strategy and card counting are accurately applied.

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Two of its founders, Michael Wakin and Christopher Rozell, had just had a paper on card counting in blackjack rejected.

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Card counting simply means that the player keeps track of the cards that have been dealt and deduces what cards are likely to be dealt next.

FORBES: Playing to win

In Holland, many casinos use continuous shuffling machines (CSM), so that dealt cards are shuffled back into the deck after each hand, in order to fend off card counting.

BBC: Casino design and why the house always wins

At the same time, trust is much more than card-counting, or doing clever probabilistic analyses of the odds.

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That, combined with accurate card-counting and proper bet-sizing, will inevitably lead to winning, as long as enough hands are played beyond the effects of standard deviation issues.

FORBES: Luck Vs. Skill, Process Vs. Outcome, Doing Vs. Not Doing

The White House knows it has no legal authority to demand such a corporate ATM card, but it is counting on public anger to coerce BP to go along.

WSJ: Obama's Political Oil Fund

That isn't counting possible tiebreaker games to determine a wild-card winner.

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