87-413: A Moscow mule is a cocktail made with vodka , ginger beer and lime juice , garnished with a slice or wedge of lime, and a sprig of mint. The drink, being a type of buck , is sometimes called vodka buck . It is popularly served in a copper mug, which takes on the cold temperature of the liquid. Some public health advisories recommend copper mugs with a protective coating (such as stainless steel) on
174-670: A Blackjack Hall of Fame inductee, filed a lawsuit against an Atlantic City casino, claiming that casinos did not have the right to ban skilled players. The New Jersey Supreme Court agreed, ruling that "the state's control of Atlantic City's casinos is so complete that only the New Jersey Casino Control Commission has the power to make rules to exclude skillful players." The commission has made no regulation on card counting, so Atlantic City casinos are not allowed to ban card counters. As they are unable to ban counters even when identified, Atlantic City casinos have increased
261-428: A side count of specific cards like aces. This is done where betting accuracy differs from playing accuracy. Many side count techniques exist, including special-purpose counts used for games with nonstandard profitable-play options such as an over/under side bet. Keeping track of more data with higher level counts can hurt speed and accuracy. Some counters earn more money playing a simple count quickly than by playing
348-443: A 1% advantage means a player will win an average of $ 1 per round. This translates into an average hourly winning of $ 50 if the player is dealt 50 hands per hour. Under one set of circumstances, a player with a 1-15 unit bet spread with only one-deck cut off of a six-deck game will enjoy an advantage of as much as 1.2% with a Standard Deviation of 3.5 on a 2.1 unit average bet. Therefore, it is highly advisable for counters to set aside
435-451: A carbonator." The FDA's Model Food Code specifically prohibits copper from "coming into direct contact with foods that have a pH below 6.0". The advisory relates only to solid copper mugs. Copper mugs that are lined with stainless steel or other food-safe materials are exempt from the advisory. The risk of copper poisoning has however been questioned by Trisha Andrew, who teaches chemistry at University of Massachusetts Amherst , saying that
522-584: A casino employee comments that it is impossible to do so. Basic card counting systems assign a positive, negative, or zero value to each card. When a card is dealt, the count is adjusted by that card's counting value. Low cards increase the count; they increase the percentage of high cards in the deck. High cards decrease the count for the opposite reason. For example, the Hi-Lo system subtracts one for each 10, jack, queen, king, or ace and adds one for any card between 2 and 6. 7s, 8s, and 9s count as zero and do not affect
609-516: A complex count slowly. This table illustrates some example counting systems. The primary goal of a card counting system is to assign point values to each card that roughly correlate to the card's "effect of removal" or EOR (that is, the effect a single card has on the house advantage once removed from play), thus enabling the player to gauge the house advantage based on the composition of cards still to be dealt. Larger ratios between point values can better correlate to actual EOR, but add complexity to
696-575: A copper vessel. The ingredients in a Moscow mule cocktail are acidic, and the resulting beverage has a pH well below 6.0. This creates a problem when using traditional copper mugs without coating, as copper can start dissolving into acidic solutions. Copper in solution is considered toxic at concentrations above 1 mg/L. On July 28, 2017, the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division issued a statement that pure copper vessels should not be used to serve acidic drinks, but that "copper mugs lined on
783-399: A fraction of pack cut off), and the betting spread (player's maximum bet divided by minimum bet). The variance in blackjack is high, so generating a sizable profit can take hundreds of hours of play. The deck will only have a positive enough count for the player to raise bets 10%-35% of the time depending on rules, penetration, and strategy. At a table where a player makes a $ 100 average bet,
870-422: A large dedicated bankroll; one popular rule of thumb dictates a bankroll of 100 times the maximum bet per hand. Another aspect of the probability of card counting is that, at higher counts, the player's probability of winning a hand is only slightly changed and still below 50%. The player's edge over the house on such hands does not come from the player's probability of winning the hands. Instead, it comes from
957-596: A libel lawsuit filed by professional gamblers. In 2008 all Chapter 11 payments were said to be up to date and all requirements met, and information was being supplied using data encryption and secure servers . If a player is found to be in such a database, they will almost certainly be stopped from play and asked to leave regardless of their table play. For successful card counters, therefore, skill at "cover" behavior, to hide counting and avoid "drawing heat" and possibly being barred, may be just as important as playing skill. Detection of card counters will be confirmed after
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#17328800883711044-425: A mix of cognac with a dash of his bitters. Several authors have theorized that "cocktail" may be a corruption of " cock ale ". There is a lack of clarity on the origins of cocktails. Traditionally cocktails were a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters . By the 1860s, however, a cocktail frequently included a liqueur . The first publication of a bartenders ' guide which included cocktail recipes
1131-503: A person, having swallowed a glass of it, is ready to swallow any thing else. Other origins have been suggested, as corruptions of other words or phrases. These can be dismissed as folk etymologies , given the well-attested term "cock-tail" for a horse. Dale DeGroff hypothesizes that the word evolved from the French coquetier , for an eggcup in which Antoine A. Peychaud, creator of Peychaud's Bitters , allegedly used to serve his guests
1218-495: A pitch game. Back-counting differs from traditional card-counting in that the player does not play every hand they see. This offers several advantages. For one, the player does not play hands without a statistical advantage. This increases the total advantage of the player. Another advantage is that the player does not have to change their bet size as much (or at all). Large variations in bet size are one way that casinos detect card counters. Back-counting has disadvantages, too. One
1305-487: A player is first suspected of counting cards; when seeking card counters, casino employees, whatever their position, could be alerted by many things that are most common when related to card counting but not common for other players. These include: Card counters may make unique playing strategy deviations not normally used by non-counters. Plays such as splitting tens, doubling soft 18/19/20, standing on 15/16, and surrendering on 14, when basic strategy says otherwise, may be
1392-417: A shoe game, so a player will be less likely to sit down for one or two hands and then have to get up. In addition, many casinos do not allow "mid-shoe entry" in single or double deck games which makes Wonging impossible. Another reason is that many casinos exhibit more effort to thwart card counters on their pitch games than on their shoe games, as a counter has a smaller advantage on an average shoe game than in
1479-489: A sign of a card counter. Extremely aggressive plays such as splitting tens and doubling soft 19 and 20 are often called out to the pit to notify them because they are telltale signs of not only card counters but hole carding . Several semi-automated systems have been designed to aid the detection of card counters. The MindPlay system (now discontinued) scanned card values as the cards were dealt. The Shuffle Master Intelligent Shoe system also scans card values as cards exit
1566-508: A single back-counting player can usually only track one table. This allows big players to move from table to table, maintaining the high-count advantage without being out of action very long. It also allows redundancy while the big player is seated as both the counter and big player can keep the count (as in the movie 21 , the spotter can communicate the count to the big player discreetly as they sit down). The disadvantages include requiring multiple spotters who can keep an accurate count, splitting
1653-408: A slug, nibbling an hors d'oeuvre and shoving toward inventive genius". Martin and Kunett had their minds on their vodka and wondered what would happen if a two-ounce shot joined with Morgan's ginger beer and the squeeze of a lemon. Ice was ordered, lemons procured, mugs ushered in and the concoction put together. Cups were raised, the men counted five and down went the first taste. It was good. It lifted
1740-457: A stimulating drink, like pick-me-up . This agrees with usage in early citations (1798: "'cock-tail' (vulgarly called ginger)", 1803: drink at 11 a.m. to clear the head, 1806: "stimulating liquor"), and suggests that a cocktail was initially considered a medicinal drink, which accords with the use of bitters. Etymologist Anatoly Liberman endorses as "highly probable" the theory advanced by Låftman (1946), which Liberman summarizes as follows: It
1827-463: A system. Such systems are classified as level 1, level 2, level 3, and so on. The level corresponds to the ratio between values. The Hi-Lo system is a level-1 count; the running count never increases or decreases by more than one. A multilevel count, such as Zen Count, Wong Halves, or Hi-Opt II, further distinguishes card values to increase accuracy. An advanced count includes values such as +2 and −2, or +0.5 and -0.5. Advanced players might also keep
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#17328800883711914-412: A table and play the game at the table minimum, while keeping a count (basically doing the back "counting"). When the count is significantly high, the spotter will discreetly signal another player, known as a "big player", that the count is high (the table is "hot"). The big player will then "Wong in" and wager vastly higher sums (up to the table maximum) while the count is high. When the count "cools off" or
2001-497: A way that the player wagers proportionally to the player's advantage to maximize bankroll growth. Taken to its conclusion, the Kelly criterion demands that a player not bet anything when the deck does not offer a positive expectation; "Wonging" implements this. Historically, blackjack played with a perfect basic strategy offered a house edge of less than 0.5%. As more casinos have switched games to dealer hits soft-17 and blackjack pays 6:5,
2088-522: A wide variety of drinks; it is typically a mixed drink containing alcohol. When a combined drink contains only a distilled spirit and a mixer , such as soda or fruit juice , it is a highball . Many of the International Bartenders Association Official Cocktails are highballs. When a mixed drink contains only a distilled spirit and a liqueur , it is a duo, and when it adds cream or a cream-based liqueur, it
2175-444: Is a blackjack strategy used to determine whether the player or the dealer has an advantage on the next hand. Card counters try to overcome the casino house edge by keeping a running count of high and low valued cards dealt. They generally bet more when they have an advantage and less when the dealer has an advantage. They also change playing decisions based on the composition of the deck and sometimes play in teams. Card counting
2262-541: Is a pattern to play variation. Of particular interest is whether the player sometimes (when the count is positive) takes insurance and stands on 16 versus a dealer 10, but plays differently when the count is negative. Casinos have spent a great amount of effort and money in trying to thwart card counters. Countermeasures used to prevent card counters from profiting at blackjack include: Some jurisdictions (e.g. Nevada ) have few legal restrictions placed on these countermeasures. Other jurisdictions such as New Jersey limit
2349-431: Is a trio. Additional ingredients may be sugar, honey , milk, cream , and various herbs. Mixed drinks without alcohol that resemble cocktails can be known as "zero-proof" or "virgin" cocktails or "mocktails". The origin of the word "cocktail" is disputed. It is presumably from "cock-tail", meaning "with tail standing up, like a cock's", in particular of a horse, but how this came to be applied to alcoholic mixed drinks
2436-418: Is based on statistical evidence that high cards ( aces , 10s, and 9s) benefit the player, while low cards, (2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, and 7s) benefit the dealer. High cards benefit the player in the following ways: On the other hand, low cards benefit the dealer. The rules require the dealer to hit stiff hands (12–16 total), and low cards are less likely to bust these totals. A dealer holding a stiff hand will bust if
2523-466: Is more important in shoe games, counting the ace is more important in shoe games. One way to deal with such tradeoffs is to ignore the ace to yield higher PE while keeping a side count which is used to detect an additional change in EV which the player will use to detect additional betting opportunities that ordinarily would not be indicated by the primary card counting system. The most common side counted card
2610-409: Is that the player frequently does not stay at the table long enough to earn comps . Another disadvantage is that some players may become irritated with players who enter in the middle of a game. They believe that this interrupts the "flow" of the cards. Their resentment may not merely be superstition, though, as this practice will negatively impact the other players at the table; with one fewer player at
2697-470: Is the ace since it is the most important card in terms of achieving a balance of BC and PE. In theory, a player could keep a side count of every card and achieve a near 100% PE, however, methods involving additional side counts for PE become more complex at an exponential rate as you add more side counts and the ability of the human mind is quickly overtasked and unable to make the necessary computations. Without any side counts, PE can approach 70%. Since there
Moscow mule - Misplaced Pages Continue
2784-422: Is the potential to create an overtaxing demand on the human mind while using a card counting system another important design consideration is the ease of use. Higher-level systems and systems with side counts will obviously become more difficult and in an attempt to make them easier, unbalanced systems eliminate the need for a player to keep tabs on the number of cards/decks that have already entered play typically at
2871-399: Is unclear. The most prominent theories are that it refers to a stimulant, hence a stimulating drink, or to a non-purebred horse, hence a mixed drink. Cocktail historian David Wondrich speculates that "cocktail" is a reference to gingering , a practice for perking up an old horse by means of a ginger suppository so that the animal would "cock its tail up and be frisky", hence by extension
2958-692: The Old Fashioned whiskey cocktail, the Sazerac cocktail, and the Manhattan cocktail. The ingredients listed (spirits, sugar, water, and bitters) match the ingredients of an Old Fashioned , which originated as a term used by late 19th-century bar patrons to distinguish cocktails made the "old-fashioned" way from newer, more complex cocktails. In the 1869 recipe book Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks , by William Terrington, cocktails are described as: Cocktails are compounds very much used by "early birds" to fortify
3045-451: The "take" among all members of the team, requiring spotters to play a table regardless of the count (using only basic strategy, these players will lose money long-term), and requiring signals, which can alert pit bosses. A simple variation removes the loss of having spotters play; the spotters simply watch the table instead of playing and signal big players to Wong in and out as normal. The disadvantages of this variation are reduced ability of
3132-427: The 1800s to include the addition of a liqueur . In 1862, Jerry Thomas published a bartender's guide called How to Mix Drinks; or, The Bon Vivant's Companion which included 10 cocktail recipes using bitters, to differentiate from other drinks such as punches and cobblers. Cocktails continued to evolve and gain popularity throughout the 1900s, with the term eventually expanding to cover all mixed drinks. In 1917,
3219-414: The 1980s with vodka often substituting for the original gin in drinks such as the martini . Traditional cocktails began to make a comeback in the 2000s, and by the mid-2000s there was a renaissance of cocktail culture in a style typically referred to as mixology that draws on traditional cocktails for inspiration but uses novel ingredients and often complex flavors. Card counting Card counting
3306-643: The Dealer , a small number of professional card counters were beating blackjack games in Vegas and elsewhere. One was Jess Marcum, who developed the first full-fledged point-count system. Another pre-Thorp card counter was professional gambler Joe Bernstein. He is described in 1961's I Want To Quit Winners by Reno casino owner Harold Smith as an ace counter feared throughout Nevada. And in the 1957 book, Playing Blackjack to Win , Roger Baldwin, Wilbert Cantey, Herbert Maisel, and James McDermott (known as "The Four Horsemen") published
3393-553: The Dealer , outlines betting and playing strategies for optimal play. Although mathematically sound, some of the techniques no longer apply, as casinos took countermeasures (such as no longer dealing with the last card). The counting system in Beat the Dealer, the 10-count, is harder to use and less profitable than later systems. A history of how counting developed can be seen in David Layton's documentary film The Hot Shoe . Before Beat
3480-474: The United States (1920–1933), when alcoholic beverages were illegal, cocktails were still consumed illegally in establishments known as speakeasies . The quality of the liquor available during Prohibition was much worse than previously. There was a shift from whiskey to gin , which does not require aging and is, therefore, easier to produce illicitly. Honey, fruit juices, and other flavorings served to mask
3567-413: The ace (ace-reckoned strategies) and some do not (ace-neutral strategies). Including aces in the count improves betting correlation since the ace is the most valuable card in the deck for betting purposes. However, since the ace can either be counted as one or eleven, including an ace in the count decreases the accuracy of playing efficiency. Since PE is more important in single- and double-deck games, and BC
Moscow mule - Misplaced Pages Continue
3654-501: The actor Broderick Crawford . "It caught on like wildfire," Price bragged." The Moscow mule is often served in a copper mug. The popularity of this drinking vessel is attributable to Martin, who went around the United States to sell Smirnoff vodka and popularize the Moscow mule. Martin asked bartenders to pose with a specialty copper mug and a bottle of Smirnoff vodka, and took Polaroid photographs of them. He took two photos, leaving one with
3741-497: The average house edge in Nevada has increased to 1%. A typical card counter who ranges bets appropriately in a game with six decks will have an advantage of approximately 1% over the casino. Advantages of up to 2.5% are possible at normal penetrations from counting 6-deck Spanish 21 , for the S17 or H17 with redoubling games. This amount varies based on the counter's skill level, penetration (1 –
3828-531: The banquets. In the United States, a written mention of 'cocktail' as a beverage appeared in The Farmers Cabinet, 1803, . The first definition of a cocktail as an alcoholic beverage appeared three years later in The Balance and Columbian Repository ( Hudson, New York ) May 13, 1806. Traditionally, cocktail ingredients included spirits, sugar, water and bitters; however, this definition evolved throughout
3915-472: The bartender for display. The other photo was put into a collection and used as proof to the next bar Martin visited of the popularity of the Moscow mule. The copper mug remains, to this day, a popular serving vessel for the Moscow mule. According to a 1942 Insider Hollywood article, the Moscow mule was most popular in Los Angeles, where it originated. The Nevada State Journal (October 12, 1943) reinforced
4002-400: The casino can analyze bet variation, play accuracy, and play variation. Bet variation . The simplest way a card counter makes money is to bet more when they have an edge. While playing back the tapes of a recent session of play, the software can generate a scatter plot of the amount bet versus the count at the time the bet was made and find the trendline that best fits the scattered points. If
4089-421: The cold temperature and the short duration of a usual serving would not cause the copper levels to rise high enough to pose a risk. Cocktail A cocktail is a mixed drink , usually alcoholic . Most commonly, a cocktail is a combination of one or more spirits mixed with other ingredients, such as juices, flavored syrups , tonic water , shrubs , and bitters . Cocktails vary widely across regions of
4176-399: The count. A card counting system aims to assign point values roughly correlating to a card's effect of removal (EOR). The EOR is the estimated effect of removing a given card from play. Counters gauge the effect of removal for all cards dealt and how that affects the current house edge. Larger ratios between point values create better correlations to actual EOR, increasing the efficiency of
4263-460: The countermeasures a casino can take against skilled players. Some countermeasures result in disadvantages for the casino. Frequent or complex shuffling, for example, reduces the amount of playing time and consequently the house winnings. Some casinos use automatic shuffling machines to counter the loss of time, with some models of machines shuffling one set of cards while another is in play. Others, known as continuous shuffle machines (CSMs), allow
4350-428: The dealer reshuffle the cards whenever the odds favor the players. To comply with licensing regulations, some blackjack protection systems have been designed to delay access to real-time data on the remaining cards in the shoe. Other vendors consider real-time notification to surveillance that a shoe is "hot" to be an important product feature. With card values, play decisions, and bet decisions conveniently accessible,
4437-437: The dealer to simply return used cards to a single shoe to allow playing with no interruption. Because CSMs essentially force minimal penetration, they greatly reduce the advantage of traditional counting techniques. In most online casinos the deck is shuffled at the start of each new round, ensuring the house always has the advantage. American mathematician Edward O. Thorp is the father of card counting. His 1962 book, Beat
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#17328800883714524-466: The drink was born out of a need to clear the bar's cellar, packed with unsold inventory, including vodka and ginger beer. Eric Felten quotes Wes Price in an article that was published in 2007 in The Wall Street Journal "I just wanted to clean out the basement," Price would say of creating the Moscow mule. "I was trying to get rid of a lot of dead stock." The first one he mixed he served to
4611-468: The expense of lowering PE. The running count is the running total of each card's assigned value. When using a balanced count (such as the Hi-Lo system), the running count is converted into a "true count", which takes into consideration the number of decks used. With Hi-Lo, the true count is the running count divided by the number of decks that have not yet been dealt; this can be calculated by division or approximated with an average card count per round times
4698-451: The first accurate blackjack basic strategy and a rudimentary card counting system, devised solely with the aid of crude mechanical calculators – what used to be called "adding machines". From the early days, some have been succeeded, including Al Francesco, the inventor of blackjack team play and the man who taught Ken Uston how to count cards, and Tommy Hyland , manager of the longest-running blackjack team in history. Ken Uston, perhaps
4785-402: The foul taste of the inferior liquors. Sweet cocktails were easier to drink quickly, an important consideration when the establishment might be raided at any moment. With wine and beer less readily available, liquor-based cocktails took their place, even becoming the centerpiece of the new cocktail party . Cocktails became less popular in the late 1960s and through the 1970s, until resurging in
4872-579: The ginger beer is known as a Moscow Mole. George Sinclair's 2007 article on the origin of the drink quotes the New York Herald Tribune from 1948: The mule was born in Manhattan but "stalled" on the West Coast for the duration. The birthplace of "Little Moscow" was in New York's Chatham Hotel. That was back in 1941 when the first carload of Jack Morgan's Cock 'n' Bull ginger beer was railing over
4959-755: The hands of the on-floor casino personnel (" pit bosses ") and casino-surveillance personnel, who may use video surveillance ("the eye in the sky ") as well as computer analysis, to try to spot playing behavior indicative of card counting. Early counter-strategies featured the dealers learning to count the cards themselves to recognize the patterns in the players. Many casino chains keep databases of players that they consider undesirable. Casinos can also subscribe to databases of advantage players offered by agencies like Griffin Investigations , Biometrica, and OSN (Oregon Surveillance Network). Griffin Investigations filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2005 after losing
5046-410: The increased probability of blackjacks, increased gain and benefits from doubling, splitting, and surrender, and the insurance side bet, which becomes profitable at high counts. Many factors affect expected profit, including: Card counting is not illegal under British law, nor is it under federal, state, or local laws in the United States provided that no external card counting device or person assists
5133-405: The inner man, and by those who like their consolations hot and strong. The term highball appears during the 1890s to distinguish a drink composed only of a distilled spirit and a mixer . Published in 1902 by Farrow and Jackson , "Recipes of American and Other Iced Drinks" contains recipes for nearly two dozen cocktails, some still recognizable today. The first "cocktail party" ever thrown
5220-526: The inside and the lip, to reduce the risk of copper toxicity . Due to the popularity of the Moscow mule, other buck cocktails with different liquors or other ingredients have been labeled with the "mule" name in recent years. Variations with the name changed accordingly: Another variation uses ginger syrup instead of ginger beer. Other ingredients, such as carrot juice and angostura bitters , can also be added. A variant which uses Mountain Dew soda in place of
5307-407: The interior with another metal, such as nickel or stainless steel, are allowed to be used and are widely available". The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 2013 Food Code states that copper and copper alloys such as brass "may not be used in contact with a food that has a pH below 6 such as vinegar, fruit juice, or wine or for a fitting or tubing installed between a backflow prevention device and
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#17328800883715394-554: The location was Harrah's Lake Tahoe , due to Harrah's then well-known proclivity for the drink. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, some American and Canadian bars began to refer to the drink as a "Kyiv mule" – referring to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv – in protest of the invasion. There are some health concerns related to the tradition of serving a Moscow Mule in
5481-481: The mule's popularity in reporting: "Already the mule is climbing up into the exclusive handful of most-popular mixed drinks". It became known as a favorite drink of Reno casino owner William F. Harrah . In his book Beat the Dealer (1964), Edward O. Thorp did not name the Tahoe casino where he thought he had been poorly treated as a card counter . Instead, he wrote, "Immediately I had a Moscow mule", subtly hinting that
5568-496: The next card is a 10. Card counters do not need unusual mental abilities; they do not track or memorize specific cards. Instead, card counters assign a point score to each card that estimates the value of that card. They track the sum of these values with a running count. The myth that counters track every card was portrayed in the 1988 film Rain Man , in which the savant character Raymond Babbitt counts through six decks with ease, and
5655-571: The number of rounds dealt. However, many variations of the true count calculation exist. Back-counting, or "Wonging", consists of standing behind a blackjack table and counting the cards as they are dealt. Stanford Wong first proposed the idea of back-counting, hence the name. The player will enter or "Wong in" to the game when the count reaches a point at which the player has an advantage. The player may then raise their bets as their advantage increases, or lower their bets as their advantage goes down. Some back-counters prefer to flat-bet, and only bet
5742-411: The other players whether they are counting cards or not. Also, a player who hops in and out of games may attract unwanted attention from casino personnel and may be detected as a card-counter. While a single player can maintain their own advantage with back-counting, card counting is most often used by teams of players to maximize their advantage. In such a team, some players called "spotters" will sit at
5829-687: The plains to give New Yorkers a happy surprise…The Violette Family helped. Three friends were in the Chatham bar, one John A. Morgan, known as Jack, president of Cock 'n' Bull Products and owner of the Hollywood Cock 'n' Bull Restaurant; one was John G. Martin, president of G.F. Heublein Brothers Inc. of Hartford, Conn., and the third was Rudolph Kunett, president of the Pierre Smirnoff, Heublein's vodka division. As Jack Morgan tells it, "We three were quaffing
5916-494: The player in counting cards. Still, casinos object to the practice, and try to prevent it, banning players believed to be counters. In their pursuit to identify card counters, casinos sometimes misidentify and ban players suspected of counting cards even if they do not. Atlantic City casinos in the US state of New Jersey are forbidden from banning card counters as a result of a New Jersey Supreme Court decision. In 1979, Ken Uston ,
6003-460: The player is not counting cards, there will be no trend; their bet variation and the count variation will not consistently correlate. If the player is counting and varying bets according to the count, there will be a trend whose slope reflects the player's average edge from this technique. Play variation . When card counters vary from basic strategy, they do so in response to the count, to gain an additional edge. The software can verify whether there
6090-416: The player's advantage. In practice, this means that the higher the count, the more a player should bet to take advantage of the player's edge. Using this principle, a counter can vary bet sizes in proportion to the advantage dictated by a count. This creates a "bet ramp" according to the principles of the Kelly criterion. A bet ramp is a betting plan with a specific bet size tied to each true count value in such
6177-401: The question, "What is a cocktail?": Cock-tail is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters —it is vulgarly called bittered sling , and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion, in as much as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is said, also to be of great use to a democratic candidate: because
6264-400: The same amount once they have entered the game. Some players will stay at the table until the game is shuffled, or they may "Wong out" or leave when the count reaches a level at which they no longer have an advantage. Back-counting is generally done on shoe games, of 4, 6, or 8 decks, although it can be done on pitch games of 1 or 2 decks. The reason for this is that the count is more stable in
6351-578: The shoe is shuffled (resetting the count), the big player will "Wong out" and look for other counters who are signaling a high count. This was the system used by the MIT Blackjack Team , whose story was in turn the inspiration for the Canadian movie The Last Casino which was later re-made into the Hollywood version 21 . The main advantage of group play is that the team can count several tables while
6438-431: The shoe. Software called Bloodhound and Protec 21 allows voice input of card and bet values, in an attempt to determine the player edge. A more recent innovation is the use of RFID signatures embedded within the casino chips so that the table can automatically track bet amounts. Automated card-reading technology has known abuse potential in that it can be used to simplify the practice of preferential shuffling – having
6525-657: The so-called "cocktail in a can" had proliferated (at least in the United States) to become a common item in liquor stores. In the modern world and the Information Age , cocktail recipes are widely shared online on websites. Cocktails and restaurants that serve them are frequently covered and reviewed in tourism magazines and guides. Some cocktails, such as the Mojito , Manhattan , and Martini , have become staples in restaurants and pop culture. The term cocktail can refer to
6612-495: The spirit to adventure. Four or five days later the mixture was christened the Moscow mule... Mayo Methot 's husband, Percy T. Morgan, an oil tycoon, was a co-owner of the Cock n' Bull restaurant. This story was well known for years, however in 2007, a new version of the invention of the Moscow mule cocktail was published. In this story the cocktail's inventor was Wes Price, getting the idea from Hudes Potache, Morgan's head bartender and
6699-511: The spotter and big player to communicate, reduced comps as the spotters are not sitting down, and vastly increased suspicion, as blackjack is not generally considered a spectator sport in casinos except among those actually playing (unlike craps , roulette , and wheels of fortune which have larger displays and so tend to attract more spectators). A mathematical principle called the Kelly criterion indicates that bet increases should be proportional to
6786-418: The system. Counting systems may be referred to as "level 1", "level 2", etc., corresponding to the number of different point values the system calls for. The ideal system is a system that is usable by the player and offers the highest average dollar return per period of time when dealt at a fixed rate. With this in mind, systems aim to achieve a balance of efficiency in three categories: Some strategies count
6873-429: The table when the card composition becomes unfavorable, the other players will play through more hands under those conditions as they will use up fewer cards per hand. Similarly, they will play fewer hands in the rest of the shoe if the advantage player slips in during the middle of the shoe, when the cards become favorable; with one more player, more of those favorable cards will be used up per hand. This negatively impacts
6960-524: The term cocktail party was coined by Julius S. Walsh Jr. of St. Louis , Missouri . With wine and beer being less available during the Prohibition in the United States (1920–1933), liquor-based cocktails became more popular due to accessibility, followed by a decline in popularity during the late 1960s. The early to mid-2000s saw the rise of cocktail culture through the style of mixology which mixes traditional cocktails and other novel ingredients. By 2023,
7047-471: The use of countermeasures . Macau , the only legal gambling location in China, does not technically prohibit card counting but casinos reserve the right to expel or ban any customers, as is the case in the US and Britain. The use of electronic devices to aid such strategies, however, is strictly prohibited and can lead to arrest. Monitoring player behavior to assist with detecting the card counters falls into
7134-623: The word as originating in the U.S. The first recorded use of cocktail as a beverage (possibly non-alcoholic) in the United States appears in The Farmer's Cabinet , April 28, 1803: 11. [a.m.] Drank a glass of cocktail—excellent for the head...Call'd at the Doct's. found Burnham—he looked very wise—drank another glass of cocktail. The first definition of cocktail known to be an alcoholic beverage appeared in The Balance and Columbian Repository ( Hudson, New York ) May 13, 1806; editor Harry Croswell answered
7221-739: The world, and many websites publish both original recipes and their own interpretations of older and more famous cocktails. A well-known 'cocktail' in ancient Greece was named kykeon . It is mentioned in the Homeric texts and was used in the Eleusinian Mysteries . 'Cocktail' accessories are exposed in the Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai (Greece). They were used in the court of Philip II of Macedon to prepare and serve mixtures of wine, water, honey as well as extracts of aromatic herbs and flowers, during
7308-612: Was allegedly by Julius S. Walsh Jr. of St. Louis , Missouri , in May 1917. Walsh invited 50 guests to her home at noon on a Sunday. The party lasted an hour until lunch was served at 1 p.m. The site of this first cocktail party still stands. In 1924, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis bought the Walsh mansion at 4510 Lindell Boulevard, and it has served as the local archbishop's residence ever since. During Prohibition in
7395-617: Was an acceptable alcoholic drink, but diluted, not a "purebred", a thing "raised above its station". Hence the highly appropriate slang word used earlier about inferior horses and sham gentlemen. The first recorded use of cocktail not referring to a horse is found in The Morning Post and Gazetteer in London, England, March 20, 1798: Mr. Pitt, two petit vers of "L'huile de Venus" Ditto, one of "perfeit amour" Ditto, "cock-tail" (vulgarly called ginger) The Oxford English Dictionary cites
7482-472: Was customary to dock the tails of horses that were not thoroughbred [...] They were called cocktailed horses, later simply cocktails. By extension, the word cocktail was applied to a vulgar, ill-bred person raised above his station, assuming the position of a gentleman but deficient in gentlemanly breeding. [...] Of importance [in the 1806 citation above] is [...] the mention of water as an ingredient. [...] Låftman concluded that cocktail
7569-444: Was in 1862 – How to Mix Drinks; or, The Bon Vivant's Companion , by "Professor" Jerry Thomas . In addition to recipes for punches, sours, slings, cobblers, shrubs, toddies, flips, and a variety of other mixed drinks were 10 recipes for "cocktails". A key ingredient distinguishing cocktails from other drinks in this compendium was the use of bitters . Mixed drinks popular today that conform to this original meaning of "cocktail" include
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