My son asked if we could go to a casino in Montreal for his 18th birthday, and, after I agreed, he promptly set his sights on learning how to count cards. He’s been learning from YouTube (you can learn anything there). I tried to persuade him that most casinos have a ‘fairly’ good idea on how to pick this up in their establishments, but it didn\’t seemed to kill his enthusiasm. In fact, he managed to learn a good amount of the system quickly, and has been explaining it to me as he picks it up.
So, here’s the thing — Instead of counting every card in a deck (like I originally thought), it ends up being a point system. Every card is given a value of negative one, neutral, or plus one. Essentially, every time a card comes up that is of a negative value, it means that it works against your odds of winning, and every time a card comes up that has a positive value, you have a greater chance of winning. Put simply, your chances of winning over time (with one deck of cards) increases each time you see a positive value card come up, and decreases each time you see a negative value card come up. A neutral card does nothing one way or the other for your chances of winning or losing.
While my son was explaining this to me, I realize that half my attention was on what he is saying, while the other half was on the stomachache I have from all the Halloween candy I have eaten over the last 2 days. There’s a good deal of heavy judgment on my part, because I know it\’s on me… I keep the candy around the house looong after the Halloween. My brain checks back in just in time to hear my son assure me that his explanation of card counting is very rudimentary.
I must confess, while I had no desire to empty our savings account and make a break to Vegas, I did start to think about what an interesting concept card counting was. How amazing would it be to put a similar value system on the things that we as human beings allow into our Realities? I thought about all the different things that we actually put in front of ourselves (or have put in front of us… A bowl of candy corns for instance). Whether it be food, things we watch, the kind of people we hang around with, everything and anything that we allow into our internal reality. This system would be an amazing way to determine what has a high probability of helping us develop ourselves mentally and physically and what is more likely to have a detrimental effect.
For example, sitting near the candy corn bowl would hold a negative environmental value in my odds for eating sugar. Just giving the candy away (difficult) or throwing out the ‘leftovers’ after Halloween (ouch!), would hold a positive environmental value for eating less candy. This kind of mindful personal card counting would take a great deal less energy to maintain than a blanket, will-based decision of ‘not eating any more candy at Halloween for the rest of my life’ (ludicrous, I know :). This kind of mindfulness would enable me a higher probability of reaching my goals, because I would also be more aware of the ‘positive cards.’ I could work to stack the deck in my favor by surrounding myself with the people, situations, and even my own thoughts and emotions that supported what I wanted to accomplish. I realize we are all human, and I won’t always make the best choices for myself, but if I can keep the ‘odds in my favor,’ well, maybe I can ‘beat the house’ over time.
As my son was finishing up his explanation, I put the bowl of candy corns in the kitchen (definitely a positive card), and started to drink water… another ‘plus one’ decision. Will that be the last candy corn that I eat? I could tell you, “yes!\” But we both know better. What I can say is that I am done eating them for the evening, I’m drinking water, and will most likely take a good half-hour walk (another plus card) before getting to bed early to try and keep the house from winning.
