Ben Affleck's likely card counting strategy that got him banned

Ben Affleck was banned for life at Hard Rock's blackjack tables for betting with his head, not over it. He was card counting and the media has gone wild with wrong claims on the strategy he used. In a Los Angeles Times article by Michael Hiltzik, it was claimed the Hi-Lo Count was used. This is not true because it was reported on the Drudge Report (Radar Online) Affleck "also takes insurance according to the count. Uses black $100 cheques to keep track of the count while playing.” So that rules out Hi-Lo because aces are counted as high cards and a perfect insurance count requires aces be counted as a low card. Since he was busted at double deck, Affleck could have used a Ten Count where the ten cards are -2 and non-tens (including aces) are +1. The Ten Count starts at -8 and the advantage on insurance bets starts at plus counts.

It was also cited Affleck used $100 chips to keep track of the count. Affleck likely side-counted the aces with the chips (an ace appears every 13 cards) and made his big bets of $10,000 when more aces were left with the Ten Count in plus territory. When the count was minus and more aces played than normal, he would bet $100, a 1 -100 spread! The Wynn/Encore surveillance departments notified other casinos in the Surveillance Information Network (SIN for short), but did not ban Affleck at its casinos. The Hard Rock surveillance head notified the casino manager who banned Affleck for life at blackjack. We don't know if Affleck used the Ten Count with a side of aces, but if he did, it was an advantage play.