---
title: 'Card Counting Team Hits TOUGHEST Casino In Europe!'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=exO0paRESbU'
video_id: 'exO0paRESbU'
date: 2026-10-04
duration_sec: 1004
channel: 'StevenBridges'
---

# Card Counting Team Hits TOUGHEST Casino In Europe!

> Source: [Card Counting Team Hits TOUGHEST Casino In Europe!](https://youtube.com/watch?v=exO0paRESbU)

## Summary

This video documents the story of Team Strike, a European card counting team that attempted to beat casinos at high-stakes blackjack. It explains the two main team play strategies, details the planning and execution of 'Project Tower,' and reveals the outcome, including a £36,000 win and subsequent bans.

### Key Points

- **Types of Team Play** [00:27] — Two main types of team play: solo team play (counters at separate casinos, shared bankroll) and big player/spotter team play (team works together in the same casino, passing info).
- **The Major Tell** [00:40] — All card counting relies on a major tell: betting big when the count is high and small when it's low. Casinos are good at catching this.
- **BP/Spotter System Explained** [01:19] — In BP/Spotter play, spotters bet minimum and signal the BP when the count is high. The BP joins, bets big, and plays out the hand. This eliminates the biggest tell.
- **First Attempt Failure** [02:15] — Team Strike's first BP/Spotter attempt in March 2020 resulted in a loss of $24,800 in one shoe (about 20 minutes).
- **Project Tower Planning** [03:37] — The team planned a hit on a European casino with a six-deck game, three tables, min bet 5, max over 5K. Estimated value was £2,200 per hour.
- **Non-Verbal Communication System** [04:41] — The casino could legally listen to table conversations, so the team developed a non-verbal communication system using posture, movement, head positioning, and fidgeting.
- **Bankroll and Training** [05:44] — The team had a bankroll of £73,000 and trained for two days before the hit. The BP would bet up to £3,000.
- **Casino Entry Strategy** [06:38] — The team entered the casino separately to avoid suspicion. The first spotter went in, then the narrator, then Irish AP.
- **Irish AP's Buy-In Problem** [07:48] — Irish AP was limited to a $10,000 buy-in, which was a risk. He got a call in early and placed two bets of £1,000-ish, losing £2,000 in that round.
- **Heat and Decision to Continue** [09:57] — The team started to get heat. The pit boss displayed a UK driver's license, and Irish messaged that the owner was watching. The team decided to keep playing until closing time.
- **Winning £36,000** [11:40] — The team cashed out with a profit of £36,000, which was double their expected value. They were never down during the session.
- **Bans and the Innocent Bystander** [12:25] — The next day, the team was banned. The casino thought they were a five-person team, but there were only four, so an innocent player was also banned.

### Conclusion

Project Tower demonstrates that with meticulous planning, innovative communication, and a willingness to adapt, a card counting team can successfully beat the casino—at least until they get caught.

## Transcript

This is the story of Team Strike, a car counting team from Europe formed with a goal of beating casinos at high stakes in Blackjack. In this three-part video series, you'll come along with us for the ride and see what happens when a group of counters come together
with a lot of cash and the skills that it all goes well could be used to win hundreds of thousands of dollars from casinos before they catch us. There are two main types of team play in the Blackjack world.
The first is solo team play. This is where counters will play at separate casinos, but they'll share a bankroll. This is what we did in Project Lewis, a series that is available in full on my YouTube channel. The problem with solo counting is that casinos have got really good at catching card counters.
No matter what the counter is doing to try and blend in and act natural, all card counting relies on one major tell. Betting big when the counter's high and betting small when the counter's low. You might be able to be sneaky, you might be able to be subtle,
given enough time, the casino will catch you. If you've seen my videos before, you'll be used to seeing me get caught and what can happen when you are. This is private parking lot. This is private little parking lot. Do not have to say a word.
And then there's the other type, big player slash botter team play, where the team works together in the same casino and the team members are secretly passing information between each other. Card counters, known as botters, will play at different tables in the casino,
usually betting the minimum while keeping the count. When the count gets high, they'll do some form of secret signal to let the BP know it's their time to shine. The big player sees the signal and joins the table. They place a big bet and play out the hand. The spotter will secretly communicate with the BP, either telling them the count via a code word,
or coding instructions of how the BP should play out the hand. When the count goes negative, the BP is given the signal to leave, and then they just wander around the gaming floor until they get another signal from a spotter to go and play. The advantage to this is that everyone's consistent.
The spotters are always betting small money, the big player is always betting big money. Which means that the biggest tell has been totally eliminated, making it so much harder for surveillance to catch on. When I got into counting, I was introduced to a man that goes by the name Ultimate.
Ultimate introduced me to more counters, and we ended up forming a small team that we called Team Strike. Team Strike first tried BP slash SpotterPlay back in March 2020.
We employed the classic technique of signaling in the BP and then passing the count through a code word. And although we didn't get caught, we did lose a staggering $24,800 in one shoe. That's about a 20-minute span of play, and it was me who signalled in the BP, so I felt extra bad.
I remember my team manager saying that it was his worst career shoe, and that much worse wasn't possible. This is probably a good time to mention for the new viewers that although car-pounding does work, you only win just over half the time.
We then flew to another state where our plan to play as a team was quickly shut down due to the start of COVID-19. It becomes impossible to do team play when the casinos are limiting the amount of players at each table to three and there were literal queues to join the table.
Back for a year and I got to know a card counter by the name of Irish AP. Irish was new to counting and didn't know many counters. So Colin Jones from blackjackapprenticeship.com gave him my number for us to connect.
One day, me and Irish were having a chat, and he mentioned a casino he'd played at in Europe. He was describing the casino, the layout, the amount of tables, and it hit me. This would be the perfect place for a team hit. Hello, friend.
Hope you're well. Interesting opportunity, I reckon, for a cheeky team play. Went with some excellent conditions. So here's the shtick. Six-set game, three tables, minimum five, maximum over five K.
I reckon four-person team, three spotters, one DP could be unreal. I spoke to Ultimate, the team manager, who crunched the numbers and confirmed, yes, it would be possible. The game in theory could be worth around £2,200 per hour.
So myself, Anonymous Counter, Ultimate and Irish AP made a plan to hit this casino. A project that we would call Project Tower. We needed to bring our A because this casino had a reputation of being very good at catching car counters It was rumoured that the owner was a former professional gambler and as a result was pretty confident that advantaged players wouldn stand a chance
After a team call, we realised we had to develop a totally new system for communicating. In the country that we were playing, it was legal for casinos to listen in to the tables. Each table had a little microphone that was fed directly to surveillance.
Even though our verbal communication system was pretty complex, we couldn't be sure that if a surveillance person was paying attention that they wouldn't spot a pattern. We needed something totally different. So I spent a lot of time developing
a totally non-verbal way of communicating. It utilised changes in posture, ways of moving, head positioning, fidgeting, and more. It even had multiple ways of communicating the same bit of information so that we could rotate between those ways,
hopefully making it totally impossible to spot a pattern. It was a tough balance. Hopefully, having a system this complex would make us invisible. But complex systems are more prone to errors. The last thing we'd want is someone scratching their eyebrow by accident and that triggering the VP to come over and bet loads of money on a negative count.
After all this chat of secret communication, this would probably be a good time to cover, is this even legal? Well, it's a complicated topic and I'm sure the laws are going to change a bit depending on the country, but in general, add Blackjack as a game where you're allowed to openly communicate information to the other players at the table and discuss your cards and what you're thinking.
Doing that secretly isn't against the law. Car counting is also perfectly legal, although there have been a couple of occasions in Europe where a casino has withheld winnings from a player. Sometimes, whether something is legal or not doesn't really make a difference.
It was game time. We booked an Airbnb and spent two days training together before the team hit. We had a bankroll of £73,000, and the B team would be betting up to, roughly, £2 of about £3,000.
If variance was on our side, this could be a profitable trip. But with card counting in the short term, nothing is ever guaranteed. Currently we've been doing a pretty intense training session. As we're doing team play, there's a lot of secret communication between us in the casino,
so it was my job then, in this training session, to play and then do the communication, and oh my goodness, it is so much more difficult to be counting cards and then processing the other information, doing the signals and the silent communication
or the verbal communication of the code words. Like counting cards is difficult enough as it is. I think we need a few more hours training to really ensure that we nail this. The day came and it was time to hit the casino.
It was a Friday night and we started by sending in the first spotter. He headed to a table and started betting the minimum. He'd be waiting a while because we have to give it quite a bit of time between sending in each spotter and the VP. If we all went in together, that would be a dead giveaway.
I was up next and after handing over my ID out the door to get a membership card, which was mandatory to even be in this casino, in I walked doing my best to ignore my teammate. I didn't even want to look at him. I sat down at a table and started playing.
And my heart was racing. We'd done a lot of planning for this and it was all happening. I started counting immediately, even though I knew it was going to be a long time before the BP was around. But I had to make sure I wasn't looking around for the BP.
Sure, a subtle head turn wouldn't really do anything. But if all three of us were doing that, it would definitely stand out to surveillance. We had to make sure that we weren't doing anything that would give us away. And the pressure was on. When Irish entered the casino, he immediately ran into a problem.
After arriving at the casino, I had agreed verbally with the foreman that I could buy up to about $40,000, $50,000. And then when I arrived at the casino to try and buy in, he said that would be limited to $10,000. Potentially, with the allowance to buy in from war, it's required, but it wasn't guaranteed.
We started to see how things went and of course that changed the situation for us because we had no idea who would lose the initial 10,000 there very quickly. There was a chance that we could leave 10k in just 4 rounds. And if the casino didn't let Irish rebuy at that moment, then that would be it.
All the planning, all the training, basically for nothing. With 10k, Irish got a call in pretty early and went over to Ben. I didn't even see him, Irish was acting as a good little spotter, playing the minimum. Eventually I caught a high count and gave a signal.
which I think actually now it is okay if I mention this signal because we don use it anymore but the signal was basically just to start doing the full Macarena standing up and everything But it really gets our attention Irish came over and placed two bets for £1,000-ish.
Despite the count being high, he was down to £15,000 and £12,000, and the dealer's up card was a 5. No one had great hands, but that meant the dealer was likely to bust. He drew a 10, giving him £15,000, not bad, very likely that he was going to bust.
But then he drew a 3, losing a £2,000 in that round. Iris then slammed the table and yelled, In fact, for a lot of the night, I heard Iris yelling, which didn't fill me with confidence that we were winning.
Time went on, and it became apparent that even if we were losing, the actual system that we had was working really well. Although one time, I had a pretty high count, and Iris was chatting with the manager. He didn't see my call and signal for a few minutes,
which is a really long time in the scheme of Blackjack, but I was the only person playing at my table, so I managed to take a break. Still sitting at the table, but just not playing for a while. This would normally look very weird, but I've established myself as having a very casual manner,
frequently taking breaks throughout the night. I still eventually catch my signal, but it's a good thing too, because you've won a few hands at my table. I had no idea how difficult it is to keep an eye on all the spotters, and also just trying to get clean into the environment,
and look like I wasn't looking for calling signals. This is so exhausting as well, but doing that for four or five hours, just wandering around, looking for calling signals, feels so unnatural. Counting, signalling, betting, counting, signalling, betting,
hours went by, the whole time me not knowing if we were winning. It was getting near to closing time, and he started to get heat. Our VP was experiencing that classic shift in friendliness. At one point, the managers were bending over backwards to keep Irish happy.
Can we get you a drink, sir? Is there anything you need, sir? But there was a definite shift. No one was being rude to Irish, but they were being less warm. Not long after that, I spotted something pretty major. I saw on one of the pit boss computers a picture of someone's driver's license.
I couldn't see whose it was, but I could see that it was a UK driver's license. Now, we weren't in England, so there were very, very few people from the UK in this casino, and I was one of them. I was pretty sure it was mine.
A few minutes later, Iris messaged the group chat. Guys, the owner, old guy with white hair, is watching the BJ takes back. He's on to us. This triggered some alarm in the chat. Cash out. Then buy in. Why?
Mitigate risk? Do you know or guess? An answer is we won't get the money if they just find out. Let's stay cool. Pretty sure they know. No, no countdown, stay cool, they won't have the balls to refuse. The team was split.
If they were on to us, nothing we did now would change anything. We'd eventually get caught and they had our IDs, so there wasn't any benefit to stopping. Why not just keep playing and maximise the opportunity? Unless they decided to withhold the cash and refuse to pay out Irish.
And let me reiterate, there has been some shady stuff that has happened in European casinos, so it was a very realistic possibility. Ultimate and Irish had a quick meeting in the toilets to discuss and it was decided. We play until just before the casino closed, around 4am.
The Pit Boss said the name of Anonymous. It was time to go. We each cashed out, leaving a little bit of time between each of us. I cashed out first and went to the nearby McDonald's, our meeting point. So I just got out of the casino and now I'm at the meeting point
and the other Ziggumas slowly filter out. Definitely looks like they're on to us. Whether or not that's the end of it is up for debate. I reckon that's us done. As I was leaving, I checked the group chat and saw the good news.
Plus £36,000. We'd won £36,000. Plus £36,000, cashed out, no problem.
I'd later learn that in this entire first session, we were never down. We'd also won just over double our EV, which basically means we got lucky on top of the counting. The next day, we went back. We were actually facing bets about whether or not we'd all be banned.
We thought it was pretty unlikely we'd get time in, but there was a chance, and as we've come to learn, never underestimate the intelligence or stupidity of Casino. We saved at the Airbnb while we sent in our first sponsor. Yeah, okay. Then, uh, let's have a discussion and we'll keep it cool, okay?
Sh He banned Uh Iris my friend No he banned He wasn the only one as when I got to the club desk I was told that my membership had been revoked
I asked why I'd been banned, and the guy looked at the tree and in total shock said, Apparently you're part of a card counting team? Thanks to good old GDPR law, I asked him to print out my profile and give it to me. And sure enough, part of a five person card counting team.
Wait a second. me, Ultimate, Anonymous, Irish AP, there's only four of us. Which means that one poor guy that just wanted to have a casual night playing blackjack got banned from the casino
because they thought he was on our team. I wish I could have seen the moment that he went back to that casino and found out that he was a card counter. I later found out, and I won't go into why I know this, but the reason we were caught is because when they
got suspicious they looked at the accounts of the players and they saw that a few people were brand new members to the casino. But they had no idea how we were communicating and they were pretty confused as to how we'd managed to win so much money.
We knew the spotters joining the casino on similar dates would be a risk, but we weighed it up versus sending people over to join months in advance and we just thought it wasn't worth doing. Having won 36K, we'd actually taken out the entire casino's days taking.
Not bad, not bad at all. But 36K was gonna feel small compared to what would happen on the next trip. We'd be playing with higher stakes and a bigger team and we'd run into problems and challenges that we just could not anticipate.
Speaking of problems and challenges, one of the things I've struggled with in the past is when I've stated some unconventional blackjack scenario that I've not been sure how to deal with. Maybe there's a weird rule change or a dealer error that affects the game, but in these moments, I've not been sure what to do.
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I know vaguely why this makes sense, but I couldn't explain why in detail, mathematically, that is the correct tipping point to then hit on their hands. Even when it's just basic strategy, there's a lot of the things that I know what to do,
but trying to figure out why that's what I should do is difficult. In other words, I know the system, but I don't understand the math behind all the playing decisions. And I believe that knowing why something works, not just what to do, helps you become better at that thing.
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