the premise of counting cards (high-low) is as they say in the movie "simple math". One scene in the movie shows actual math. The beginning scene is at MIT in a senior level "non-linear equations class". It is interesting because they talk about Newton, Raphson and their methods for solutions of non-linear equations and finding true zero. While the conversation/lingo is quite correct, the board behind Kevin Spacey shows only 1st and 2nd order equations, hardly something for a senior level class (not to mention at MIT!), but still all-in-all pretty damn good for Hollywood!