Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree, but it appears that while he doesn't "count", He plays a more general "averages" game. Per the article: "More useful, for his purposes, is running a smaller number of hands and paying attention to variation. The way averages work, the larger the sample, the narrower the range of variation. " Edit: I would guess he's developed some algorithm for keeping track of swings and general variation, so he plays not h…
What struck me as very odd was the description of the 800k play: He had two tens and two elevens, and decided to stand. That makes no sense to me, as he would have lost nothing by getting four more cards. Also, the article made some reference to variation, without explaining the edge. I'm guessing there was a real point lost there.
He split his 8's to 4 $100k hands, and then doubled down on each, for 4 $200k hands. He just got really unlucky on each hand, that the point value was so low.