02.04
The Beginnings of Blackjack
The casino game of black jack was brought to the United States of America in the 19th century but it was not until the mid 20th century that a technique was created to defeat the house in black jack. This material is going to grab a rapid look at the birth of that system, Counting Cards.
When wagering was authorized in the state of Nevada in ‘34, black jack screamed into universal appeal and was usually bet on with 1 or two decks of cards. Roger Baldwin wrote a paper in ‘56 which described how to lower the house advantage based on probability and stats which was really complicated for people who weren’t mathematicians.
In ‘62, Dr. Thorp utilized an IBM 704 computer to refine the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also created the 1st card counting techniques. Dr. Ed Thorp authored a tome called "Beat the Dealer" which illustrated card counting strategies and the strategies for lowering the house edge.
This spawned a huge increase in twenty-one gamblers at the US betting houses who were trying to put into practice Dr. Ed Thorp’s strategies, much to the consternation of the casinos. The system was difficult to understand and difficult to put into practice and therefore expanded the profits for the betting houses as more and more people took to betting on twenty-one.
However this massive growth in earnings was not to last as the gamblers became more sophisticated and more educated and the system was further refined. In the 1980’s a bunch of students from MIT made counting cards a part of the regular vernacular. Since then the casinos have brought in numerous measures to counteract card counters including, more than one deck, shoes, constant shuffle machines, and gossip has itnow complex computer software to read actions and identify "cheaters". While not prohibited being caught counting cards will get you blocked from all casinos in sin city.
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