The Beginnings of Blackjack

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The game of Blackjack was introduced to the United States of America in the 19th century but it was not until the mid twentieth century that a system was created to defeat the casino in Blackjack. This material is going to take a quick peak at the creation of that technique, Counting Cards.

When casino gambling was authorized in Nevada in 1934, chemin de fer screamed into popularity and was most commonly bet on with one or two decks. Roger Baldwin published a paper in ‘56 which described how to lower the house edge founded on odds and stats which was quite complicated for individuals who weren’t mathematicians.

In ‘62, Dr. Edward O. Thorp utilized an IBM 704 computer to advance the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also created the first card counting strategies. Dr. Ed Thorp authored a book called "Beat the Dealer" which outlined card counting techniques and the tactics for reducing the casino advantage.

This spawned a massive growth in black jack players at the US casinos who were trying to put into practice Dr. Ed Thorp’s techniques, much to the alarm of the casinos. The technique was hard to comprehend and complicated to implement and therefore elevated the earnings for the casinos as more and more people took to wagering on Blackjack.

However this large growth in earnings was not to continue as the players became more refined and more cultivated and the system was further refined. In the 80’s a bunch of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology made card counting a part of the everyday vocabulary. Since then the casinos have introduced countless measures to counteract card counters including (but not limited to), more than one deck, shoes, constant shuffle machines, and rumour has itnow complex computer software to read actions and detect "cheaters". While not prohibited being discovered counting cards will get you banned from the majority of betting houses in sin city.