The game of Blackjack was introduced to the United States of America in the 1800’s but it wasn’t until the mid 20th century that a system was developed to beat the house in chemin de fer. This article is going to take a rapid peak at the birth of that technique, Card Counting.
When gambling was authorized in Nevada in 1934, twenty-one screamed into recognition and was most commonly gambled on with 1 or 2 decks. Roger Baldwin published a dissertation in 1956 which explained how to reduce the house advantage based on odds and performance history which was quite difficult to understand for players who weren’t math experts.
In ‘62, Dr. Edward O. Thorp used an IBM 704 computer to better the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also created the 1st tactics for counting cards. Dr. Thorp authored a book called "Beat the Dealer" which outlined card counting strategies and the strategies for reducing the house advantage.
This created a massive growth in chemin de fer competitors at the US betting houses who were attempting to implement Dr. Ed Thorp’s techniques, much to the bewilderment of the casinos. The technique was hard to understand and complicated to carry through and therefore elevated the profits for the betting houses as more and more folks took to gambling on twenty-one.
However this large increase in earnings wasn’t to last as the players became more refined and more insightful and the system was further improved. In the 1980’s a group of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology made counting cards a part of the regular vernacular. Since then the casinos have brought in numerous methods to thwart players who count cards including, more than one deck, shoes, shuffle machines, and rumor has itnow sophisticated computer software to read body language and detect "cheaters". While not against the law being caught counting cards will get you barred from the majority of betting houses in Las Vegas.
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