The casino game of twenty-one was introduced to the United States in the 1800’s but it wasn’t until the middle of the twentieth century that a technique was created to defeat the casino in chemin de fer. This article is going to take a rapid look at the creation of that strategy, Counting Cards.
When gambling was authorized in Nevada in ‘34, twenty-one screamed into popularity and was most commonly bet on with 1 or 2 decks. Roger Baldwin published a dissertation in 1956 which detailed how to reduce the house advantage founded on odds and stats which was quite complicated for gamblers who weren’t mathematicians.
In ‘62, Dr. Ed Thorp used an IBM 704 computer to refine the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s dissertation and also developed the first card counting tactics. Dr. Ed Thorp wrote a book called "Beat the Dealer" which summarized card counting techniques and the strategies for reducing the house advantage.
This created a huge increase in chemin de fer competitors at the US betting houses who were attempting to implement Dr. Ed Thorp’s strategies, much to the awe of the casinos. The system was not easy to comprehend and difficult to implement and thusly heightened the profits for the casinos as more and more folks took to betting on Blackjack.
However this huge increase in earnings wasn’t to last as the players became more highly developed and more aware and the system was further perfected. In the 1980’s a bunch of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology made card counting a part of the everyday vernacular. Since then the casinos have developed numerous methods to thwart players who count cards including but not limited to, more than one deck, shoes, constant shuffle machines, and rumor has itnow sophisticated computer programs to scrutinize body language and identify "cheaters". While not against the law being caught counting cards will get you barred from all brick and mortar casinos in sin city.