The Beginnings of Twenty-One
The card game of chemin de fer was brought to the United States in the 1800’s but it wasn’t until the mid twentieth century that a system was developed to beat the casino in Blackjack. This article is going to grab a rapid peak at the creation of that system, Card Counting.
When casino gambling was authorized in the state of Nevada in ‘34, chemin de fer sky-rocketed into universal appeal and was commonly bet on with one or 2 decks. Roger Baldwin wrote a paper in ‘56 which detailed how to reduce the casino advantage based on odds and stats which was really bewildering for players who were not mathematicians.
In 1962, Dr. Thorp used an IBM 704 computer to refine the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also created the 1st tactics for counting cards. Dr. Thorp wrote a tome called "Beat the Dealer" which illustrated card counting techniques and the tactics for reducing the house edge.
This spawned a large increase in chemin de fer players at the US casinos who were attempting to implement Dr. Thorp’s strategies, much to the awe of the casinos. The system was difficult to comprehend and difficult to execute and therefore heightened the profits for the betting houses as more and more folks took to playing Blackjack.
However this massive increase in earnings wasn’t to continue as the players became more sophisticated and more accomplished and the system was further improved. In the 80’s a group of students from MIT made counting cards a part of the day-to-day vernacular. Since then the casinos have brought in countless methods to counteract players who count cards including, more than one deck, shoes, shuffle machines, and speculation has itnow complex computer programs to analyze actions and identify "cheaters". While not illegal being discovered counting cards will get you barred from all betting houses in Las Vegas.
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