The History of Twenty-One
Posted in Blackjack on 01/31/2010 03:21 am by Alfredo
The card game of chemin de fer was brought to the United States in the 1800’s but it wasn’t until the mid 20th century that a strategy was created to defeat the house in Blackjack. This material is going to grab a swift look at the creation of that strategy, Card Counting.
When wagering was made legal in the state of Nevada in ‘34, black jack screamed into recognition and was most commonly wagered on with one or two decks. Roger Baldwin published a dissertation in ‘56 which detailed how to lower the house edge based on probability and stats which was really confusing for those who were not math experts.
In ‘62, Dr. Edward O. Thorp utilized an IBM 704 computer to refine the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s dissertation and also developed the first card counting tactics. Dr. Thorp authored a book called "Beat the Dealer" which outlined card counting techniques and the tactics for lowering the casino advantage.
This spawned a massive increase in chemin de fer competitors at the US casinos who were attempting to implement Dr. Ed Thorp’s techniques, much to the consternation of the casinos. The technique was challenging to comprehend and complicated to execute and thusly improved the earnings for the casinos as more and more folks took to playing chemin de fer.
However this large increase in profits was not to continue as the gamblers became more sophisticated and more cultivated and the system was further improved. In the 1980’s a group of students from MIT made counting cards a part of the regular vocabulary. Since then the casinos have developed numerous methods to counteract players who count cards including, multiple decks, shoes, constant shuffle machines, and rumour has itnow sophisticated computer software to analyze body language and detect "cheaters". While not against the law being discovered counting cards will get you blocked from all casinos in vegas.