The game of black jack was introduced to the United States of America in the 1800’s but it wasn’t until the mid 20th century that a technique was created to defeat the house in black jack. This material is going to grab a swift peak at the creation of that technique, Counting Cards.
When betting was legalized in Nevada in 1934, chemin de fer screamed into recognition and was commonly played with 1 or 2 decks of cards. Roger Baldwin published a dissertation in ‘56 which explained how to lower the casino advantage founded on odds and statistics which was really confusing for those who weren’t mathematicians.
In 1962, Dr. Edward O. Thorp used an IBM 704 computer to enhance the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also created the first card counting techniques. Dr. Ed Thorp wrote a tome called "Beat the Dealer" which illustrated card counting techniques and the practices for reducing the house advantage.
This created a large increase in twenty-one gamblers at the US betting houses who were attempting to put into practice Dr. Thorp’s tactics, much to the awe of the casinos. The strategy was challenging to understand and hard to implement and thusly improved the earnings for the casinos as more and more folks took to wagering on chemin de fer.
However this large growth in profits wasn’t to last as the players became more sophisticated and more cultivated and the system was further refined. 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 developed countless measures to thwart players who count cards including (but not limited to), more than one deck, shoes, constant shuffle machines, and rumour has itnow complex computer software to observe body language and detect "cheaters". While not illegal being discovered counting cards will get you banned from most if not all casinos in sin city.
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