The History of Twenty-One
Monday, 1. February 2010
The game of twenty-one was brought to the United States in the 19th century but it wasn’t until the middle of the 20th century that a technique was developed to beat the house in twenty-one. This material is going to take a quick peak at the birth of that system, Card Counting.
When betting was made legal in the state of Nevada in ‘34, black jack screamed into universal appeal and was most commonly wagered on with one or two decks. Roger Baldwin wrote a dissertation in 1956 which detailed how to lower the casino advantage built on probability and statistics which was really difficult to understand for those who weren’t mathematicians.
In 1962, Dr. Edward O. Thorp utilized an IBM 704 computer to refine the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s dissertation and also developed the 1st techniques for counting cards. Dr. Ed Thorp wrote a book called "Beat the Dealer" which illustrated card counting techniques and the tactics for lowering the casino edge.
This spawned a massive growth in twenty-one players at the US casinos who were trying to put into practice Dr. Ed Thorp’s strategies, much to the anxiety of the casinos. The strategy was not easy to understand and difficult to carry through and therefore increased the profits for the betting houses as more and more people took to betting on Blackjack.
However this large growth in profits wasn’t to last as the players became more highly developed and more insightful and the system was further perfected. In the 1980’s a group of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology made counting cards a part of the everyday vocabulary. Since then the casinos have introduced countless measures to thwart card counters including but not limited to, multiple decks, shoes, constant shuffle machines, and rumor has itnow sophisticated computer programs to observe body language and identify "cheaters". While not against the law being discovered counting cards will get you blocked from most brick and mortar casinos in sin city.
Posted in Blackjack by Claire