The game of black jack was brought to the US in the 19th century but it wasn’t until the middle of the twentieth century that a strategy was developed to defeat the house in chemin de fer. This article is going to take a rapid peak at the creation of that strategy, Counting Cards.
When betting was made legal in Nevada in 1934, Blackjack screamed into popularity and was most commonly gambled on with 1 or 2 decks. Roger Baldwin wrote a paper in ‘56 which described how to lower the house advantage based on probability and stats which was very complicated for people who weren’t math experts.
In ‘62, Dr. Ed Thorp utilized an IBM 704 computer to better the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also developed the 1st card counting tactics. Dr. Ed Thorp authored a book called "Beat the Dealer" which summarized card counting techniques and the tactics for lowering the house advantage.
This spawned a huge growth in chemin de fer gamblers at the US casinos who were trying to implement Dr. Ed Thorp’s techniques, much to the consternation of the casinos. The technique was difficult to understand and difficult to implement and therefore elevated the earnings for the casinos as more and more folks took to wagering on chemin de fer.
However this massive growth in earnings was not to last as the gamblers became more sophisticated and more accomplished and the system was further perfected. In the 80’s a group of students from MIT made card counting a part of the everyday vernacular. Since then the casinos have developed countless methods to counteract card counters including, more than one deck, shoes, constant shuffle machines, and rumor has it, complex computer programs to analyze body language and identify "cheaters". While not prohibited being caught counting cards will get you barred from many casinos in vegas.
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