The card game of chemin de fer was brought to the US in the 1800’s but it wasn’t until the mid 20th century that a technique was developed to defeat the casino in black jack. This material is going to grab a quick look at the development of that technique, Card Counting.
When gambling was authorized in the state of Nevada in 1934, black jack screamed into popularity and was most commonly wagered on with 1 or 2 decks of cards. Roger Baldwin published a paper in 1956 which described how to lower the house edge based on probability and stats which was really confusing for gamblers who were not math experts.
In ‘62, Dr. Thorp used an IBM 704 computer to refine the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also developed the 1st tactics for card counting. Dr. Ed Thorp authored a tome called "Beat the Dealer" which summarized card counting strategies and the strategies for lowering the casino edge.
This created a large growth in twenty-one players at the US casinos who were trying to put into practice Dr. Ed Thorp’s strategies, much to the alarm of the casinos. The strategy was difficult to comprehend and complicated to put into practice and thusly increased the earnings for the casinos as more and more folks took to gambling on twenty-one.
However this large growth in profits was not to last as the players became more refined and more aware 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 vocabulary. Since then the casinos have brought in numerous methods to counteract players who count cards including but not limited to, more than one deck, shoes, shuffle machines, and rumor has it, sophisticated computer programs to read actions and identify "cheaters". While not illegal being discovered counting cards will get you blocked from the majority of brick and mortar casinos in vegas.
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