[ English ]

The game of chemin de fer was introduced to the United States 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 article is going to take a quick look at the birth of that strategy, Counting Cards.

When wagering was legitimized in Nevada in ‘34, black jack screamed into universal appeal and was most commonly wagered on with one or 2 decks. Roger Baldwin wrote a dissertation in 1956 which described how to reduce the casino advantage founded on odds and statistics which was very difficult to understand for people who were not math experts.

In 1962, Dr. Ed Thorp utilized an IBM 704 computer to better the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s dissertation and also developed the 1st tactics for counting cards. Dr. Ed Thorp authored a book called "Beat the Dealer" which illustrated card counting techniques and the strategies for lowering the house edge.

This created a large increase in Blackjack players at the US casinos who were trying to put into practice Dr. Thorp’s strategies, much to the anxiety of the casinos. The strategy was hard to understand and hard to implement and therefore elevated the profits for the betting houses as more and more folks took to gambling on Blackjack.

However this large growth in earnings wasn’t to last as the gamblers became more sophisticated and more insightful and the system was further refined. In the 1980’s a group of students from MIT made card counting a part of the regular vocabulary. Since then the casinos have introduced countless methods to counteract card counters including, multiple decks, shoes, constant shuffle machines, and rumor has itnow complex computer software to scrutinize body language and identify "cheaters". While not against the law being caught counting cards will get you blocked from the majority of brick and mortar casinos in sin city.