The Origin of Twenty-One
Posted in Blackjack on 01/28/2010 09:21 pm by Kathleen
The game of twenty-one was introduced to the US in the 1800’s but it wasn’t until the middle of the twentieth century that a system was developed to defeat the house in Blackjack. This material is going to grab a quick peak at the development of that system, Counting Cards.
When betting was authorized in the state of Nevada in 1934, black jack sky-rocketed into popularity and was most commonly bet on with 1 or two decks of cards. Roger Baldwin wrote a dissertation in ‘56 which explained how to reduce the casino advantage built on odds and statistics which was quite bewildering for players who weren’t mathematicians.
In ‘62, Dr. Thorp utilized an IBM 704 computer to advance the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also developed the 1st card counting strategies. Dr. Ed Thorp wrote a tome called "Beat the Dealer" which outlined card counting strategies and the strategies for lowering the house advantage.
This created a huge increase in twenty-one gamblers at the US betting houses who were trying to put into practice Dr. Thorp’s strategies, much to the awe of the casinos. The system was not easy to comprehend and difficult to put into practice and thusly improved the profits for the casinos as more and more folks took to wagering on black jack.
However this large increase in earnings wasn’t to last as the players became more highly developed and more insightful and the system was further improved. In the 80’s a group of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology made card counting a part of the everyday vocabulary. Since then the casinos have introduced numerous measures to counteract players who count cards including, multiple decks, shoes, shuffle machines, and gossip has it, complex computer programs to analyze actions and identify "cheaters". While not illegal being caught counting cards will get you blocked from most if not all brick and mortar casinos in vegas.