The Origin of Twenty-One
Posted in Blackjack on 01/30/2010 06:21 pm by Cedric
The card game of chemin de fer was brought to the United States of America in the 1800’s but it was not until the middle of the 20th century that a strategy was developed to defeat the casino in chemin de fer. This article is going to grab a rapid peak at the creation of that strategy, Counting Cards.
When gambling was approved in the state of Nevada in 1934, chemin de fer sky-rocketed into recognition and was commonly played with one or two decks. Roger Baldwin published a dissertation in ‘56 which detailed how to reduce the casino edge built on probability and stats which was very confusing for people who weren’t mathematicians.
In 1962, Dr. Edward O. Thorp utilized an IBM 704 computer to advance the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s dissertation and also developed the 1st card counting strategies. Dr. Thorp wrote a book called "Beat the Dealer" which illustrated card counting strategies and the practices for reducing the casino edge.
This spawned a massive growth in chemin de fer players at the US casinos who were attempting to put into practice Dr. Ed Thorp’s tactics, much to the alarm of the casinos. The technique was hard to comprehend and difficult to implement and therefore heightened the profits for the betting houses as more and more people took to playing Blackjack.
However this huge increase in earnings wasn’t to continue as the players became more refined and more aware and the system was further improved. In the 80’s a bunch of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology made card counting a part of the everyday vocabulary. Since then the casinos have developed numerous measures to counteract card counters including (but not limited to), multiple decks, shoes, shuffle machines, and speculation has itnow sophisticated computer programs to scrutinize actions and identify "cheaters". While not illegal being discovered counting cards will get you banned from the majority of brick and mortar casinos in Las Vegas.