The game of chemin de fer was introduced to the US in the 1800’s but it wasn’t until the mid twentieth century that a strategy was created to defeat the house in black jack. This material is going to grab a rapid look at the creation of that technique, Counting Cards.
When betting was made legal in Nevada in ‘34, chemin de fer sky-rocketed into universal appeal and was most commonly played with one or two decks. Roger Baldwin wrote a paper in 1956 which detailed how to lower the casino edge built on odds and stats which was quite complicated for individuals who were not math experts.
In ‘62, Dr. Ed Thorp utilized an IBM 704 computer to enhance the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also developed the 1st tactics for counting cards. Dr. Thorp authored a book called "Beat the Dealer" which illustrated card counting strategies and the tactics for lowering the casino edge.
This spawned a huge growth in black jack players at the US betting houses who were trying to put into practice Dr. Thorp’s techniques, much to the alarm of the casinos. The system was not easy to comprehend and difficult to carry through and thusly expanded the earnings for the casinos as more and more folks took to gambling on chemin de fer.
However this huge growth in profits wasn’t to last as the gamblers became more sophisticated and more aware and the system was further perfected. In the 1980’s a bunch of students from MIT made counting cards a part of the everyday vernacular. Since then the casinos have brought in countless methods to counteract players who count cards including, multiple decks, shoes, constant shuffle machines, and speculation has itnow complex computer programs to observe body language and identify "cheaters". While not against the law being discovered counting cards will get you barred from many brick and mortar casinos in sin city.
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