The History of Twenty-One

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The card game of twenty-one was introduced to the U.S. in the 1800’s but it was not until the mid twentieth century that a system was developed to defeat the house in Blackjack. This article is going to grab a rapid look at the development of that strategy, Counting Cards.

When gambling was authorized in Nevada in 1934, Blackjack sky-rocketed into popularity and was usually gambled on with one or 2 decks of cards. Roger Baldwin wrote a paper in 1956 which detailed how to reduce the casino advantage built on odds and performance history which was quite difficult to understand for those who were not mathematicians.

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

This spawned a large growth in chemin de fer players at the US betting houses who were attempting to implement Dr. Ed Thorp’s techniques, much to the anxiety of the casinos. The technique was challenging to understand and complicated to implement and thusly heightened the earnings for the betting houses as more and more folks took to betting on twenty-one.

However this huge growth in earnings wasn’t to last as the gamblers became more refined and more educated and the system was further perfected. In the 80’s a group of students from MIT made counting cards a part of the everyday vernacular. Since then the casinos have brought in numerous measures to counteract players who count cards including, multiple decks, shoes, shuffle machines, and gossip has it, sophisticated computer programs to scrutinize actions and detect "cheaters". While not against the law being caught counting cards will get you banned from most betting houses in sin city.