How professional blackjack began

Countless myths exist about players who as though were playing as pro previous to basic strategy just for one-pack game was published by Americans Maisel, Baldwin, Cantey and McDermott in 1958. But everything that happened before them is still a legend. The 4 statisticians calculated just by means of hand calculator. On the other hand exactly their publication in the American Statistical Association Journal caused a great deal of excitement among statisticians and players, and blackjack was thought to be a game where an ordinary gambler might win.

Inspired by popularity of that magazine article, copied and even learnt by heart by lots of players, the authors published their book "Winning Blackjack". Today this book is a rare edition and it makes any professional gamblers’ home library rich.

In the beginning of 1960s Edward Thorp with the help of computer technologies calculated and published both the basic playing strategy and card counting in his book “Beat the Dealer”. Thorp says blackjack is different from craps, roulette and other games of luck, the every hand result in blackjack is up to the preceding dealing, it actually matters which cards exited the game and which remained in the deck. Most of the things that Thorp calculated are still accurate, although serious modern players ought to read this book just for historical interest.

"10 count system", Thorp's system was about one pack game had enormous success in all Nevada’s casinos. It was really difficult to learn, that’s why a great part of the players stopped playing. But, casinos of Nevada restricted several rules, for instance, doubling down just on eleven points. The mass media informed the entire world of it, and Edward Thorp and his book got known the worldwide and the casinos turned out to be in proper position had to go back to former rules. Understanding that under the circumstances a lot of card counters would probably be making attempts to beat the house, gambling houses operators introduced 2 procedures: shuffling after the trim card withdrawal and multi-packed games.

The system of Thorp was awfully difficult for using in practice. However for Las Vegas’ computer conference of 1963, the game remained on the same level. The organizers of the conference made a decision to insert a Panel Session with the title "Using Computers in Games of Skill and Chance." That was simply the organizers’ whim to include this section. Thorp was appointed the Panel Chairman and experts on a variety of casino games, such as blackjack, baccarat and roulette. The room was crowded with computer players. Hundreds of conference participants were shoving and pushing in order to come into the room.

Thorp had certainly drawn the crowd. They expected revelations on the game and looked forward to using his wisdom at once after the session to scoop at the blackjack tables.

After some presentations that mostly modified and corrected Thorp's system, they introduced Harvey Dubner. He explained the approach. He counted remaining low cards (2,3,4,5,6) and high cards (10,J,Q,K,A) as they played the cards and explained its difference by all cards that left to play. The result was called the High-Low Ratio. The crowd excitedly received his presentation standing and applauding at its end. A lot of things were saying about the system, which is practical and can be really used in the casino world nowadays. Thorp included "high-low" scheme into the 2nd edition of Beat the Dealer that was published in the year 1966 and from then on more than a hundred professional books on team games, blackjack, shuffle tracking, sleepless nights for casino securities and hidden computers were published in the world.

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