Edward O. Thorp - The Father of Blackjack Card Counting

Play Online Blackjack

The Academic Study of Blackjack

Edward O. Thorp was born in 1933. He received a Master's degree in physics and a doctorate in mathematics from UCLA, and went on to become a mathematics professor at MIT, UCLA, NMSU, and UC Irvine.

While working at MIT, Thorp began exploring the possibility of developing a mathematical model of the probabilities of winning at blackjack. Thorp's ideas were based on one simple observation. In other casino games, what happened in the past has no effect on what will happen in the future: the last spin of the roulette wheel has no effect on the next spin; the last roll of the craps dice has no effect on the next roll. Hence, the odds remain the same throughout the game. Blackjack, however is different. In blackjack, the events of the past do affect the probabilities of the future. The reason is that after each hand, the cards that were used are set aside and are no longer available for the next hand. Therefore, the probabilities to be applied to the next hand are not based on a complete 52-card deck, but only on the reservoir of cards that remain to be dealt.

Although the basic premise is simple, drawing practical applications from it was anything but. Thorp taught himself Fortran and, using an IBM mainframe computer, spent many hours developing his blackjack system. The system that evolved was based on counting the cards that had already been dealt, analyzing the dealer's up card and the player's own cards, and making fast and accurate mental calculations of the odds before deciding whether to stand, hit, double down, or split. The goal is not to win every hand, but to bet more when the odds are in your favor and to bet less when the odds are in the dealer's favor, and thus to come out ahead in the long run.

Blackjack in Real Casinos

Professor Thorp decided to subject his academic theories of blackjack to practical real-world testing in the casinos of Las Vegas. With an associate-possibly a mobster-providing $10,000 in venture capital, and Thorp providing the brainpower, he won $11,000 ($70,000 in today's dollars) over the course of a single weekend. He could have won even more, but casino security took umbrage at his winning ways and expelled him from the various casinos. In any event, the experiment was a smashing success.

Play Online Blackjack

Success on Wall Street

> Click Here to Download for Free