Edward O. Thorp - Beating the House
Dr. Edward O. Thorp is a U.S. mathematics professor and the creator of the original card -counting system. He is considered by many to be the first Blackjack player to come up with a method to beat the casino. In 1958, Thorp received his Ph.D. for the University of California in Los Angeles and worked as a professor at the prestigious M.I.T for a couple of years. In 1962, Thorp authored a revolutionary book titled ‘Beat the Dealer.' It was the first publication ever in existence to claim that the dealer could be beaten with the help of card counting.
During his time at MIT, the brilliant professor started exploring the possibility of creating a mathematical model of the probabilities of beating the house at Blackjack. Thorp assumed that if a Blackjack player counted the cards that he received, he could make an educated guess regarding the cards still remaining in the deck. Consequently, if he carefully planed his following moves, he could determine the best possible play in each an every situation during the game. Thorp's idea was based on the fact that unlike in other casino games based on pure luck, in the game of Blackjack, past events do affect future probabilities.
However, easily said but not so easily proved. Despite the fact that the basic idea is rather simple, Thorp realized that there are many obstacles to overcome until he could actually prove his theory and present it to the worldwide Blackjack-playing community. To help him in his research, Thorp used an IBM computer. The device helped him investigate winning probabilities during the development of his card counting theories. Thorp's goal was not to develop a system guaranteeing instant success, but one that would allow players to bet more when the odds were in their favor and to bet less when the odds were in the dealer's favor. Thorp believed that this particular approach would lead to victory in the long run.
After awhile, Thorp decided that it was time to put his card-counting theories to the test in a real-world casino environment. So, he went to a place where everybody goes when they want to gamble - Las Vegas. He had $10,000 to spend. Thorp's experiment turned out to be a true success as he managed to nab $11,000 in one weekend of play. Actually, if given the opportunity Thorp would probably have won a much larger amount of money. However, Las Vegas casinos ultimately became suspicious regarding his impressive winnings and banned him from their premises.
After proving that his theory was indeed practical, Thorp decided to put his ideas in writing. In his 1962 book ‘Beat the Dealer,' Thorp introduced the Ten-Count System. ‘Beat the Dealer' provides its readers with priceless advice on how to gain an advantage when playing against the house. In 1966, Thorp published a second edition to "Beat the Dealer." The second version of the book increased the already incredible popularity of the original and made Thorp the ultimate authority in the field of Blackjack card-counting!
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