Online Blackjack Strategy – A Brief History
As far back as anyone can remember, people have been trying to come up with some kind of strategy to beat the odds at the game of blackjack. Some of them appeared to work, but may have succeeded as a result of cheating. Was blackjack pure luck, or was there an element of skill? That was always a big question, and maybe it still is if you are one of the people who enjoys playing blackjack at Lucky99.
In 1956, a quartet of mathematicians – by the names of Baldwin, Cantey, Maisel and McDermott – developed a set of plays that were, in effect, the optimum way to approach each situation. For example, if the player was sitting with a 15 against a dealer’s ten-value card (10, J, Q, K), the math told the player to “hit.” This was an advance, but it wasn’t the end, by any means. After all, they had done their research using desktop calculators, and the development of computer technology was on the upswing.
Online Blackjack Strategy – Enter Mathematics
In the early 1960s, a mathematics professor named Edward O. Thorp took the basic method of play that was developed by those four pioneering statisticians and not only refined it with the use of high-speed computers, but also formulated a strategy that could actually show a positive return at the game in the long run. It was rather primitive, based on keeping a count of the fives in the deck. But it yielded a profit for the player who could follow it successfully.
Naturally, Thorp attracted quite a bit of media attention, and many a newspaper or magazine chronicled the story of how Thorp came about his revolutionary findings which, with the assistance of computer expert Julian Braun of IBM, grew to include a ten count and a point count, similar to that which is used in modern counting systems today. One of those publications was Sports Illustrated, which even talked about Thorp expanding his strategies to include baccarat, which was traditionally a game for high-rollers.
Online Blackjack Strategy – Thorp’s Book “Beat The Dealer”
Thorp published his blackjack methods, as well as a detailed account of his practical test for them in Nevada casinos, in a book entitled “Beat The Dealer,” a well-written hybrid text/narrative that was so well-received by the public that it became a best seller. The publication of Thorp’s book caused a furor among casino operators and officials who had previously been of the belief that no system could possibly gain an edge over the house on a long-run basis. But because Thorp’s findings were based on science rather than “magic,” and they indeed proved to have real-world value, many of those associated with casinos were overwhelmed by these new revelations and felt compelled to take countermeasures.
And that’s another story entirely. We’ll cover that soon enough.
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By Charles Jay
