The game of chemin de fer was introduced to the U.S. in the 1800’s but it was not until the mid twentieth century that a technique was developed to defeat the casino in Blackjack. This material is going to take a swift look at the creation of that technique, Counting Cards.

When casino gambling was legalized in the state of Nevada in 1934, twenty-one sky-rocketed into universal appeal and was commonly wagered on with one or two decks of cards. Roger Baldwin published a dissertation in 1956 which explained how to reduce the house edge built on probability and statistics which was really difficult to understand for gamblers who weren’t math experts.

In ‘62, Dr. Edward O. Thorp utilized an IBM 704 computer to refine the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s dissertation and also created the 1st tactics for counting cards. Dr. Ed Thorp authored a tome called "Beat the Dealer" which detailed card counting techniques and the practices for reducing the casino advantage.

This spawned a huge growth in black jack gamblers at the US betting houses who were trying to implement Dr. Thorp’s tactics, much to the awe of the casinos. The technique was difficult to comprehend and difficult to put into practice and thusly heightened the profits for the betting houses as more and more folks took to playing black jack.

However this massive increase in profits was not to last as the gamblers became more refined and more educated and the system was further perfected. In the 1980’s a bunch of students from MIT made card counting a part of the regular vernacular. Since then the casinos have introduced numerous methods to counteract players who count cards including (but not limited to), more than one deck, shoes, shuffle machines, and gossip has itnow sophisticated computer software to scrutinize actions and detect "cheaters". While not against the law being caught counting cards will get you banned from most casinos in Las Vegas.