| Thorp's Era. | | | | blackjack. And during several months, all the casinos |
| If you don't know, now we are living in 43th year of | | | | had to return to the former rules for their own |
| Thorp's era. This person had such a great influence | | | | survival. |
| on the blackjack and all the gambling industry, that I | | | | Another interesting effect caused by Thorp's book- |
| seriously consider that he is worth of setting up a | | | | incredible popularity of blackjack outrunning the |
| monument while alive, by the way at the casino's | | | | favorite American craps. A lot of people, after |
| expense. | | | | reading the book considered themselves potential |
| Being a young scientist, Edward O. Thorp regularly | | | | winners and rushed to the blackjack tables. However, |
| read mathematic journals. When he was a student, | | | | most of them had a bad understanding of the |
| he was pressed for money. The idea of outplaying | | | | mathematical principles of the game did not become |
| the casino on the basis of calculations appealed to | | | | winners but quite vice versa. Therefore, casino got |
| Thorp and he decided to check the results of the | | | | more clients and moreover losing clients. Since then |
| "excellent four" and see what will come out of it. The | | | | their number is only increasing. |
| result of his activity was a phenomenal book Beat | | | | The system presented in the first edition of Thorp's |
| The Dealer, now its sales are approaching million of | | | | book was quite difficult even for professionals and |
| samples. | | | | only the few could apply it under the conditions of a |
| Thorp chose the other way - he did not make | | | | real game. Something should be simplified. |
| analytical calculations, but with powerful at that time | | | | The power behind the throne. |
| computer IBM (they were also called mainframe) he | | | | Julian Braun is quite a unique personality. He had |
| wrote several programs on Fortran, creating quite | | | | hardly ever played a deal in real blackjack. But he |
| original methods for 60s. By the way, Thorp together | | | | played millions and maybe even billions of deals on |
| with his research instructor Claude Elwood Shannon, a | | | | the computer. Braun was a good mathematician and |
| great scientist, were also involved in solving the | | | | programmer and he got interested in Thorp's idea |
| problem "how to outplay the roulette?" | | | | and offered him cooperation in the sphere of |
| From his calculations Thorp understood that dead | | | | calculations and programming. |
| cards had a considerable affect on the gambler's | | | | Braun became the person who first invented the |
| chances this or that way. His main idea was about | | | | counting system Hi-Lo. He was behind the |
| memorizing the dead cards in somewhat simplified | | | | development of all modern systems the authorship |
| way and when the situation is beneficial for the | | | | of which belongs to Revere, Humble, Wong and |
| player, make high stakes. By the way, this system | | | | Uston. He wrote the only book How to Play Winning |
| still remains the basis of any methods and counting | | | | Blackjack, but what a book! |
| systems of blackjack. | | | | Braun upgraded Thorp's system on FORTRAN and |
| The counting system introduced by Thorp, was | | | | made considerable changes and the second edition of |
| rather complicated for usage in real casinos, required | | | | Thorp's book also contained Hi-Lo system in its |
| great concentration and large amount of mentally | | | | modern form. It was quite a revolution in gambling |
| arithmetic actions. However with good training there | | | | world. Braun worked in IBM corporation and had |
| was nothing impossible in its application. | | | | access to probably most powerful computers of that |
| Thorp's book immediately became a success and | | | | time. This fact helped to build simple and efficient tool |
| bestseller. Everyone understood that with quite | | | | in struggle with casino. |
| simple actions you can get an advantage. Every | | | | Using Braun's calculations the gambler mostly known |
| reader dreamt of enormous prizes. However, the | | | | as Lawrence Revere developed his own counting |
| casinos also knew the score. | | | | system and presented his results in the form of |
| Panic seized them. And in 1962 after Thorp's book, all | | | | convenient tables which are applied in most counters |
| Las Vegas Casinos without exception changed their | | | | of the world. Lance Humble based his HiOpt systems |
| rules being afraid of mass influx of "system players". | | | | on Braun's experience. |
| The quality of the rules worsened terribly and no | | | | Regardless the fact that Julian most probably had |
| counting system could ever help you to win. Though | | | | never been to the casino, he became a power |
| the effect for casino turned out to be quite | | | | behind the throne of the blackjack and all the |
| unpredictable and reverse - people stopped playing | | | | mathematical modeling of the game fell on him. |