BlackJack
Online
Blackjack was
derived from the French game vingt-et-un or twenty-one. Until
about the mid 1950's, it was believed that the game was alot
like baccarat and the house had the edge because the player
played first.
In 1956, a
paper was published by Baldwin, Cantey, Maisel, and McDermott in
the "Journal of the American Statistical Association" laying out
a set of recommendations for the play of the game, these
recommendations were very close to today's basic strategy. The
following year, they published a manual for the public with this
system of play, but it attracted little interest until, Edward
O. Thorp(PhD), saw the paper and understood that there were
parts of the game that had been missed in the past. The first
being that the composition of the deck changed with each card
dealt, also, some combinations of the remaining cards favored
the house and others favored the players.
In 1962, Dr.
Thorp published his now famous book, "Beat the Dealer", which
contained a simple yet profound message that decks of cards have
memory. Each hand is dependent on the makeup of the deck at that
time and by paying attention to the cards already played, the
player can almost predict what will be appearing in the deck
next.
The
Blackjack Computer
With the help
of a computer, Thorp did a statistical analysis called the Monte
Carlo simulation and discovered that 10's and Aces remaining in
the deck put the player at an advantage, while 5's and 6's being
left in the deck put the dealer at an advantage. Thus, card
counting was born.
If the player
could keep track of the cards left in the deck, they could
decide how to bet on each hand. For example, if there are many
10's and aces left they would be smart to bet high, and if there
are lots of fives and sixes left they might want to bet low
|
