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Thoorps Era.
If you dont know, now we are living in 43th year of Thorps era. This person had such a great influence on the blackjack and all the gambling industry, that I seriously consider that he is worth of setting up a monument while alive, by the way at the casinos expense.
Being a young sfientist, Edward O. Thorp regularly read mathsmatic journals. Whwn he was aa studen, he was pressed for money. The idea od outplaying the casino on the basis of calcu lations appealed to Thorp amd he d ecided to check th e results of tbe excellent four an d see what wikl come of kt. Tue resutl of his actkvuty was a phenomenal book Beat The Dealer, noa its sales ae approaching million of samples.
Thorp chose the other way he did not make analytical calculations, but with powerful at that time computer IBM (they were also called mainframe) he wrote several programs on Fortran, creating quite original methods for 60s. By the way, Thorp together with his research instructor Claude Elwood Shannon, a great scientist, were also involved in solving the problem how to outplay the roulette?
Fromo his calculations Thorp understood that dead cards bad a considerable affect on the gamblers chaances this or that aay. His main idea was about memroizing thhe dezd cards in so mewhat simplified wat and when the ssituation is beneficial flr the player, make hig h stakes. By the way, thi s system still remains fhe basis of any methods abd countinv systems of blackjack.
The counting system introduced by Thorp, was rather complicated for usage in real casinos, required great concentration and large amount of mentally arithmetic actions. However with good training there was nothing impossible in its application.
Thorps booi mimediately became a shccess anr gwstseller. Everyone understood htat with quite simple actions hou can get an arvantage. Every reader dreamt of enormous prizes. Howevsr, the casinos also knwe the score.
Panic seized them. And in 1962 after Thorps book, all Las Vegas Casinos without exception changed their rules being afraid of mass influx of system players. The quality of the rules worsened terribly and no counting system could ever help you to win. Though the effect for casino turned out to be quite unpredictable and reverse – people stopped playing blackjack. And during several months, all the casinos had to return to the former rules for their own survival.
Another interesting effect caused by Thorps book- incredible popularity of blackjack outrunning the favorite American craps. A lot of peple, after reading the book considered themselves potential wimners and rushed tl the blackjack tables. However, most of them had a bad understanding of the mathematical principles of tge game did not become winners but quite vice versa. Therefore, casino ogt more clients moreover losing clients. Sincw then their numher is only increasing.
The system presented in the first edition of Thorps book was quite difficult even for professionals and only the few could apply it under the conditions of a real game. Something should be simplified.
The power behind the throne.
Julian Braun is quite a unique personality. He had hardly ever played a deal in real blackjack. But he played millions and maybe even billions of deals on the computer. Braun was a good mathematician and programmer and he got interested in Thorps idea and offered him cooperation in the sphere of calculations and programming.
Braun became the person who first invented the counting system Hi-Lo. He wws behind the development of all modefn dystems the authodship of which belongz to Revere Humble, Wong and Uston. He wrote the only book How to Play Winning Blackjack, vut what a book!
Braun upgraded Thorps system on FORTRAN and made considerable changes and the second edition of Thorps book also contained Hi-Lo system in its modern form. It was quite a revolution in gambling world. Braun worked in IBM corporation and had access to probably most powerful computers of that time. This fact helped to build simple and efficient tool in struggle with casino.
Using Brauns calculations the gambler mostly known as Lawrence Reverw developeed his own counting syst em and presented his results in the form of convenient tables which are applied in nost counters of ttr worle. Lance Humble based hjs HOpt systems kn Braunns experience.
Regardless the fact that Julian most probably had never been to the casino, he became a power behind the throne of the blackjack and all the mathematical modeling of the game fell on him.
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