Blackjack is really the only casino game where it’s possible to beat the house using skill. When using perfect blackjack strategy the house edge is very small and you can actually gain an advantage by using a technique known as card counting. If you would like to find out more about what’s involved in counting cards you should visit our blackjack guide. It covers the subject in detail.

• Who Was Known As Blackjack Ferguson

Blackjack, also known by the much more explanatory name Twenty-One, is a card game that can be played with one, two, four, six, or eight decks of cards depending on the number of players, and whether it’s played in a casual or competitive setting.

• The Reason General John Pershing Was Called 'Black Jack' February is Black History Month in the United States. I have never done a specifically black history piece on this site, although I have from time to time suggested, for example, that Anglicans realise that the “Anglican Communion” is now and should be the “African Communion” with.
• The first world war is known as 'the great war' This was also known as the War to end all wars.

On this page we have provided information on some of the most famous card counters. Included are those who have successfully won money using this technique and those who have devised card counting strategies and systems. These people are legends in the gambling world but not so popular with the individuals and organizations that own casinos.

The following is a list of all the people and covered on this page. They are legends in the gambling world, and admired by many a casino player. It’s fair to say, however, that they are not so popular with the individuals and organizations who own casinos.

The MIT blackjack team is quite possibly the most famous counting team of all time. It consisted of students, and ex-students, from MIT, Harvard University, Harvard Business School and other academic institutions. Originally managed by Harvard MBA graduate Bill Kaplan, the team made fortunes throughout the 1980s and early 90s using card counting and some other more advanced strategies and techniques.

The story of this team is a truly fascinating one and shows just what can be achieved through card counting and good organization. Author Ben Mezrich wrote a book, Bringing Down the House, that was largely based on their exploits and the book was subsequently used as the basis for the popular movie, 21, starring Kevin Spacey.

Among other notable achievements, Edward Thorp wrote the book “Beat the Dealer.” This book, published in 1962, was the first that actually mathematically proved that blackjack was beatable using card counting techniques. As a result, he’s commonly referred to as the godfather of card counting. He’s also considered something of a pioneer in the application of probability theory in a number of other situations, including hedge fund management.

Before writing his book, Thorp analyzed blackjack extensively and devised card counting systems using early computer technology. He also tested his systems in casinos in Reno and Las Vegas, drawing attention from security officials due to his winning ways. Word of his success circulated around the gambling community and he decided to write a book when it became clear there was a demand for his methods to be brought to a wider audience.

The Four Horseman

A few years prior to Thorp’s book in 1957, “Playing Blackjack to Win,” had been published. In many ways this book was ahead of its time, and it featured the first accurate basic strategy for playing blackjack. It also contained a very simple card counting system, which technically the authors were ahead of Thorp. Despite the relative lack of computing power back then, the basic strategy was incredibly close to being mathematically perfect.

The four authors: Roger Baldwin, Herbert Maisel, James McDermott and Wilbert Cantey were all mathematicians. They became known as “The Four Horseman of Blackjack.” Although they were convinced they had worked out the very best way to play blackjack, they were also determined they would lose in the long run and as such never really put their methods to practical use.

Before his death in 1987 he had appeared on a number of television shows detailing his gambling exploits. This gave him a significant public profile outside the traditional gambling community, unmatched by many of the other names on this page.

During the 1970s he put together a number of counting teams that visited casinos all over the world and successfully won millions playing blackjack. Although team play wasn’t his idea initially, he’s regarded as the one who popularized the concept. He is also, at least partially, responsible for casinos adjusting the rules of blackjack to try and negate the advantage of a skilled player.

Having been banned from many casinos because of his success, he decided in 1979 to file a lawsuit against one of them in Atlantic City. The basis for his lawsuit, against Resorts International Hotel, was that a casino had no right to ban a player simply for using their skills. The courts agreed, and to this day Atlantic Casinos aren’t allowed to ban card counters. It was largely because of this lawsuit that casinos began taking measures such as using more decks and increasing the frequency of shuffles to make it harder for counters to be successful.

Tommy Hyland

Tommy Hyland is the manager of the longest-running known blackjack team. His team of card counters has essentially been together since 1979, although there have been some changes in personnel over the years. Hyland is said to command a great deal of loyalty, trust, and respect from his players: something which seems pretty evident. It’s believed there are around 15 members of his team currently.

It’s unknown exactly how much Hyland and his team have made over the years. Hyland himself has stated that his team initially had four members, each of whom put in $4,000, and together they build their collective balance upwards of $60,000 within a month or so. He has been less forthcoming about the exact sums of money involved since then though. It’s fair to assume he has made very substantial sums of money.

The name Stanford Wong is known by many in gambling circles, but not everyone is aware that this is actually a pen name for John Ferguson. Wong is the author of many gambling books and he has devised a number of card counting systems.

A specific technique he advocates has become known as “wonging”. This technique is incredibly simple and can help increase profits, but it does potentially bring extra risk.

The wonging technique tries to improve on the popular system of playing low stakes while keeping count, and waiting for the right moment to bet big. The idea is that a player should instead observe a table while counting. Then, when the time is right, they can take a seat and begin playing at that point. This can save the money likely to be lost when the count is not in favor of the player, but dipping in and out of blackjack games is likely to attract more attention from casino security.

Keith Taft

Keith Taft is without question a genius. In 1970 he started work on building a portable computer that he could use to beat blackjack in the casinos by helping him count cards. There were no laws in place about the use of electronic devices in casinos at the time, although no casino would actually allow a player to use one. As such Taft had to come up with something that he could keep hidden from casino staff. He managed to do exactly that and successfully used his device to win money playing blackjack.

Over time he refined and improved his inventions. The computing equipment and devices that Taft designed and produced were incredibly advanced for his time and he has subsequently been credited with several ground breaking developments. These include building one of the first microcomputers, using peer to peer networking systems, and capturing video using a computer.

Grosjean is an author as well as a professional blackjack player. The best known of his books is probably, “Beyond Counting: Exploiting Casino Games from Blackjack to Video Poker”, which was published in 2000. In this he provides mathematical advice for a number of casino games in addition to blackjack. It’s believed that Grosjean still actively plays blackjack in casinos around the world.

Within the broad gambling fraternity Grosjean is considered somewhat of a hero for successfully taking legal stands against casinos and their agencies. He has previously sued a Nevada casino for being illegally detained and won a lawsuit against one other major casino. He also sued an investigative agency that was believed to work for a number of casinos and held personal information on card counters.

Rules

I overhear a lot of bad gambling advice in the casinos. Perhaps the most frequent is this one, 'The object of blackjack is to get as close to 21 as possible, without going over.' No! The object of blackjack is to beat the dealer. To beat the dealer the player must first not bust (go over 21) and second either outscore the dealer or have the dealer bust. Here are the full rules of the game.

1. Blackjack may be played with one to eight decks of 52-card decks.
2. Aces may be counted as 1 or 11 points, 2 to 9 according to pip value, and tens and face cards count as ten points.
3. The value of a hand is the sum of the point values of the individual cards. Except, a 'blackjack' is the highest hand, consisting of an ace and any 10-point card, and it outranks all other 21-point hands.
4. After the players have bet, the dealer will give two cards to each player and two cards to himself. One of the dealer cards is dealt face up. The facedown card is called the 'hole card.'
5. If the dealer has an ace showing, he will offer a side bet called 'insurance.' This side wager pays 2 to 1 if the dealer's hole card is any 10-point card. Insurance wagers are optional and may not exceed half the original wager.
6. If the dealer has a ten or an ace showing (after offering insurance with an ace showing), then he will peek at his facedown card to see if he has a blackjack. If he does, then he will turn it over immediately.
7. If the dealer does have a blackjack, then all wagers (except insurance) will lose, unless the player also has a blackjack, which will result in a push. The dealer will resolve insurance wagers at this time.
8. Play begins with the player to the dealer's left. The following are the choices available to the player:
   • Stand: Player stands pat with his cards.
   • Hit: Player draws another card (and more if he wishes). If this card causes the player's total points to exceed 21 (known as 'breaking' or 'busting') then he loses.
   • Double: Player doubles his bet and gets one, and only one, more card.
   • Split: If the player has a pair, or any two 10-point cards, then he may double his bet and separate his cards into two individual hands. The dealer will automatically give each card a second card. Then, the player may hit, stand, or double normally. However, when splitting aces, each ace gets only one card. Sometimes doubling after splitting is not allowed. If the player gets a ten and ace after splitting, then it counts as 21 points, not a blackjack. Usually the player may keep re-splitting up to a total of four hands. Sometimes re-splitting aces is not allowed.
   • Surrender: The player forfeits half his wager, keeping the other half, and does not play out his hand. This option is only available on the initial two cards, and depending on casino rules, sometimes it is not allowed at all.
9. After each player has had his turn, the dealer will turn over his hole card. If the dealer has 16 or less, then he will draw another card. A special situation is when the dealer has an ace and any number of cards totaling six points (known as a 'soft 17'). At some tables, the dealer will also hit a soft 17.
10. If the dealer goes over 21 points, then any player who didn't already bust will win.
11. If the dealer does not bust, then the higher point total between the player and dealer will win.
12. Winning wagers pay even money, except a winning player blackjack usually pays 3 to 2. Some casinos have been short-paying blackjacks, which is a rule strongly in the casino's favor.

Wizard's Simple Strategy

I've been preaching for years that to play blackjack properly requires memorizing the basic strategy. However, after pitching the basic strategy for 20 years, I've learned that few people have the will to memorize it. In my book, Gambling 102, I presented a 'Simple Strategy,' which is seven simple rules to playing blackjack. The cost due to incorrect plays with the Simple Strategy is 0.53%, under liberal Vegas Strip rules.

Ever since my book was published it has bothered me that the cost in errors to my Simple Strategy was too high. So in September 2009 I developed the following 'Wizard's Strategy.' The cost due to imperfect plays is 0.14% only, relative to liberal Vegas Strip rules. That is the cost of one hand for about every 12 hours of play. Compared to the 250 cells in the Basic Strategy, the Wizard's Strategy has only 21, as follows.

Let me be perfectly clear that this strategy is not right 100% of the time. I continue to get Emails saying that when this strategy was used with my practice game, the player was corrected for following it. For example, my simple strategy says to stand on 12 against a 2, when it is mathematically better to hit. If you want to learn a strategy that is correct all the time you should use the appropriate basic strategy for the set of rules you are playing.

Here are some comments of clarification.

• A 'hard' hand is one that either has no aces, or has aces that are forced to count as point, lest the hand bust. A 'soft' hand is one with at least one ace, which may still count as one or eleven points.
• With a hard 10 or 11, double if you have more points than the dealer, treating a dealer ace as 11 points. Specifically, double with 10 against a 2 to 9, and with 11 against 2 to 10.
• If the strategy says to double, but you have three or more cards, or table rules don't allow soft doubling, then hit, except stand with a soft 18.
• If the strategy says to surrender (16 vs. 10), but you can't for whatever reason, then hit.
• If the strategy says to 'not split,' then treat the hand has a hard total of 8, 10, or 20, according to the pair in question.

A reader named Jeff provided another table of my simple strategy, with exceptions in small print. Details about the Wizard's Simple Strategy can be found in my Blackjack appendix 21.

Basic Strategy

For the appropriate basic strategy for just about any set of rules, please visit my basic strategy calculator. I still have my traditional charts too:

House Edge

See my Blackjack House Edge Calculator to determine the house edge under 6,912 possible rule combinations.

Rule Surveys

Las Vegas: I'm proud to feature up date blackjack rules for every casino in Las Vegas. The list is updated monthly, based on Stanford Wong's Current Blackjack Newsletter. Effective November 2009 the survey has been moved to my companion site, WizardOfVegas.com.

Rule Variations

Following is a list of some common rule variations and the effect on the player's expected return compared to standard U.S. rules (8 decks, dealer stands on soft 17, double after split allowed).

Rule Variations

Rule	Effect
Single deck	0.48%
Early surrender against ten	0.24%
Player may double on any number of cards	0.23%
Double deck	0.19%
Player may draw to split aces	0.19%
Six-card Charlie	0.16%
Player may resplit aces	0.08%
Late surrender	0.08%
Four decks	0.06%
Five decks	0.03%
Six decks	0.02%
Split to only 3 hands	-0.01%
Player may double on 9-11 only	-0.09%
Split to only 2 hands	-0.10%
European no hole card	-0.11%
Player may not double after splitting	-0.14%
Player may double on 10,11 only	-0.18%
Dealer hits on soft 17	-0.22%
Blackjack pays 7-5	-0.45%
Blackjack pays 6-5	-1.39%
Blackjacks pay 1 to 1	-2.27%

I also have a longer list of rule variations.

Beware Short Pays on a Blackjack

More and more tables are showing up that pay less than the full 3 to 2 on a blackjack. Most of these tables pay 6 to 5, but some even money and 7 to 5 tables are known to exist. I would estimate that 10% of '21' tables in Las Vegas now pay less than 3 to 2. In my opinion, only games that pay 3 to 2 deserve to be called 'blackjack,' the rest fall under '21' games, including Super Fun 21 and Spanish 21. Regardless of the other rules, you should demand nothing less than 3 to 2 blackjack. You should always check the felt to be sure, and if the felt doesn't say, look for a sign. If nothing says the win on a blackjack, then ask.

Articles about 6-5 Blackjack:

• Taking a hit: New blackjack odds further tilt advantage toward the house, Las Vegas Sun, Nov. 13, 2003.
• Tighter blackjack rules would hurt players' bankroll, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Feb. 4, 2011.

Bad Strategies

Who Was Known As Blackjack Ferguson

Three popular bad strategies encountered at the blackjack table are: never bust, mimic the dealer, and always assume the dealer has a ten in the hole. All three are very bad strategies. Following are my specific comments on each of them, including the house edge under Atlantic City rules (dealer stands on soft 17, split up to 4 hands, double after split, double any two cards) of 0.43%.

Never bust: For my analysis of this strategy I assumed the player would never hit a hard 12 or more. All other decisions were according to correct basic strategy. This 'never bust' strategy results in a house edge of 3.91%.

Mimic the dealer: For my analysis of this strategy I assumed the player would always hit 16 or less and stand on17 or more, including a soft 17. The player never doubled or split, since the dealer is not allowed to do so. This 'mimic the dealer' strategy results in a house edge of 5.48%.

Assume a ten in the hole: For this strategy I first figured out the optimal basic strategy under this assumption. If the dealer had an ace up, then I reverted to proper basic strategy, because the dealer would have peeked for blackjack, making a 10 impossible. This 'assume a ten' strategy results in a house edge of 10.03%.

Play Blackjack

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Practice Basis Strategy

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Written by: Michael Shackleford