Edward Thorpe - The father of the count

I think it was Isaac Newton who once said 'If I see so far, it's because I stand on the shoulders of giants'.

Newton's giants were the likes of Plato, Aristotle, Galileo and Copernicus whose life works and discoveries allowed Newton to make great leaps in science.

In the world of blackjack card counting, the man whose work forms the cornerstone of all the great advantage players to follow was Edward Thorpe - the man who discovered card counting.

Changing blackjack forever

Edward Thorpe is described Blackjack Hall of Famer Max Rubin as the man who 'changed the way blackjack was played against - and by - casinos forever.'

His best selling book, Beat the Dealer, published in 1962, was the first book to prove mathematically that blackjack could be beaten by card counting. It also detailed his counting methodology which, implemented effectively would give players a 1% edge over the house.

Thorpe's book and insights provided the inspiration for many a budding advantage player to take on the casinos and win, including blackjack legends Al Francesco and Stanford Wong.  It also formed the basis of more effective and simpler counting strategies that are employed to this day.

Casinos not happy

Thorpe's applied and honed his counting methods at casinos initially in Reno and Lake Tahoe.  Bankrolled by professional punter Manny Kimmel to the tune of $10,000 he apparently won $11,000 in one weekend. 

His winning ways continued in the casinos at Las Vegas and would probably netted far more money had the casinos not become very aware of his tendency to win.  They started trying to develop counter measures to his methods, like early shuffles and of course, throwing him out when he started winning too much.

Becoming increasingly unpopular with casinos, but gaining a cult following amongst blackjack players, he soon found himself having to wear disguises to get a seat at blackjack tables.  By the time he wrote Beat the Dealer, his exploits were the stuff of legend, and over 700,000 copies of the book were sold.

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