01.30
The Origin of Chemin de Fer
The game of chemin de fer was brought to the U.S. in the 1800’s but it was not until the middle of the twentieth century that a strategy was created to defeat the casino in Blackjack. This material is going to grab a quick look at the development of that strategy, Card Counting.
When betting was legitimized in Nevada in ‘34, chemin de fer screamed into recognition and was most commonly bet on with one or two decks of cards. Roger Baldwin wrote a paper in ‘56 which detailed how to reduce the house edge based on odds and stats which was quite complicated for gamblers who were not math experts.
In 1962, Dr. Edward O. Thorp utilized an IBM 704 computer to better the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also developed the 1st strategies for card counting. Dr. Thorp authored a book called "Beat the Dealer" which outlined card counting techniques and the strategies for reducing the casino advantage.
This created a massive increase in twenty-one competitors at the US casinos who were attempting to put into practice Dr. Thorp’s tactics, much to the awe of the casinos. The strategy was challenging to comprehend and complicated to put into practice and therefore elevated the profits for the casinos as more and more people took to gambling on twenty-one.
However this large increase in profits wasn’t to continue as the players became more highly developed and more cultivated and the system was further refined. In the 80’s a group of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology made card counting a part of the everyday vocabulary. Since then the casinos have introduced countless measures to thwart card counters including but not limited to, more than one deck, shoes, constant shuffle machines, and gossip has it, complex computer software to read body language and detect "cheaters". While not against the law being caught counting cards will get you banned from all brick and mortar casinos in Las Vegas.