History
Dr. Edward Thorp wrote a book named, Beat the Dealer. In this book he gave a new face to card counting. This book ended up being one of the best sellers. Thorp emphasized on basic playing and betting strategies which can aid a player in gaining success. The book even informed about HI-Lo card counting; which is a very basic part of Blackjack card counting process. Hi-Lo card counting allows the gambler to keep notice of cards and alter his betting strategies to gain victories.
Thorps even enlightened people about the cards that are favorable for players and cards that are favorable for dealers. If a player is able to keep notice of cards that have already been played then he can play according to the remaining cards. This made the casinos change rules and regulations of Blackjack. Due to this the players revolted against the new set of rules. In reaction to public's revolt; old rules were reinstated and card counting was made illegal. Ken Uston was a sucessful card counter. He appeared on 60 minutes and he became a world renowned figure.
Uston: figure of card counting
Uston invented Team play a card counting method. According to this method a players are made to visit different tables of blackjack and through this the best table used to be located. All the players of that team sit on that table. With this Mr. Uston once made $3m which became the highest win through blackjack card counting.
The game of Blackjack became more popular during the 1970 to 1980 as the computers became more accessible and powerful. With the aid of computers; the card counters became extremely powerful as the chances of making errors decreased and winnings increased.
MIT Team
A blackjack playing team from the famous collage of MIT also used card counting; this team was known as MIJ Blackjack team. King of Card counting was the name given to Thomas Hyland and he is a popular figure of Card counting's history. He organized a card counting crack team and they operated in casinos located in Bahamas, Atlantic City and Vegas. This team was later caught and they were barred from visiting casinos.
Another important name in the background of blackjack card counting is an IBM technician who devised optimal card counting process for Blackjack through IBM computers.
The rest of the background of counting is a story of mouse and cat between casinos and card counters. Casinos have failed to eradicate card counting from gambling as the card counters have always stayed better than the casinos.