The Blackjack Hall of Fame

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It’s been over a decade that the world’s best blackjack players created The Blackjack Hall of Fame. This institution gathers top professionals from all over the world to play Twenty-One, which is also known as blackjack. These players of distinction are then added to the roll of honor. The Blackjack Hall of Fame, above all, is a unique organization that is intended to inspire skilled blackjack gamblers, as well as all the great thinkers who are developing killer ideas and concepts for the game of twenty-one!

Founded in 2002 and housed in San Diego, The Blackjack Hall of Fame has since been actively inducting prominent and gambling-shrewd people who have made a significant contribution toward the game of twenty-one, thereby enhancing the scope of both the theoretical and the practical aspects of the game. No wonder avid gamblers are so passionate about this prestigious club; they’re so crazy about blackjack, they’ve put it at the top of their agenda.

Tracing Back the History of the Blackjack Hall of Fame

The idea of creating a club of the brightest blackjack-related individuals can be traced directly to a few professional twenty-one players (although sad to say, their names remain unknown up to this day). They decided to select the 21 most exceptional people whose incredible skills have helped to create a higher profile for this insanely popular game. Then the group narrowed the list of 21 down to seven judiciously selected individuals. These are the personalities who ended up on the ultimate list, thereby establishing the newly born élite of the Blackjack Hall of Fame!

The Magnificent Seven

Here is a list of those seven lucky blackjack players: Edward O. Thorp, AI Francesco, Ken Uston, Stanford Wong, Peter Griffin, Tommy Hyland, and Arnold Snyder.

1. Edward O. Thorp

This talented and extraordinary mathematics professor was the famous founder of the blackjack card counting technique. His revolutionary book, “Beat the Dealer,” is a card counting guide which introduced twenty-one players to his groundbreaking and exceptionally winner-friendly scheme, which allowed gamblers to figure out the probable outcome of the game by counting the cards that were dealt before. Thorp’s brilliant theoretical contribution to the game of blackjack glorified him and put the professor on the ultimate list of the lucky seven.

The popularity of this book can be explained by the fact the book became a blueprint for blackjack players. Designed with the help of the IBM-704 digital computer, this work gave some useful insights on how to beat casinos in hand-held one-deck games. Casinos decided to change the rules, which led to a lot of players feeling compelled to boycott blackjack. In the end, the four-deck shoe system was introduced as a compromise.

However, these changes didn’t stop Thorp from conducting further research; so he re-edited the book in 1966, describing the flaws of the newly established system. At this point, the professor decided to apply his gaming theory to the sphere of finance. His classic work, “Beat the Market,” dealt with stock market operations; and as a result, he founded the first neutral derivatives-based hedge fund. So it seems his studies at UCLA were worth it then!

2. AI Francesco

Francesco happens to be the person who finally refined Thorp’s strategy. The professor’s breakthrough didn’t seem such a great success when the casinos decided to ban card counting. So Francesco suggested another skill instead; a rather more evasive one! He decided to show card counters how to conceal their counting, so they didn’t appear as such to the security.

His system for team card counting stayed undetected until the late 70s. You might have seen how it works in some popular Hollywood movies like “21.” Basically, several people would sit at the different tables exhausting the shoe until only the 10s were left, so the “big player” could finally enter the game with higher bets. This strategy allowed the player to cash out millions of dollars overnight! Al Francesco continued playing after this, and in 2002, he was finally welcomed into the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

3. Ken Uston

Originally a member of Francesco’s team, Uston branched out into creating some special teams. Not only is Ken Uston a great gambler, but he is also a proficient theorist, who has written a series of books covering the core aspects of blackjack strategy. Uston’s turning-point role in the history of twenty-one was his performance at the New Jersey Supreme Court hearing, where he managed to talk the court authorities into lifting the ban on card counters at casinos.

In addition to being a skillful gambler, Uston co-authored Big Player in 1977. Instead of hiding his card counting talent, he decided to gloat around about his abilities; both in the book and in real life!

Uston was banned to play in Nevada, but it wasn’t big trouble, as gambling was allowed in Atlantic City. After assembling his own team, he took New Jersey casinos by storm. In 1979, he managed to have a major quarrel with Resorts International, on account of their forbidding him to play. He sued the establishment and managed to bring his argument as far as the New Jersey Supreme Court.

After this three year trial, the Court agreed that Ken Uston had been unlawfully banned from playing blackjack because of his skill. By the time this decision was made, it wasn’t a major issue for Resorts International whether or not he was going to play on their premises; as multi-hand blackjack had already been developed by this point, and several card decks were now being used in the shoe. In the meanwhile, Ken managed to write another bestseller, entitled “Million Dollar Blackjack,” which described some ways of benefiting from the house.

4. Stanford Wong

Ever since E.Thorp has published his blueprint of card counting in blackjack, there has been a whole slew of enquiring minds, ready to test his theories on practice. One such enthusiast was John Ferguson, a Stanford finance professor, who decided to develop his own system to help gamblers beat the casino in a 4-deck blackjack card game.

Under the nickname of “Stanford Wong,” he decided to hit the blackjack tables in Nevada. Soon enough, he published a book entitled “Professional Blackjack” that introduced “back-counting” into the game. Back in the old days, everyone was able to just hop into the middle of the game after all cards were dealt! This ended up giving leverage for experienced cardsharps to count the cards and then limp into the game at the most appropriate moment. But once this method became more widely used by the gambling community, casinos banned hopping into the game until the shoe is exhausted.

Nevertheless, the name of “Stanford Wong” has been inscribed into the Blackjack Hall of Fame; this means that the term “wonging” is now part of gambling slang, as a reference to the back counting system he invented. And today, John Ferguson’s tips are every bit as useful as they ever were for those who want to play blackjack for real money!

5. Peter Griffin

Griffin supplemented Thorp’s theoretical creation by publishing “The Theory of Blackjack,” which provided a complete strategy of the game of twenty-one. This book sheds some light on the mathematics underlying blackjack strategy, as well as including a set of methods that can be used to compare the card-counting systems of twenty-one.

He started his research when he was a 33-year-old instructor on the mathematics of gambling. To prove his theories, he decided to play for real money at some of the Nevada casinos. Despite the fact that the teaching salary did not allow him to wager a lot, he managed to conduct some broad research in various establishments, in order to prove that the house edges differed from place to place. The most fascinating thing about this man, however, is that he barely profited from his work; as indeed, he never aimed to do so!

6. Tommy Hyland

Hyland’s rare analytical and strategic skills have kept him in charge of one of the twenty-one teams for over four decades! His professional patronage has since enabled the team to maintain their image of the most successful team in blackjack history; and has he helped the members bring in dozens of million-dollar wins so far.

This prolific work of his started in 1979, when he decided to make blackjack his actual job. And ever since then, he’s been snagging millions while the hitting tables in Atlantic City and New Jersey. And it’s the simple high/low count technique that has become the key to Tommy’s wins. According to him, it’s possible to learn this with just 20 hours of practice! He has been crushing casino after casino; until 1994, when he was arrested by the Canadian Police at the Casino of Windsor. Together with his team, he was accused of ace sequencing, but the court didn’t recognize this to be cheating. And since then, he has rarely been seen playing Blackjack; in fact, he is most frequently seen on the golf course!

7. Arnold Snyder

The history of blackjack recognizes Snyder both as a prominent writer and a keen player, although his writing contributions are deemed to be far more valuable. His theoretical heritage includes “The Blackjack Formula,” “Blackbelt in Blackjack,” “The Blackjack Shuffle Tracker’s Cookbook,” and “The Big Book of Blackjack.”

For as long as 20 years, this outstanding expert has essentially been running the world of blackjack journalism! Every layman who is eager to become a blackjack pro has read his articles, so they can finally start playing blackjack games and winning some money! Nevertheless, some of his attempts to outsmart casinos with card counting have failed. There were also some times when his team, CRAPS, tried to become famous; but they didn’t get much money in the end.