Background

Edward Thorpe was born in Chicago in the year 1932 and is considered as a legendary figure in the world of blackjack. He had been a mathematics professor and a professional player of blackjack. He had gained most of his success when he wrote the book “Beat the Dealer”. This had been his first ever book which he had written to make players understand how they could play the game mathematically and count cards.

Research

Edward Thorp had used a computer in order to do his research on the probabilities to beat the casinos. Also, he himself had spent a great number of hours over a long period in order to test several mathematical equations. He had developed a very solid technique, card counting after his research which helped him immensely at the game.

Career as a Player

After he had come up with his card counting theory, Edward Thorp along with Manny Kimmel, a professional player decided to go and test the methods at the casinos to see how it performed. They both first decided to head to Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas and Reno and tested out the techniques. On their first weekend they started with a bank roll of $10,000 and managed to turn it into $21,000 in just a weekend. However, they had been kicked off from the casinos several times.

Edward Thorp was known to use disguises while he played at the casinos since after a few months he was already very well known in most casinos. He had also come up with a wearable computer which he often used while playing. The computer did help him as well as a few other players make a considerable amount of money. However, using such devices in casinos is no longer allowed.

When he had first written his book, it was not considered safe to make such strategies known to the public for the fear of getting harmed. He had been the first one who had been willing to take the risk and had got the book published without consulting any of his peers. It was because of him that the players realized that there was a way to in fact beat the dealers at blackjack. He had also stated that the entire study had been done only for research and academic purposes and not for money.

Edward had been inducted into the Internet Blackjack Hall of Fame and is considered today to be the father of card counting. There are not many players who have had the honor of being included in that list and it is definitely considered to be a very respectable achievement in the world of blackjack.

Edward Thorp had stopped gambling after he had repeatedly been kicked out of the casinos because of his experiments. He is definitely considered as one of the best mathematicians from that time and not only did he help himself but millions of other blackjack players because of which he is highly respected by players all over the world.