Edward Oakley Thorp is often regarded as the father of card counting and the wearable computer. He is also an academician, hedge fund manager, author and one of the world’s best known blackjack player. Thorp was born on 14, August 1932 in Chicago, Illinois. The math’s professor received his doctorate degree in mathematics from University of California, LA in 1958. He worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology between 1959 and 1961 and taught mathematics at the New Mexico State University from 1962 to 1965. During his years at MIT, Thorp together with Claude Shanoon created an “Advantage play computing device” that is worn on the wrist. The device was originally created to beat roulette; it was …show more content…
Part of the reason is because a move made by the player affects the final outcome of play; this factor makes blackjack a game of both chances and skill. For instance, if you play your cards perfectly like a pro, in a casino with partial rules, you can bring down the house edge to as low as 0.8%. Besides blackjack, Thorp also found winning ways in the game of baccarat by incorporating his proven theories of probability. This table game proved a big success to the professor because the game prohibits early reshuffling of the deck. The other reason is based on the evidence that players do not handle the cards physically; this left a little room for any player to be declared a cheat by the casino …show more content…
The book which was published by Random House became an instant hit and sold more than 700,000 copies. Inside the book, Thorp explained his “Ten Count System” for counting cards. In 1966, he published the second edition of this book. The book delved deeper into explaining the intricacies of the system. Many people who had read or heard about Thorp’s book became even more eager to try their luck at the casino. However, many casinos began co-opting Thorps card counting techniques to make painstaking amends in their systems. The Casinos also devised a technique for reshuffling the deck much sooner in order to hinder the successes of the card counters who were looking to tap into Thorp’s meticulous