Blackjack – a Game for Skilled Players

For those of you who insist that blackjack is purely a game of chance rather than skill, let me make an observation that may suggest otherwise.

Consider the members of the Blackjack Hall of Fame, which includes some of the most successful blackjack advantage players that have ever played the game.  These are gambling professionals who earnt large sums of money playing blackjack to the point where casinos went to great pains to try and keep  them from their tables - in some instances through legal action. 

The aim of this article isn't to labour the exploits of these Hall of Famers, but the point should be made that apparently all of these guys won a lot of money by playing the game with a documented edge over the house.

I was browsing the current list of members just the other day and reading their profiles and there existed one undeniably common trait that they shared - highly numerate and analytic minds and impressive intellects.  In fact, many of them were/are university educated in mathematics, economics or finance fields, usually at esteemed institutions and often to PHD level.

There is Peter Griffin holding a Masters Degree in maths from UC Davis and the grandson of mathematician Frank Loxley Griffin; Edwards Thorpe, MIT alma mater, UCLA PHD and professor of maths at UC Irvine; Stanford Wong, Stanford alma mater and finance PHD student; Lawrence Revere with a degree in pure mathematics at the University of Nebraska; James Grosjean, a graduate of UC's Department of Economics.  Then there's the members of the MIT Blackjack Team who were recruited from MIT.

Is it a coincidence that the guys judged to be the best blackjack players the world has ever seen also happened to have a fondness for mathematics?  I don't belive so.  Did they randomly choose blackjack as their casino game of choice rather than trying to beat the casinos at slots or keno?  I suspect not.

I am neither a genius nor mathematically gifted, but considering the above, 3 rather obvious points seem evident.  First, the best blackjack players in the world all seem to be very intelligent, very skilled players.  2 - of all the games in the casino they could have played, blackjack was their game of choice, and third, by all reports they seemed to do quite well from it.

Now before you rush out and hone your card counting skills and hit the blackjack tables, bear in mind the game has changed quite a bit from when it was played in the 60s and 70s - thanks in no small part to the winning ways of the above players.  Wise to advantage play methods, casinos have moved the goal posts and added multiple decks, changed the rules regarding whether the dealer hits or stands on soft 17, in some cases banned joining games mid-shoe and even, in some instances altered the payout for blackjack to 6:5. 

But favorable rules are still out there and blackjack remains one of the only casino games where a skilled player can play with at worst a very small house edge, and maybe even a player edge if they are good enough.

Milton Shaw is a contributing writer for numerous online gambling websites including Livedealer.org which offers live deal blackjack reviews. For a list of blackjack Hall of Famers, visit Wiki's BHOF page.

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