HN Books @HNBooksMonth

Thanks for the post. It has been a while since I read about him.

Here is a modern book that gamblers like to read by another fascinating Mathematician Edward Thorp:

https://www.amazon.com/Beat-Dealer-Winning-Strategy-Twenty-O...

Ok so the idea of a statistical edge in blackjack, as well as the strategies of card counting and what is called basic strategy, were developed by mathematician E.O. Thorp in the 70s. Thorp has a large body of research on the mathematics of many casino games that are worth taking the time to read, some of them with the father of information theory himself Claude Shannon (with whom he used to go gambling, along with both their wives).

The empirical testing of his work was conducted over a number of years by MIT, Harvard Business School and others to show that indeed card counting and other strategies were effective at giving the bettor a statistical edge [1]. Casinos being casinos, they learned of this soon enough and effectively banned card counters in many outlets (as well as putting various measures in place to prevent or minimize those who are more subtle about it, as discussed in OP's comment). In modern times, even a small town casino will have measures in place to stop card counters, the simplest of which is just to have an automatic deck shuffler.

As for his papers on the academic research that have led to strategies like card counting, you can find most or all of them on his site[2]. Of particular note is his paper "Blackjack Systems"[3] describing a proto card counting strategy, "The Mathematics of Gambling"[4], and of course the book that started it all: "Beat the Dealer"[5].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Blackjack_Team [2] http://www.edwardothorp.com/articles/ [3] http://www.edwardothorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Black... [4] http://www.edwardothorp.com/books/the-mathematics-of-gamblin... [5] https://www.amazon.com/Beat-Dealer-Winning-Strategy-Twenty-O...