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The card game of chemin de fer was introduced to the United States in the 1800's but it wasn't until the middle of the twentieth century that a strategy was created to beat the casino in Blackjack. This material is going to grab a rapid peak at the birth of that strategy, Counting Cards.

When wagering was legalized in the state of Nevada in '34, twenty-one screamed into popularity and was commonly played with one or 2 decks. Roger Baldwin wrote a paper in '56 which explained how to lower the casino advantage built on probability and performance history which was very difficult to understand for individuals who weren't mathematicians.

In 1962, Dr. Edward O. Thorp used an IBM 704 computer to enhance the mathematical strategy in Baldwin's dissertation and also developed the 1st card counting strategies. Dr. Ed Thorp wrote a tome called "Beat the Dealer" which outlined card counting strategies and the tactics for reducing the casino edge.

This spawned a large increase in chemin de fer players at the US betting houses who were attempting to implement Dr. Ed Thorp's tactics, much to the confusion of the casinos. The system was not easy to comprehend and hard to carry through and therefore increased the profits for the casinos as more and more people took to gambling on Blackjack.

However this huge growth in earnings was not to last as the gamblers became more sophisticated and more insightful and the system was further perfected. In the 80's a group of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology made card counting a part of the regular vernacular. Since then the casinos have brought in countless methods to counteract players who count cards including, multiple decks, shoes, shuffle machines, and rumor has it, sophisticated computer programs to observe body language and detect "cheaters". While not illegal being caught counting cards will get you barred from most if not all casinos in sin city.