) THE BOOK THAT MADE | LAS VEGAS CHANGE THE RULES ? ee THE ne Ve THORP OVER 500,000 COPIES SOLD —— __My, A t0 (295° This book ts dedicate hss my wife VIVIAN 15 cand my children, (96 son, EAREN and TEFPIET ‘Copytight © 1962, 1966 by Edward O. Thorp ‘Al sighes reserved wader International and PaavAmerican Copy fight Conventions. Published in the Unived Sats by Rancim Hous, Ioe., New York. Diserbured ig, Canada by Random Howse’ of Canada Limited, Toroow. Originally published by Random House, fc. ia 1966. The qooation from Paul ONeit's ‘rile in Life Magazioe eppears cours Life Magaioe © 1964 ‘Time Ine. heuy of Congress Cataloging in Publication Dasa {GV1295.B35TS 1973) 79342——72-8006 ISBN 0-394-70310-3, Manufsceured in che Unies Seater of America ‘Viosage Books Editon, Februtsy 1966 Soong Mo me ponAcknowledgments I am indebted to Roger R. Baldwin, Wilbur E. Cantey, T wish to thank the many friends and colleagues who Ihave made valuable. suggestions, Professors. ‘Claude E. Shannon, Berthold Schweizer, Abo Sklar, and Elbert Walker. I am indebted to Vivian and James Thorp for the long hours they spent playing the part of “the house.” For showing me many of the methods and devices used by casinos i cheating ad forgiving me «largo amount of Jafomaton on the word of gambling owe a rat investigator for Scot prom tn i eported in Caper 5-ras ‘The results of the first edition have been sharpened and improved by the extensive researches of Julian Braun of the IBM corporation. He has made most of the calculations for tho point-count method and has made numerous de- tailed and valuable suggestions. I am grateful to him for allowing his work to be incorporated into the second edi- tion, I particularly wish to thank William E. Walden for the ‘elated work he has done with me on Nevada baccarat. ‘Thanks to Paul O'Neil-for the integrity and journalis- tc clarity with which he portrayed Bear the Dealer and its author in Life magazine. Thanks also to Life for its cour ageous stand in printing the truth despite hostile Nevada ‘mobsters and politicos. ‘T wish to thank many readers for their helpful sugges tions, ideas, personal experisnces, and testimonials, and for proving the book again and again in the casinos. Finally, thanks to the readens of the first edition of Beat she Dealer who, in their enthusiasm, bought so many copies ‘that they put it on the national best-seller list, There tsa tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. « « —SnaxesrEARe (Julius Caesar)Acknowledgments f 2. tntroduction } 2. The Rules of Blackjack Numbers of players. The pock. The deal. Ne sons goin inc kmctone { {ing pairs, Doubling down. Insurance, Customs and ‘Practices: Shuftng. Shils, New decks,4, A Winning Strategy Fellre of the popular gambling systems. The Importance Of the dependence of trlals in blackjack, The use of favorable situations, A first winning sirategy: counting Fives. Counting the cords. An improvement in the Fives ‘method. Frequency of favorable situations. Varialont tn bet size. Caplal required, exten of risk, rate of profit My Ideas Are Tested in Nevada 59 Preparutons, The $10,000 benkroll. The 4 undred here, @ thousand there, Nine hundred dollars ‘Bet on a singe hand. The twenty-fire-dolar minimtie same, Seventeen thousand dollars in te hours, ‘The Simple Point-Count System 8 The simple point count. Refinements, Henry Morgon ‘and I vist Puerto Rico. Enter the Salmon. dn interest) tng Idea for end pay. Playing prategy when the dealer dole card is known. Value of knowing the dealer's hole card, A ta larga: the Salmon wins $50,000. The rue (re “changed In Puerto Rico. ‘The Complete Point-Count System 93 Counting the cards. The bets, Drawing and standing. Dewbing dwn Pat spitng. ineanc Adretoge aed ‘frequency of favorable situations, ‘A Winning Strategy Based on Counting Teas 102 Effect on players advantage az proportion of Tene res, Lerang to count. Insarance, Sirangy table. Learning the strategy tblen. Rate of prof. Including ‘eatin the cont The remaraieyanrom prope ond Beating the Casino Countermeasures 124 ‘Shufle up. Declers who count. Strike when the deck 4 hat, Punishing fakes, Multiple decks, Rales changes. Rules variations. Camouflage. Disguise, The automatic Blackjack machines. The paperroute technique, | i | Jo. Avomnoust. Blackjack in England ‘Avranvix, Baste Probabilities for the Complete Deck References List of Figures and Tables Index How S 141 to Spot Cheating joo rhe knockout dealer a stubborn expert wastes Pee tig nips Tha Quen of Hart, Marked cade imple home experiment. Stopped? Le Break the cheating story. Replles from Neves, How card cheating can be stopped. How the, U.S TPreceury can recover tax money lst from stealing ihe top. Operation "Money Puy. ‘Compare con ence varus chance, The tock marks The 184 188 ‘Deala’s probabililes, Players gala by drawing over” stoning With hard oa Play’ gc by dren oes ending with sof toa ley = Seton ae Peers edvaegy, srg foe hole card 208 2S 3s 8 a 2 3 * 8 3 &Introduction patel ih Alos, TIA: AR -~: ee BEAT THE DEALEE und-Zwanelg or Achteehnund-Drei. Although the name varies, the game is essentially the same. Ta the modern casino game of blackjack, the player can gain a consistent ads over the house by using the strategy presented in this book. Based on the mathe: matical theory of probability, this strategy was worked ‘out with an electronic computer by the author and others. Te is fortunate and pechaps surprising that the system re- ‘Gucds to a few simple charts that can be understood and memorized by the average player. In addition, the system {ends itself to the rapid play usually encountered in casinos, ‘Tho rules of blackjack vary somewhat from casino to casino, These variations, based on my studies of many ‘casinos, are listed in Table 9.2. The table shows how these rules variations affect the player's chances and enables him te compere ary two ciston end dee fn wich one t y. No system can win when confronted with the chronic sease of gambling games: cheating. Biackjack pvt the dealer an excellent opportunity to cheat. Aside from not playing at all, the only sure protection seems to be to have the services of a card expert. But, by taking the precautions described in Chapter 10, the average player can protect himself suflciently in most situations. In the following pages we begin by outlining and dise ‘cussing the rules of the game and thea proceed step-by-step to advance the reader to any level of playing proficiency ho désires, The first step is to learn what we shall call the “basic stategy”: a simple set of rules which tell the player ‘when to draw or stand, when to double down, and when to split a pair. With the basic strategy alone the player Ihas the slight advantage of 0.1 per cent in moet Las Vegas ‘casinos, Blackjack is the only casino gambling: game today Where you can consistently have the edge. Other published strategies for blackjack commonly give the player ditad. vantages ranging from 2 to $ per cent. Tho first substan- Introduction 4 tially correct version of the basic strategy was discovered by Baldwin ef al, and published in [2].* There were slight Snaccuracies both in this version and in the improved ver- sion published in the first edition of Beat the Dealer. The correct version of the strategy for one deck and a certain set of casino roles appears in Chapter 3. It was calculated ty fulian Braun In casas wi favorable rales the base strategy actually gives the player a larger edge over fous cadzostvith uatiwrabie ul ie payer may have a slight disadvantage (up to'0.5 per cent or 20), Even 10, he i generally better off than in any other casino game, {including craps. ‘Toe base strategy does not involve counting cards, However, after mastering the basic strategy, the reader will Jearn a simple modification, using a card-counting system, that identifies many situations in which he has an advan tage over the casino of more than $ per cent. Most people ‘who are advised to count cards say, “But I ota’t keep track of all the ears in the deck, T cat even remember tor one umber.” ‘be surprised to learn rot cout only four ards (pr ack wod by te ele —the Fivee—and that this additional information, ent bined with minor strategy changes, is enough to give-the player a comfortable 3 per ceat edge! ‘The player who is willing and able to count more than four cards can go on to more sophisticated strategies. First, there is tho powerful new Thorp polnt-count system, This method was perfected by several people after the fist edl- tion of Beat the Dealer was published. It has proven very effective against assorted casino countermeasures. In pare ticular itis effective and easy to use against several decks, tis as simple as the famous Goren point count in bridge, Every cand is counted +1, 0, or —1 as it is seen, You ‘imply need to keep track of the Zofal number of points you hhave seen (thus you remember one number only). ‘The ‘Numbers fa {some references Ist on pps 205-2