Four Horsemen of Basic Strategy make BJ Hall of Fame...

zengrifter

zengrifter

Banned
​
Today: January 04, 2008 at 6:56:16 PST​
Jeff Haney on the belated recognition of blackjack's Four Horsemen,
who figured out how the game should be played
​
They invented basic strategy​
The four newest members of the Blackjack Hall of Fame never counted cards.​
They never gambled for high stakes or won much money in casinos.​
In fact, after making their indelible mark on the game, they stopped following developments in blackjack in the early 1960s, around the time Ed Thorp published his influential book, "Beat the Dealer."​
Yet when they were introduced before a roomful of the world's most accomplished blackjack players Wednesday night, they received a heartfelt standing ovation that had to dwarf any plaudits they ever earned during their distinguished careers in business, government or academia.​
 
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zengrifter

zengrifter

Banned


Getting a hand
They wrote the first blackjack book, but never cashed in

By Joseph P. Kahn, Globe Staff | February 20, 2008

CAMBRIDGE - Blackjack has been on a hot streak lately, glamorized in best-selling books like Ben Mezrich's "Bringing Down the House" and its upcoming movie adaptation, "21," both chronicling the exploits of MIT teams that took the casinos for millions in the 1990s. How they beat the odds and made a small fortune in the process has become the stuff of pop-culture legend.

Until recently, though, the blackjack world had puzzled over one lingering mystery: Whatever happened to the legendary Four Horsemen, a group of young US Army researchers who published the first groundbreaking guide to winning blackjack more than 50 years ago?

None had gone on to become a professional gambler or recognized blackjack authority. Yet together they revolutionized the game with their 1956 analytical study, published in the Journal of the American Statistical Association, and their book "Playing Blackjack to Win," issued in 1957 and long out of print.

"Everybody sort of knew who we were, but nobody really knew," says James McDermott, sitting in his Cambridge apartment. "When I e-mailed a well-known blackjack expert on the 50th anniversary of our book, his response was, 'My God, you guys are still alive?' "

MORE- http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2008/02/20/getting_a_hand/
 
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