Bill Kaplan invested $1,000 in 1977 and turned around $35,000 in nine months.
The true story of the MIT Blackjack Team was the basis for the 2008 film 21 starring Kevin Spacey.
Story Begin
in the 1980s, Bill Kaplan and a few friends created the MIT Blackjack Team legend by making money. The MIT team, led by Kaplan, used card counting and a strict system to gain an advantage over the dealer. With the Encore Boston Harbor Casino opening, I wondered: Does it take an MIT-level genius to pull off a scheme like this, or can any schlub with a will to learn and dollar signs in his eyes do it? Kaplan called to explain how to beat the house.
Counting cards shows whether the player or the casino has the odds, and then you use a betting strategy to decide how much to bet on each hand. Based on the remaining cards in the shoe and your expected advantage, card counting tells you how to play each hand optimally. Next, is money management.
Is this something you need to be an MIT genius?
Most teams fail in money management. They don’t.
Let’s say we’re Flipping a quarter with a 51% chance of landing on one side. If you have five dollars and bet a dollar per flip, you’ll lose. There’s a whole section on how much to bet to avoid bankruptcy. Playing 10,000 hands will reveal my advantage.
It’s hard for one person to do. One reason to play as a team is so that you can pool all your money and get to the long run faster. As a player, you have an edge of about 1%. If 30 people play for eight hours and follow the rules, you get to the long run that much faster.
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Did you ever try to beat another game?
Blackjack is the only game you can legitimately beat. Using basic strategy, you’ll only be a half percent behind. If you count the cards, the advantage goes to the player, even though the odds are changing and moving as the cards are played. It is the only one you can win.
Our Team ran it like a business. Training, extensive training, checkout procedures, two hours of perfect play, leaving the table right. It was run more tightly than most businesses.
“As a player, it’s an amazing experience, but as a manager, we might have 10, 20, or 30 people playing in five different casinos, some in Las Vegas, some in New Orleans, and some in Canada. We keep track of their play to make sure no one is stealing money. – said Kaplan in an interview.
The End
Most of the MIT Team gave up when they were caught, but a few of them went to great lengths to keep playing. Kaplan remembers a 21-year-old player who kept playing as a spotter. A spotter is someone who counts the cards and tells their partner when it’s time to make big bets.
After the pressure kept getting worse, Kaplan decided to close Strategic Investments. In December 1993, the company went out of business. At that point, there were already 80 people on the team, so it was time to stop.
How does card counting In blackjack work?
high cards favor the gambler, and low cards the casino. So a card counter keeps a running tally in their head, adding 1 for low cards and subtracting 1 for high cards. When their tally increases (meaning more high cards than low ones are left in the deck) they know it’s time to start placing higher bets.
