0_Wizard
Hi! I'd like to have a conversation about Blackjack.
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Blackjack
Blackjack, also known as twenty-one, is a comparing card game between usually several players and a dealer, where each player in turn competes against the dealer, but players do not play against each other. It is played with one or more decks of 52 cards, and is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. The objective of the game is to beat the dealer in one of the following ways:   Players are each dealt two cards, face up or down depending on the casino and the table at which you sit. In the U.S., the dealer is also dealt two cards, normally one up (exposed) and one down (hidden).
Card counting
Card counting is a casino card game strategy used primarily in the blackjack family of casino games to determine whether the next hand is likely to give a probable advantage to the player or to the dealer. Card counters are a class of advantage players, who attempt to decrease the inherent casino house edge by keeping a running tally of all high and low valued cards seen by the player. Card counting allows players to bet more with less risk when the count gives an advantage as well as minimize losses during an unfavorable count. Card counting also provides the ability to alter playing decisions based on the composition of remaining cards.
MIT Blackjack Team
The MIT Blackjack Team was a group of students and ex-students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Business School, Harvard University, and other leading colleges who used card counting techniques and more sophisticated strategies to beat casinos at blackjack worldwide. The team and its successors operated successfully from 1979 through the beginning of the 21st century. Many other blackjack teams have been formed around the world with the goal of beating the casinos. Blackjack can be legally beaten by a skilled player. Beyond the basic strategy of when to hit and when to stand, individual players can use card counting, shuffle tracking or hole carding to improve their odds.
Arnold Snyder
Arnold Snyder is a professional gambler and gambling author. He was elected by professional blackjack players as one of the seven original inductees into the Blackjack Hall of Fame which is hosted at Barona Casino for his record as a blackjack player and his innovations in professional gambling techniques. He was the first blackjack authority to publish the importance of deck penetration (depth of the deal) in card counting, in his 1980 book "The Blackjack Formula". He was also the first blackjack researcher to publish (in "Blackjack Forum", 1981–1983) that radical simplification of blackjack card counting systems did not hurt earnings.
King of Vegas
King of Vegas was a gambling series that first aired on Spike TV in the United States on January 17, 2006. It was hosted by boxing commentator Max Kellerman and co-hosted by handicapper Wayne Allyn Root, who gave color commentary and his odds-on favorites for each game. The tournament director was Matt Savage, who has also directed tournaments at the World Series of Poker. Unlike other gambling series on television, "King of Vegas" includes competition in eight different casino games; four per week, all starting with Blackjack and ending a final game of Texas Hold 'Em. All games are played with players getting a fresh set of $10,000 in chips (the format would later change a bit, but the $10,000 chip gain remained constant until the final episode).
Blackjack Switch
Blackjack Switch is a casino gambling game invented by Geoff Hall and patented in 2009. It is based on blackjack, but differs in that two hands, rather than one, are dealt to each playing position, and the player is initially allowed to exchange ("switch") the top two cards between hands. Natural blackjacks are paid 1:1 instead of the standard 3:2, and a dealer hard 22 pushes all player hands except a natural. Blackjack Switch was conceived after Hall - who was a card counter at the time - became frustrated at being dealt 2 weak hands when playing Blackjack that could be improved dramatically if the top two cards were allowed to be switched.
Stanford Wong
John Ferguson (born 1943) known by his pen name, Stanford Wong, is a gambling author best known for his book "Professional Blackjack", first published in 1975. Wong's computer program "Blackjack Analyzer", initially created for personal use, was one of the first pieces of commercially available blackjack odds analyzing software. Wong has appeared on TV multiple times as a blackjack tournament contestant or as a gambling expert. He owns a publishing house, Pi Yee Press, which has published books by other gambling authors including King Yao. Wong began playing blackjack in 1964 while teaching finance courses at San Francisco State University and getting his Ph.D in Finance from Stanford University in California.