Thorp’s strategy was based on a simple concept. When the deck is rich with 10s, face cards, and aces, the player—let’s say it’s you—has a statistical advantage over the dealer. If you assign a −1 for the high cards and a +1 for the low cards, it’s quite easy to keep track of the cards dealt; just keep a running tally in your head, adding and subtracting as each card shows. When the count turns positive, you know there are more high cards yet to be played. Smart players save their biggest bets for when the card count reaches a high relative number.
