A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market

by Edward O. Thorp

With a smirk the man said, “Okay, kid, name all the kings and queens of England in order and tell me the years that they reigned.” My father’s face fell but to me this seemed to be just another routine request to look into my head to see if the information was there. I did and then recited, “Alfred the Great, began 871, ended 901, Edward the Elder, began 901, ended 925,” and so on. As I finished the list of fifty or so rulers with “Victoria, began in 1837 and it doesn’t say when she ended,” the man’s smirk had long vanished. Silently he handed me back the book. My father’s eyes were shining.

What? With memory like that, why did he need to simplify card-counting? ;)