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

by Edward O. Thorp

I started with the fact that the strategy I had used in the casino assumed that every card had the same chance of being dealt as any other during play. This cut the casino’s edge to just 0.62 percent, the best odds of any game being offered. But I realized that the odds as the game progressed actually depended on which cards were still left in the deck and that the edge would shift as play continued, sometimes favoring the casino and sometimes the player. The player who kept track could vary his bets accordingly. With the help of a mental picture based on ideas from an advanced mathematics course, I believed the player edge must often be substantial. Moreover, and this also was new, I saw how the player could condense and use this information in actual play at the table.

Note to self: Every new shoe should begin with table minimums and only leverage up when calculate odds tip in your favor.