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The MIT Blackjack Team: A Legend is Born
Anyone who knows anything about the history of blackjack in general and the history of card counting in particular has heard of the MIT Blackjack Team. The MIT Blackjack Team is a pioneering legend that will be remembered forever. Members of the MIT Blackjack Team were science and math students who formed a blackjack-loving, card-counting group that decided to beat the casinos at the game of blackjack.
It all started in 1979 when a group of MIT students attended a course called “How to Gamble If You Must,” in which they learned about card counting and blackjack. They then took their newfound knowledge to Atlantic City, determined to win a small fortune. They failed and that was it for many of the original members of the group – most of them graduated and the group split up. But a few ex-students did not give up and, in 1980, they gave their own course on card counting at MIT. At some point, they were contacted by a backer who offered to re-send them to Atlantic City (New Jersey had recently legalized card counting). This time the MIT Blackjack Team was successful and, with $5,000 in seed money, they kept winning until they doubled and tripled their stake over a few weeks’ time. This was when and how the MIT Blackjack Team got their real start.
Pass the MIT Blackjack Team Test
The Blackjack Team boldly recruited other MIT students by posting flyers around the campus. They tested applicants to find out if they had the right stuff to be potential blackjack team members, and, if they were deemed suitable, they underwent rigorous training. Before advancing to live play in the casino, each player had to pass a series of tests, which simulated all the roles and conditions of a real casino, including the hassling and badgering by casino personnel. The group did not rely solely on card counting but also made use of advanced shuffle tracking techniques, which gave the MIT Blackjack Team an edge of between 2% and 4% (significantly better than the edge an average blackjack player would have)
Card Counting as a Team
Card counting, the core of the blackjack Team’s system, is a proven winning technique – for those who have the discipline and smarts to master it. But solo successful card counters were easy to spot and they were repeatedly thrown out of casinos. But team play was harder to detect; the MIT Blackjack Team’s actions were disguised and camouflaged and it took the casinos years to figure it all out.
The MIT Blackjack Team Set the Standard for Team Excellence
The MIT Blackjack Team’s methods were sly and ingenious. They didn’t acknowledge each other’s presence when they were working a table. Each member had a role, usually one of three positions - spotters, gorillas, and the big players. The spotters would sit at the table, playing the minimum bet while doing what they came to do – card counting. When the odds were looking particularly good they’d signal actively playing team members, called “gorillas” and “big players,” who didn’t didn't dabble in card counting at all; their part in the play was to bet big when the spotter told them to and lay low when they got that signal, as well. The spotter himself – the real card counter - would always bet conservatively and consistently so as not to draw attention to himself. This system of team play was a huge success for over a decade – in the 80s and 90s – with team membership fluctuating and different teams forming, disbanding, and re-forming.
Griffin Investigations Probes into the MIT Blackjack Team
Casinos, initially confounded by the MIT Blackjack Team and their wily ways, finally decided to get tough and they hired Griffin Investigations to track them down and weed them out. Griffin spent over 25 years developing new methods of information gathering, making it their goal to catch card counters. They developed the Griffin Book, an album of pictures, names, aliases, and even home addresses and phone numbers of the gamblers who won too much too often, including MIT Blackjack Team members. By the end of the 1990s, the Griffin Agency had pretty much shut them down. No good thing lasts forever, but the MIT Blackjack Team had a spectacular, lucrative and legendary run.
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