Blackjack is one of only a few casino games where skilled players have an edge over the other players as the game isn’t based on strictly luck. For decades now there have been thousands of people that have tried to use statistical analysis and calculations to beat the game of blackjack. Most of the people that have tried to beat blackjack using systems fail because there system doesn’t work or because they don’t have the discipline to follow the system.
A group of students and ex-students from some of the leading educational institutions in America proved to us that blackjack can be beat using mathematics. The first origin of the MIT Blackjack Team was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Several students participated in an IAP titled “How to Gamble If You Must” which taught students a system for beating blackjack.
The students that took part in the course decided to head to Atlantic City to try out the system, but it didn’t end up going as planned. The team ended up losing all of their money and the team dissolved immediately after their first trip to the casinos. One of the players from the original team “Dave” decided to contact Mr. Massar so that they could form a new team.
The two of them recruited a couple players and headed down to Atlantic City again. This time the team made money and they decided to continue making trips as much as possible. The following year Mr. Massar meets a man named Bill Kaplan. Kaplan has been running a successful Las Vegas blackjack team for years now and is very successful at leading his team. Eventually Kaplan’s team broke up as some of them decided to go play abroad in casinos around Europe.
When Kaplan’s team dissolved he met with Mr. Massar again and this time Kaplan observed the team’s play in Atlantic City. The team didn’t end up doing good while Kaplan was watching, but that didn’t stop them from forming a team. Kaplan said he would run the team, but they needed to run it his way. With Kaplan in charge the MIT Blackjack Team set-up their first “bankroll” and they also changed their entire system.
Previously the team had all been using their own systems at the table, but Kaplan wanted the new team to use the same system. The new team went through crazy amounts of training before they were even allowed to play with the “bankroll”. As the year’s passed the MIT Blackjack Team grew in staggering numbers and at one point they had roughly 100 active players. The team also made millions from the blackjack tables around the world, but like all good things the MIT Blackjack Team came to an end.
By the early 1990’s the online blackjack casinos had been tightening up on security and methods of catching the card counters. Many of the MIT Blackjack Team members had been banned from basically every casino in the country and it became too much of a hassle to try and play. The team dissolved and then new blackjack teams started forming around the world. There is no doubt that we will never see such a famous team of blackjack players again.