Blackjack Hall of Famers Part 3
This is the last installment on blackjack hall of famers…until they welcome a new member next year. After the first seven hall of famers were inducted in 2003 into the blackjack hall of fame there were only 5 more people who joined their ranks. Two of the newcomers were inducted in 2004, two more in 2005, leaving just one inductee this year. The 5 new members include: Max Rubin and Ken Taft for 2004, Julian Braun and Lawrence Revere for 2005, and James Grosjean for this year.
Max Rubin
Max Rubin is known for the Comp techniques he intriduced in his book, Comp City (1994). The book revealed techniques that can be used both by card counters and non-counting players. The techniques takes advantage of certain flaws in casinos’ comp systems.
Ken Taft
Taft, though not known by the general public, is a popular and respected figure in the world of professional blackjack. Since 1972 he has been using his electronic genius to come up with high tech gadgets designed to beat casinos. Taft’s devices were used during some of the highest house edge plays in all of blackjack history as his devices helped players win even in those games, until electronic devices were banned in 1985. Taft has passed on his genius to his son Marty who has been working with him on his devices for more than 30 years. Marty, like his pop, is expected to join the blackjack hall of fame one day.
Julian Braun
Although Braun wrote only one book, entitled “How to Play Winning Blackjack”, his impact in the blackjack world in undeniable. Braun is known for the computer programs he made for Thorpe and Revere. His programming expertise helped develop some of the greatest counting techniques like Thorpe’s Ten Count, Hi-Lo, Hi-Opt I, Hi-Opt II, Revere’s Point Count, and Revere’s Advanced Point Count.
Lawrence Revere
Revere is one of the great blackjack players but his contribution to blackjack is his “true count” methods written on his book “Playing Blackjack as a Business” (1969). His method is a simplified yet powerful version of Thorpe’s Hi-Lo Count. The “true count’ is so simple as compared to any other method that is has been used to develop most point count systems after.
James Grosjean
Grosjean belongs in the blackjack hall of fame not for counting techniques, like most of the members are, but for his hole carding techniques or strategies. His book “Beyond Counting” is considered by professional blackjack non-counting players to be the hole-carder’s bible. Grosjean, like Taft, is a great programmer and has in fact collaborated with Taft back in the days when electronic devices weren;t banned yet. Again like another hall of fame, this time Tommy Hyland, Grosjean didn’t balk when it came to legal conflicts has sued casinos like Caesars and the Imperial Palace. His most successful and famous lawsuit is the one against Griffin Detective Agency, which he won and precipitated in the agency’s bankruptcy.
Technorati Tags: Blackjack Players, Blackjack Hall of Fame, Professional Blackjack Players, Max Rubin, Ken Taft, Julian Braun, Lawrence Revere, James Grosjean, Edward Thorpe, Tommy Hyland, True Count, Hole-carder, No-counting player, Ten Count, Hi-Lo, Hi-Opt I, Hi-Opt II, Point Count, Advanced Point Count
Written by The Blackjack Advisor on October 16th, 2006 with
no comments.
Read more articles on Blackjack and Blackjack Card Counting and Blackjack Software and Blackjack Books.
- [+] Digg: Feature this article
- [+] Del.icio.us: Bookmark this article
- [+] Furl: Bookmark this article
