MIT Blackjack Team + Ida Summers + Thomas Hyland: The All-Time Top 3 Blackjack Card Counting Experts Who Have Changed The Game | The Fan Carpet Ltd • The Fan Carpet: The RED Carpet for FANS • The Fan Carpet: Fansites Network • The Fan Carpet: Slate • The Fan Carpet: Theatre Spotlight • The Fan Carpet: Arena • The Fan Carpet: International

MIT Blackjack Team + Ida Summers + Thomas Hyland: The All-Time Top 3 Blackjack Card Counting Experts Who Have Changed The Game


28 January 2022

In the world of gambling, there are some outsiders who don't just play by luck or their own strategy - they use card counting. 

Blackjack is the most popular card game in casinos worldwide and thus it becomes the perfect target for those who want to make profit from it. After it is otherwise a very complex game, it is usually rather rare that big wins can be made.

However, some have the desire to make such big winnings like on John Slots,  that they use tactics that could get them banned from any casino in the world and possibly even lead to legal consequences. 

Here you'll learn more about legendary stories of people who used this strategy successfully anyway.

 

 

#1 MIT Blackjack Team

This story is probably one of the most famous in the entire gambling world. The MIT Blackjack Team was led by Harvard MBA graduate Bill Kaplan and consisted of a mix of former and current MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) students. Their prime time was in 1992.

At that time, they took in millions by counting cards. It also made them famous beyond all borders and although they were naturally polarizing, their popularity was unmatched. They founded a company and trained new players, who they then sent to the casinos. 

Of course, since the founding team was already well-known, this strategy was the perfect solution. At the end of 1993, the team's successors disbanded, but for many, the MIT Blackjack Team was and still is the role model par excellence.

 

#2 Ida Summers

The oldest candidate on this list is Ida Summers - she caused quite a stir in and around the casino scene in the 60s and 70s. 

Back then, Vegas was mostly neon lights and Cadillacs. She was a blackjack player and generally well-known in the gambling scene. As a woman, that was very rare at the time.

She was referred to by many as the "Vegas Vixen" and was a very successful casino cheater. She used a technique called "hand mucking" in blackjack. She removed cards from the game and hid them in her sleeve. When she needed them, she would discreetly bring them back into play.

She diverted the dealers' attention by making flirtatious conversation. This way, she made sure they paid attention to her words rather than her actions. 

She managed to earn herself thousands of dollars over several years, and has gone down in history as one of America's best card counters.

 

#3 Thomas Hyland

Before playing backgammon and poker with his friends while in college, Tommy Hyland had never had any prior interest in card games or casino gambling. However, he became one of the most professional card counters the world had ever seen. He assembled a team of like-minded people who always all played at the same table.

By using different techniques, they managed to count the cards perfectly and thus clean up neatly together. Things didn't always go well for Hyland and his team, however. Three of them were arrested in Ontario in 1994.

They were lucky, though: the judge ruled, through testimony from Arnold Snyder, that it wasn't cheating, just using smart strategies.

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