Edward Thorp Biography

Edward Thorp was born August 14th 1932 in Chicago and is one of the most successful blackjack players in the world. Edward Thorp is a mathematics professor, hedge fund manager and also one of the best professional blackjack players in history. Edward gained most of his popularity from his book which is called “Beat the Dealer” and is the very first book to show how blackjack players could mathematically beat the blackjack tables by counting cards.

Thorp used a computer as a tool to research the probabilities of beating the blackjack tables and spent countless hours over an extended period of time testing many mathematical equations. Thorp developed solid card counting techniques which would especially benefit him when the shoe was almost complete.

Edward Thorp and a professional gambler named Manny Kimmel who was also very wealthy and connected with the mafia decided they were going to test out Edward’s methods at casinos around the United States. The pair decided to head to casinos in the Lake Tahoe, Reno and Las Vegas area to test out the techniques. They took $10K with them on their first weekend and managed to turn it into $21K after the first weekend only. The weekend was also interrupted due to the casinos kicking out the pair numerous times.

Thorp used disguises all the time to enter casinos where he was previously kicked out of and it’s also good to note that Thorp developed the first wearable computer with a partner. You can no longer use any devices at casinos to improve your odds though, so you won’t be able to use this technique, but it did work for many to make millions off of the casinos back in the day. The wearable computer was used for the game of roulette so not only was Thorp able to make money in blackjack, but he also made lots of money playing roulette.

Back in the days when Edward wrote his book it wasn’t very safe for players to make any strategies public about beating the casinos or else they could risk being harmed. Edward made his book public without passing it around any peers first and this was a risk he was willing to take to show the public how to beat the casinos. Edward has always stated that the entire experiment was for academic purposes only and never for the money.

Edward has since been inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame for all his efforts at making the game more mainstream and for teaching players how to beat the game. There are only a few select blackjack players who have ever been inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame and it definitely isn’t something many more people will achieve.

After being kicked out of most casinos and proving his experiments Edward stopped gambling and started using the money he had made to invest in the stock markets. Thorp is definitely one of the best mathematics professionals in history and he used his brains to not only help himself, but to help millions of others people.