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Roger Baldwin
“Adding Strategy to Blackjack” 

Laying The Ground Work 

Roger Baldwin, along with his partners, deserve much of the credit for his work in Blackjack, that many people wrongfully attribute to Edward Thorp.  There is a big difference in their work, which often confuses people.  In 1956 Baldwin released his finding, “The Optimum Strategy in Blackjack”, in a published paper in the Journal of the American Statistical Associate.   

What Baldwin actually did, was invent the “Basic Play Charts” often found in books, or handout out by the millions over the years in casinos.  This is the chart which might say, it you have a pair of 8’s and the dealer has a face card up, Split. 

What Thorp did, was take Baldwin’s work further and developed Card Counting.  What card counting simply does is keep track of the cards that have been played, in turn knowing what cards are remaining un-played.  He drew a line between a rich deck remaining and a favorable outcome for the player.  This was contradicted by McB Duplin and their work on Card Counting in the Playing 21 Program, the best program ever made and offered for sale on the game Blackjack. 

Baldwin did not use computers but calculators, probability and statistical theories to reduce the house’s advantage in the game.  

We Were Mislead

McB Duplin finds it very hard to believe the casino industry did not know the proper way to play Blackjack, their number one casino table game!  In an industry based upon mathematical theories, hold, analysis and probability, it seems weak and illogical to assume they didn’t know the proper odds of Blackjack.  There cannot be a casino game in existence where the player actually has the mathematical odds of the game in their favor.  Did you know you have to supply the mathematical odds of the game to the Gaming Commissions before approval of the game? 

Why is Blackjack any different?  Sure it was around before gaming commissions, we understand this, but none of those rich casinos ever bothered to have a program made?  The industry as a whole never took it upon itself to have a program made to simulate the game?  They build multi-billion dollar casinos, so cost wasn’t likely the reason.  Are we to believe they were just satisfied in taking the word of non-industry related findings?

So now along come some small town boys, far away from the bright lights and sounds of the Entertainment Capital of the World.  In five minutes they could blow holes in the  “Basic Strategy Charts” being handed out in casinos.  They proved it at their very own kitchen tables.  Alright, enough referring to ourselves in the third person.  What did we prove?  Well, McB Duplin proved that casinos were handing out misleading information in those charts.  The literally countless hours spent at our kitchen table proved it, but the best program ever devised for Blackjack, the Playing 21 Program confirmed our work. 

 

Unacceptable 

Baldwin cannot be held accountable for anything.  He was a great pioneer who laid some serious groundwork.  The gaming industry is totally accountable.  More specifically the casinos!  By handing out misleading information casinos were either negligent or fraudulent (if it can be proven they knew the math).  Which is better?   

What the casino industry has done by handing out millions of these “Basic Play Charts” is popularize a mathematically incorrect way to play the game Blackjack.  Furthermore, they have created a standard, or set of norms as how to play.  Players breaking these rules are harshly scorned right at the tables by other players, who have taken the casinos word as gold.  Why wouldn’t someone take something handed to them by the casino as correct?  The casino industry is based on math isn’t it?  Surely they know how to play this game...   

The casino will argue that they got their info from a credible source, but not an inside source (read “did not work for them”).  They will say, we are not responsible for the accuracy, and nowhere on those charts does it say “This is the correct way to play the game Blackjack.”  That is true.  But, where on those charts does it say, “This may not be the correct way to play the game Blackjack”? 

It can only be assumed it is the best possible way to play…otherwise, why are they handing to you?  A reasonable person would assume those decisions to be right.  Even one wrong decision on those charts is negligence, but to have some cards plastered with incorrect decisions is much more than negligent, it is totally reprehensible and sickening.