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The 25th Silver Anniversary of the Blackjack Ball

Blackjack Ball 2022 Souvenir Playing CardsBy Michael Dalton.

On October 1, 2022, the annual Blackjack Ball was held once again in Las Vegas.  This was no ordinary Blackjack Ball!  Max Rubin, Richard Munchkin and I am sure others on the Ball committee pulled out all the stops for this event.  This is the one big yearly event that professional blackjack players, advantage play experts and authors gather to reconnect, renew old relationships and create new ones. It is an honor to be invited! 

The last Blackjack Ball was held in February 2020, just before the pandemic hit.  Unfortunately, the Ball was canceled in 2021.  This year had to be extra special as it was the 25th Silver Anniversary!  So, a decision was made to hold the event at the coolest building in Las Vegas – the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, which looks like a bombed out building from the outside.  Inside is an amazing ballroom where 180 attendees could mingle, eat, drink and dine all night. This was a black-tie preferred event and cost for the event was between $250 and $10000 (depending on what you wanted to contribute).  Also, you didn’t have to bring a bottle of fine champagne this year.  All champagne was contributed by Luc Belaire

On March 15, 2022, the Blackjack Hall of Fame became a 501c3 non-profit corporation which now allows the Blackjack Ball to have a charitable purpose.  The plan, going forward, is to donate monies collected at the Ball to a new charity or cause each year.  This year, the cause is the UNLV Center for Gambling Studies and Health.  It is estimated that over $25k will be donated to this cause in 2022.

Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health
Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health – Epicenter for the 25th Blackjack Ball in Las Vegas

After arriving at the Ruvo Center around 6pm you are directed to the outside garden where cocktails and appetizers are set up and the mingling begins.1)I was lucky to even make this event as my flight out of Florida was canceled twice due to hurricane Ian.  Fortunately, I was able to catch a flight on the day of the event and made it just in time.  As people gathered in the garden some of us were mesmerized by card expert Jason England who baffled us with cheating moves and explained how some of the classic cheating devices he brought worked.  One thing is certain!  The untrained eye won’t catch many classic cheating moves.  Also, if you walked around the garden you could find framed newspaper pages from the 1960s depicting articles on blackjack and casino cheating.

Then, around 7:30pm, we all moved inside for a wonderful gourmet dinner and dessert.  The evening consisted of several planned events including the usual “Calcutta” where guests bid to wager on the players who they think will win the coveted Grosjean Cup.  The bidding during the Calcutta ran into the thousands of dollars for some groups of players.

Unfortunately, Ed Thorp didn’t make it this year, however, he presented a video that we all watched on the big multi-media screens.  Essentially, he said that due to his age (he is now 90) and circumstance, he had an 18% chance of dying if he caught Covid.  That convinced him to pass this year.  However, in honor of Thorp’s contributions, it was announced that the Blackjack Hall of Fame members would start an Ed Thorp Lifetime Achievement Award which automatically also gets you in the Blackjack Hall of Fame.   This year’s special honoree was Blair Hull, who was instrumental in setting up the 501c3 non-profit status.

General voting also occurs for the Blackjack Hall of Fame.  The ballot nominees, this year, were Cat Hulbert, Colin Jones, Maria “The Greek”, Mark Billings, Norm Wattenberger, Rick Blaine and Robert Loeb.  After all the ballots were collected, the clear winner was Cat Hulbert who sadly passed away this year.  Here is a little information about Cat from the Blackjack Hall of Fame committee:

Cat was selected as one of BBC’s 100 Women of 2016 – an honor given to “high profile women from the spheres of entertainment, sport, business and politics.” Chosen for being the first woman to break through the glass ceiling of professional blackjack in 1978, she played on the Czech blackjack team in over 300 casinos world-wide and was the first woman to ever amass a million dollars across the blackjack tables. Cat’s aggressive play and fearlessness changed many opinions on the mathematical and emotional capabilities of women to bet-it-up and win under pressure. 

Selected by Card Player Magazine in 1996 as one of the best and smartest card players in the World, she was one of only one of eight professional gamblers to be included in Richard  Munchkin’s book, Gambling Wizards. Along with teaching a woman’s only poker class for many years at the Hollywood Park Casino, Cat also wrote Outplaying the Boys, a humorous book & guide for women published in NYC in 2005 teaching ladies how to become more competitive in life and at the tables. 

Cat was featured in LA’s The Daily Breeze and the Sunday LA Times for her top- notch card playing abilities in blackjack and poker. Also a contestant on Blackjack’s Tournament of Champions, Cat has been a guest on numerous radio shows including NPR, Gambling with an Edge, and BBC’s The Conversation; often sought out due to her unusual successful life choices and her mission to change how women are viewed – by men and by themselves alike. On December 7, 2016, the BBC published a biographical article based on her remarkable exploits that’s said to have received a million reads the first day it appeared on their homepage. 

Now on to some fun stuff… the test for the World’s Greatest Blackjack Player and the Grosjean Cup!  Some of us study for weeks.  Others are so knowledgeable that they often make the top 10.   These test questions are tough.  Some questions have nothing to do with blackjack.  Some are multiple choice.  Others, you have to fill in a blank.  There are strict rules.  All questions must be answered.  Leave something blank and you are disqualified.  Change an answer and you are disqualified. This year, Anthony Curtis made the highest score with 12 correct out of 21 questions.

But you don’t win simply by getting the highest score on the written test.  Subsequent tests included estimating the number of cards in the discard tray, cutting cards in a deck to force a card to the dealer, naming an Indian casino in each state, memorizing as many cards as you can and counting down a deck.

Blackjack Ball 2022
2022: The Grosjean Cup Award for the World’s Greatest Blackjack Player was won by Darryl Purpose. The Munchkin Award was won by “WRX”.

Well, when all the dust settled, Darryl Purpose and WRX made it to the top two.  Counting down a deck was the contest.  Results were based on speed and accuracy.  Darryl Purpose was in his element here as he is often credited to be one of the fastest counters on the planet.  His claim to fame was being able to count a deck of cards in 8 seconds flat.2)Darryl would admit, however, he had to use a special tactic to get to an 8 second count.  He would count normally until the last 15 or so cards.  Then, he would attempt to take a mental picture in his head of the last group of cards and say stop!  By the time he was asked what the missing card was he had counted the last cards from his memory.  See poll!  Well, he didn’t break his record here as his only goal was to win and indeed he did.  WRX, however, gets the second place trophy called the Munchkin Award.

For additional details on this year’s Blackjack Ball be sure to listen to the Gambling With An Edge podcast.

25th Anniversary Blackjack Ball 2022 Podcast
 

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Footnotes

Footnotes
1I was lucky to even make this event as my flight out of Florida was canceled twice due to hurricane Ian.  Fortunately, I was able to catch a flight on the day of the event and made it just in time.
2Darryl would admit, however, he had to use a special tactic to get to an 8 second count.  He would count normally until the last 15 or so cards.  Then, he would attempt to take a mental picture in his head of the last group of cards and say stop!  By the time he was asked what the missing card was he had counted the last cards from his memory.  See poll!

12 Legendary Blackjack Players

12 Legendary Blackjack PlayersBy Jonathan Roob

Blackjack, formerly called Black Jack and Vingt-Un, is an American member of a global family of banking games known as Twenty-One. It involves comparing cards between a player and a dealer. The goal of the player is to beat the dealer by obtaining a hand of 21 or less or allowing the dealer to bust over 21. Blackjack is considered the most widely played casino banking game globally.

The experts stated here below have all made an impact on the world through the game.

  1. Bryce Carlson
Bryce Carlson had always wanted to beat the casinos and for that reason, he began playing the game. He got better by smartly playing with other players that he met and developing a strong relationship with other experts.

Carlson wrote one of the best books on blackjack and titled it, Blackjack for Blood. He also developed a sophisticated blackjack and card counting computer program called the Omega II Blackjack Machine.

  1. Lance Humble
Lance Humble, aka Igor Kusyszyn, started as a teacher at York University in Toronto. His course was supposed to be about horse racing, but the students seemed more interested in learning about the games at casinos. So he started to do some research of his own.

Soon he became well versed in the game of blackjack and he was able to make a profit with his new skills. So he decided this game was for him and decided to continue to hone his skills. He wrote a book with Kenneth Cooper titled The Worlds Greatest Blackjack Book. He is most well known for his development of the Hi-Opt I and Hi-Opt II card counting systems.

  1. Arnold Snyder
Arnold Snyder is one of the best blackjack players in the world and an expert teacher in the field. He wrote several outstanding books that relate to the game of blackjack and published Blackjack Forum magazine for over 20 years.

Arnold also developed software called PowerSim Blackjack Card Counting Simulation Software that helped players learn all the basics of the game. It is available to players who need to learn how to play the game free of charge. A 2003 member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

  1. Stanford Wong

Born in Georgia during World War II, Wong’s real name is John Ferguson. He always loved games and always tried to figure out a way to beat the games using different tactics. He was not interested in competing with other people until he had figured out the best way to win on his own first.

After turning 21, he went to Reno and kept making trips to other casinos playing blackjack professionally. Wong is best known for publishing the card counter’s resource Current Blackjack News and several excellent blackjack books. A 2003 member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

  1. Ken Uston

Ken stumbled into the game accidentally. He was never interested in playing cards until the day he decided to make changes in his life.

One night after work, Ken met Al Francesco, who got him introduced to blackjack. Soon he tried out his skills in small games until he became an expert in Las Vegas. When he saw the amount of money he could gain playing this game, he quit his job and played full time. Uston and his teams won millions in Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. A 2003 member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

  1. Keith Taft
Keith Taft is renowned for the first blackjack computer in 1972. He produced lots of electronic ways for players to beat the game. This included smaller calculating machines and cameras, used to see the dealer’s hole cards. At the time, these devices were used legally to beat the casinos through 1985.

Keith worked alongside Ken Uston in a team to test his devices. A 2004 member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

  1. Edward O. Thorp
Edward Thorp is the author of the book Beat the Dealer and several blackjack card counting systems. His book is considered a classic and revealed for the first time that the game could be beaten. Most professional players have read his book and used his card counting system at some point.

Thorp is considered by many as the “inventor” of card counting. A 2003 member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

  1. Lawrence Revere

Unlike most other players on the list, Revere began his run on the other side of the table. He started dealing cards at the age of 13 and he fell in love with gambling. Revere was a leading blackjack expert during the 1960’s and early 1970’s and wrote the classic book Playing Blackjack as a Business, which provided players with the first color blackjack basic strategy charts. For many years, this book has been the inspiration for many card counters to start a blackjack career.

He later began work at the casinos as a dealer before going on to be a pit boss and eventually owned a personal casino. A 2005 member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

  1. Al Francesco
Al Francesco went by several aliases. Some people knew him as Frank Fisano, others knew him as Frank Salerno or Frank Schipani. Francesco made his mark in the world of blackjack as the “Godfather of Blackjack”.

He established the first profitable blackjack teams, thus pioneering the concept of blackjack team play. Players were grouped into different teams and they would gather their bankrolls together to play, and in time, he had developed several techniques like the “Big player” concept and “The Drop”.

Blackjack players adopted Francesco’s techniques and won lots of money in casinos with them. The most prominent was a team of MIT students. Francesco also mentored several big names in blackjack like Ken Uston and many others. Francesco was inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame in 2003, to commemorate his incredible talent and daring moves.

  1. Ian Andersen
Ian Andersen is a blackjack star. The renowned author is known for his all-time classic books Turning the Tables on Las Vegas and Burning the Tables in Las Vegas. He has kept his real identity a secret from everyone and has remained anonymous to this day. Ian Andersen was an alias he adopted.

He wrote Turning the Tables on Las Vegas in 1976, and in the book he described several techniques to help card counters disguise their skills from casino bosses. In 1999, he published the sequel Burning the Tables in Las Vegas, in which he proposed a risky betting strategy called the The Ultimate Gambit, which helped card counters increase longevity at the tables. Andersen was a master at blackjack camouflage betting and behavior decisions. A 2012 member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

  1. Tommy Hyland
Tommy Hyland is a professional blackjack card counter and player. He once stated that he began playing blackjack in 1976, after reading Lawrence Revere’s book Playing Blackjack as a Business.

He began playing blackjack in 1979, and shortly after that, playing and managing blackjack teams was his full-time job. Hyland started his career with an initial team of three other players where each team member put $4,000 into the team’s bankroll; which multiplied to $50,000 in a couple of months.

Thanks to “Early Surrender,” the new rule introduced by the Atlantic City casinos, gave experienced players like Hyland a significant edge. Soon after Hyland’s first-team collapsed, he formed another team, recruiting and training new players for his team.

Hyland turned out to be an excellent team manager. Sometimes his team had up to 30 members and he managed them as well as he managed a team of four players. Hyland’s team is still active today. A 2003 member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

  1. Don Johnson

Some people see Don Johnson (not the actor) as a genius while others say he is a demi-god. Well, they could be right as he has a rich resume that speaks for itself. He is a corporate executive, a professional gambler, and a blackjack player who doesn’t count cards.

He won Atlantic City casinos for over $15 million without card counting. He exploited loss rebates to gain an advantage over the casino. For his bold tactics to beat the game, he was inducted into Blackjack Hall of Fame in 2017.

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The 24th Annual Blackjack Ball (2020)

Blackjack Ball 2020 CakeBy Michael Dalton

On February 22, 2020, the 24th Blackjack Ball was held in Las Vegas. I was privileged and honored to be one of the approximately 100 attendees. This is the one big yearly event that professional blackjack players, experts and authors gather to reconnect, renew old relationships and create new ones. It is an honor to be invited!

The very first Blackjack Ball was held in 1997, by casino executive and advantage player Max Rubin, who called it “… a double secret party that pits the world’s most dangerous blackjack players in a battle for the coveted ‘Blackjack Cup’ “. Each guest is required to bring one chilled bottle of premium champagne to get past the security at the door and starting in 2019, each guest must also pony up $100 to seed what is called the “Calcutta” and provide funds for future Blackjack Balls and the Blackjack Hall of Fame. Beginning in 2017, long-time advantage player Richard Munchkin began co-hosting the event.

The Blackjack Ball begins with two hours of cocktails and mingling. Then, a dinner is served and betting is done on who thinks will win the coveted Grosjean Cup and title of the “World’s Greatest Blackjack Player“. Voting is done for nominees into the Blackjack Hall of Fame and finally, an incredibly hard 21-question test is performed to determine the five finalists who compete in a skills competition on a blackjack table. This year, Arnold Snyder, former publisher of Blackjack Forum magazine, snagged the Grosjean Cup award and the owner of his team won $14,030!

Well, they also have a secondary prize for the runner-up. They call it the Munchkin Award (after Richard Munchkin of course). This year, an individual that goes by the name Dunbar won it. Actually, Dunbar is the author of Dunbar’s Risk Analyzer for Blackjack.

All of this is sponsored by the Barona Casino in San Diego. Yes, a casino sponsors the event. The reason is that each player who attends the ball agree to never play blackjack in their casino for life. Also, the Barona offers a “lifetime comp” consisting of free room, meals and beverage to all inductees into the Blackjack Hall of Fame, as long as they agree to never play blackjack at Barona.

This year we had the honor of the following Blackjack Hall of Fame inductees in attendance:

Voting also occurred for the Blackjack Hall of Fame. The nominees were, Mark Billings, Anthony Curtis, Richard Dougherty, Cat Hulbert, Blair Hull, Lance Humble, Maria “The Greek”, Mike Michalek and Norm Wattenberger. When voting was completed, Anthony Curtis won overwhelmingly. Anthony Curtis is the editor/publisher of Huntington PressLas Vegas Advisor newsletter.

For more information and to see who won each year be sure to check out the Blackjack Ball section of the Encyclopedia of Blackjack on BlackjackReview.com. Also, be sure to check out Henry Tamburin’s articles on past Blackjack Balls for a more in-depth review including example test questions.

2020 Grosjean Cup
The 2020 Grosjean Cup Award for the World’s Greatest Blackjack Player was won by Arnold Snyder. The Munchkin Award was won by “Dunbar”.

 

OTHER REPORTS ON THE 24th BALL
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Gambling With An Edge
Jean Scott’s Frugal Vegas

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