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The Hot Shoe
''The Hot Shoe'' is a 2004 documentary film which also reveals the history and development of card counting. Director David Layton interviewed current and former card counters, including members of the MIT Blackjack Team, casino employees and gambling authors and combined it with behind-the-scenes footage of casino surveillance rooms and the MIT team preparing to hit the tables. Layton learned how to count cards and gambled with $5,000 of the film's budget as a "case study." The film reviews the mathematical aspects of card counting and key elements for winning blackjack. Blackjack players interviewed for ''The Hot Shoe'' include: * Ian Andersen * Andy Bloch * Anthony Curtis * Peter Griffin *Tommy Hyland *Max Rubin * Ralph Stricker * Edward Thorp * Olaf Vancura *Stanford Wong John Ferguson (born 1943), known by his pen name, Stanford Wong, is a gambling author best known for his book ''Professional Blackjack'', first published in 1975. Wong's computer program "Blackjack Analyzer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Documentary Film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in terms of "a filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception [that remains] a practice without clear boundaries". Early documentary films, originally called "actuality films", lasted one minute or less. Over time, documentaries have evolved to become longer in length, and to include more categories. Some examples are Educational film, educational, observational and docufiction. Documentaries are very Informational listening, informative, and are often used within schools as a resource to teach various principles. Documentary filmmakers have a responsibility to be truthful to their vision of the world without intentionally misrepresenting a topic. Social media platfor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Max Rubin
Max Rubin is a gambling expert and author best known for his book ''Comp City: A Guide to Free Gambling Vacations''. The book teaches players how to maximize casino perks with little actual wagering. Rubin is also a gambling analyst for television; he served as commentator for the first two seasons of the GSN's ''World Series of Blackjack'', along with Matt Vasgersian, and co-hosts the ''Ultimate Blackjack Tour'' with Nick GAS' Mati Moralejo on CBS. Rubin is a member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame and hosts the annual Blackjack Ball. Rubin has frequent speaking engagements across the country. Additionally, he has also done consulting work for many casinos including Harrah's, Hilton Casinos, and Mirage Resorts, and he now exclusively teaches the staff at the Barona Casino Barona Resort and Casino is an Native American gambling enterprises, Indian casino on the Barona Indian Reservation located in Lakeside, California, Lakeside, in San Diego County in California. It is owned and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackjack Films
Blackjack (formerly Black Jack and Vingt-Un) is a casino banking game. The most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This family of card games also includes the British game of Pontoon, the European game, Vingt-et-Un and the Russian game Ochko. Blackjack players do not compete against each other. The game is a comparing card game where each player competes against the dealer. History Blackjack's immediate precursor was the English version of '' twenty-one'' called ''Vingt-Un'', a game of unknown (but likely Spanish) provenance. The first written reference is found in a book by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes. Cervantes was a gambler, and the protagonists of his "Rinconete y Cortadillo", from ''Novelas Ejemplares'', are card cheats in Seville. They are proficient at cheating at ''veintiuna'' (Spanish for "twenty-one") and state that the object of the game ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2004 Films
2004 in film is an overview of events, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies, festivals, a list of country-specific lists of films released, notable deaths and film debuts. ''Shrek 2'' was the year's top-grossing film, and '' Million Dollar Baby'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Evaluation of the year Renowned American film critic and professor Emanuel Levy described 2004 as "a banner year for actors, particularly men." He went on to emphasize, "I can't think of another year in which there were so many good performances, in every genre. It was a year in which we saw the entire spectrum of demographics displayed on the big screen, from vet actors such as Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman, to seniors such as Pacino, De Niro, and Hoffman, to newcomers such as Topher Grace. As always, though, the center of the male acting pyramid is occupied by actors in their forties and fifties, such as Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, Liam Neeson, Kevin Kline, Don Cheadle, J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanford Wong
John Ferguson (born 1943), known by his pen name, Stanford Wong, is a gambling author best known for his book ''Professional Blackjack'', first published in 1975. Wong's computer program "Blackjack Analyzer", initially created for personal use, was one of the first pieces of commercially available blackjack odds analyzing software. Wong has appeared on TV multiple times as a blackjack tournament contestant or as a gambling expert. He owns a publishing house, Pi Yee Press, which has published books by other gambling authors including King Yao. Blackjack Wong began playing blackjack in 1964 while teaching finance courses at San Francisco State University and getting his Ph.D in Finance from Stanford University in California. Not content with the teaching life, Wong agreed to be paid a salary of $1 for his last term of teaching at the school in order to not attend faculty meetings and to pursue his gambling career. The term "wong" (v.) or "wonging" has come to mean a specific adva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olaf Vancura
Olaf or Olav (, , or British ; Old Norse: ''Áleifr'', ''Ólafr'', ''Óleifr'', ''Anleifr'') is a Scandinavian and German given name. It is presumably of Proto-Norse origin, reconstructed as ''*Anu-laibaz'', from ''anu'' "ancestor, grand-father" and ''laibaz'' "heirloom, descendant". Old English forms are attested as ''Ǣlāf'', ''Anlāf''. The corresponding Old Novgorod dialect form is ''Uleb''. A later English form of the name is ''Olave''. In the Norwegian language, ''Olav'' and ''Olaf'' are equally common, but Olav is traditionally used when referring to Norwegian royalty. The Swedish form is '' Olov'' or ''Olof'', and the Danish form is ''Oluf''. It was borrowed into Old Irish and Scots with the spellings ''Amlaíb'' and ''Amhlaoibh'', giving rise to modern version '' Aulay''. The name is Latinized as ''Olaus''. Notable people North Germanic ;Denmark *Olaf I of Denmark, king 1086–1095 * Olaf II of Denmark, also Olaf IV of Norway * Oluf Haraldsen (died c. 1143), Dan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward O
Edward is an English given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a fa .... It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and ''wikt:weard#Old English, weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Saxon England, but the rule of the House of Normandy, Norman and House of Plantagenet, Plantagenet dynasties had effectively ended its use amongst the upper classes. The popularity of the name was revived when Henry III of England, Henry III named his firstborn son, the future Edward I of England, Edward I, as part of his efforts to promote a cult around Edward the Confessor, for whom Henry had a deep admiration. Variant forms The name has been adopted in the Iberian P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Stricker
Ralph (pronounced ; or ,) is a male given name of English, Scottish and Irish origin, derived from the Old English ''Rædwulf'' and Radulf, cognate with the Old Norse ''Raðulfr'' (''rað'' "counsel" and ''ulfr'' "wolf"). The most common forms are: * Ralph, the common variant form in English, which takes either of the given pronunciations. * Rafe, variant form which is less common; this spelling is always pronounced , as are all other English spellings without "l". * Raife, a very rare variant. * Raif, a very rare variant. Raif Rackstraw from H.M.S. Pinafore * Ralf, the traditional variant form in Dutch, German, Swedish, and Polish. * Ralfs, the traditional variant form in Latvian. * Raoul, the traditional variant form in French. * Raúl, the traditional variant form in Spanish. * Raul, the traditional variant form in Portuguese and Italian. * Raül, the traditional variant form in Catalan. * Rádhulbh, the traditional variant form in Irish. Given name Middle Ages * Ral ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Hyland
Thomas Hyland is an American professional blackjack player and a 2002 inductee to the Blackjack Hall of Fame. Hyland studied political science at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. Since 1979, he has been recognized for his role in forming and managing two blackjack teams. Hyland is also a card counting expert. Blackjack Forum 2002 interview summary In a 2002 ''Blackjack Forum'' interview, Hyland reported that he started his blackjack career in 1979 after having been inspired by Lawrence Revere's book ''Playing Blackjack as a Business''. His original blackjack team had four players who each put $4000 into the team bankroll. The team was launched when Atlantic City casinos offered blackjack with the early surrender rule, which gave knowledgeable players an edge. Within months, the Hyland team had built their bankroll to roughly $50,000. When conditions worsened for card counters in Atlantic City, Hyland's original teammates began playing in Asia. Hyland stayed in Atl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Card Counting
Card counting is a blackjack strategy used to determine whether the player or the dealer has an advantage on the next hand. Card counters are advantage players who try to overcome the casino house edge by keeping a running count of high and low valued cards dealt. They generally bet more when they have an advantage and less when the dealer has an advantage. They also change playing decisions based on the composition of the deck. Basics Card counting is based on statistical evidence that high cards (aces, 10s, and 9s) benefit the player, while low cards, (2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, and 7s) benefit the dealer. High cards benefit the player in the following ways: # They increase the player's probability of hitting a natural, which often pays out at 3 to 2 odds. # Doubling down increases expected value. The elevated ratio of tens and aces improves the probability that doubling down will succeed.Thorp (1966), pp. 24–27, pp. 41–47, pp. 98–99, pp. 102–103, p. 110, p. 115. # They pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Griffin (blackjack Player)
Peter A. Griffin (July 19, 1937 – October 18, 1998) was a mathematician, author, and blackjack expert and is one of the original seven members of the Blackjack Hall of Fame. He authored ''The Theory of Blackjack'', considered a classic analysis of the mathematics behind the game of casino 21. Early life Griffin was a native of New Jersey, one of three children, with a brother, poet Alan MacDougall, and a sister, Barbara Dan, writer. His grandfather Frank Loxley Griffin was a mathematician at Reed College who had written various mathematics textbooks. Griffin's father was an actuary who went on to head up a labor/management consulting company in Chicago. Griffin grew up in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Chicago and Portland, Oregon, and married Lydia. Academic studies and teaching He studied at Portland State University, and received a master's degree from the University of California at Davis. He taught statistics, calculus and differential equations at California State Univers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Curtis (writer)
Anthony Curtis is a blackjack player, gambler, author and publisher. He publishes the ''Las Vegas Advisor'', a newsletter founded in 1983 that covers discounts in Las Vegas, and Huntington Press, a publishing house that has released books about gambling, as well as true crime, including The Killing of Tupac Shakur, a ''Los Angeles Times'' bestseller by author Cathy Scott. Early life and education Curtis became interested in gambling at age 16 when he read ''How to Win at Blackjack'' by Charles Einstein. After dropping out of Duke University, Curtis moved to Las Vegas in 1979 shortly before turning 21 to pursue gambling professionally. Career He participated in a team run by Stanford Wong that engaged in tournament play in and around Las Vegas and is known to have won $72k after placing first at a Matchplay Blackjack tournament at the Las Vegas Hilton. Curtis has appeared on the Travel Channel, Discovery, NBC, A&E and BBC, as well as on televised blackjack events such as the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
