Blackjack Hall of Fame
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Blackjack Hall of Fame honors the greatest
blackjack 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 fami ...
experts, authors, and professional players in history. It was launched in 2002, and its physical premises are in
San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
.


History

The Blackjack Hall of Fame is housed 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 operated by the Barona Group of Capit ...
, in
San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
. The Barona Casino awards to each inductee a permanent lifetime
comp Comp, COMP or Comps may refer to: Places In England: * Comp, Kent In France: * Comps, Drôme * Comps, Gard * Comps, Gironde * Comps-la-Grand-Ville * Comps-sur-Artuby Arts, entertainment, and media ;Music *Accompaniment, especially in jazz ...
for full room, food, and beverage, in exchange for each member’s agreement never to play on Barona’s
tables Table may refer to: * Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs * Table (landform), a flat area of land * Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and columns * Table (database), how the table data ...
. In winter 2002, a diverse selection of 21 blackjack experts, authors, and professional players were nominated for membership in the Blackjack Hall of Fame. The public was allowed to vote for about a month through the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
. The final voting was completed at the January 2003 Blackjack Ball, an event open only to selected professional blackjack players and experts and hosted by blackjack author
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 televisio ...
,Blackjack Hero
/ref> at which the first 7 members were inducted. The following year, at the 2004 Blackjack Ball, 2 more inductees were added, again with primary voting done by professional gamblers at the Ball. Nomination of candidates, after 2006, has become the permanent responsibility of the members of the Blackjack Hall of Fame themselves, while the vote on the candidates that have been nominated is conducted by the invitees to the Blackjack Ball. The Hall of Famers inducted 2 more members per year through 2006. Since then they only nominate 1 person per year. However, in late 2007, 4 new members -- "The Four Horsemen" -- were inducted in the Hall of Fame "as a group".


Inductees

The current members of the Blackjack Hall of Fame are the following: *
Al Francesco Al Francesco (born Frank Schipani; December 2, 1933) is an American blackjack player and gambling strategist. Considered to be “The Godfather of Blackjack”, Francesco is recognized as the creator of the team play concept, the “big player” s ...
, 2002, one of the founders of the concept of blackjack teams. *
Peter Griffin Peter Löwenbräu Griffin, born Justin Peter Griffin, is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the American animated sitcom ''Family Guy''. He is voiced by the series' creator, Seth MacFarlane, and first appeared on television, alon ...
, 2002, mathematician, theoretical pioneer and author of ''The Theory of Blackjack''. *
Arnold Snyder Arnold Snyder is a professional gambler and gambling author. He was elected by professional blackjack players as one of the seven original inductees into the Blackjack Hall of Fame which is hosted at Barona Casino for his record as a blackjack pla ...
, 2002, former professional player, author and editor of ''
Blackjack Forum ''Blackjack Forum'' was a trade journal for professional blackjack players, founded in 1981 and published by Arnold Snyder. Originally a 100-page quarterly journal, it expanded into an online forum which is frequented by professional gamblers, att ...
''. *
Edward O. Thorp Edward Oakley Thorp (born August 14, 1932) is an American mathematics professor, author, hedge fund manager, and blackjack researcher. He pioneered the modern applications of probability theory, including the harnessing of very small correlatio ...
, 2002, author of the 1960s classic ''Beat the Dealer'' *
Ken Uston Ken Uston (January 12, 1935 – September 19, 1987) was an American blackjack player, strategist and author, credited with popularizing the concept of team play at blackjack. During the early to mid-1970s he gained widespread notoriety for perfe ...
, 2002, professional player and author who popularized the concept of team play, often playing in disguise and successfully suing the Atlantic City casinos for the rights of card counters. *
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, w ...
, 2002, author and popularizer of the strategy known as "Wonging". *
Tommy 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 for ...
, 2002, manager of one of the longest-running blackjack teams. *
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 televisio ...
, 2004, expert and author, known for media reporting about gambling events, and optimizing casino comps. * Keith Taft, 2004, inventor who manufactured hidden computerized devices to aid advantage play. * Julian Braun, 2005, pioneering author who used computers to analyze blackjack statistics. *
Lawrence Revere Lawrence Revere (born Griffith K. Owens; November 5, 1915 – April 23, 1977) was an author, casino pit boss, and professional blackjack player best known for his book ''Playing Blackjack as a Business''. Revere played under multiple aliases, i ...
, 2005, author of ''Playing Blackjack as a Business'' and blackjack teacher *
James Grosjean James Grosjean is a gambling expert and author best known for his 2000 book ''Beyond Counting: Exploiting Casino Games from Blackjack to Video Poker''. He became a professional player while studying as a graduate student at the University of Chica ...
, 2006, computer analyst and professional player, author of the classic ''Beyond Counting'', who successfully sued casinos and the Griffin Agency. * John Chang, 2007, former manager of the
MIT Blackjack Team The MIT Blackjack Team was a group of students and ex-students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and other leading colleges who used card counting techniques and more sophisticated strategies to beat casinos at bla ...
; was the basis for the Mickey Rosa character in the movie '' 21''. * Roger Baldwin, Wilbert Cantey, Herbert Maisel and James McDermott, 2008, collectively known as " The Four Horsemen of Aberdeen" who, while serving in the U.S. Army in the 1950s, discovered and published in the ''Journal of the
American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts on November 27, 1839, and is the second oldest continuousl ...
'' the first accurate
basic strategy 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 fami ...
for Blackjack, using only desk calculators. * Richard W. Munchkin, 2009, blackjack and backgammon expert, author, film director and producer. *
Darryl Purpose Darryl Purpose is an American singer-songwriter, known for his narrative (often very personal) lyrics and fingerstyle guitar. Before becoming a professional musician, Purpose was a professional blackjack player and was known as one of the best i ...
, 2010, former professional advantage player and performing songwriter. *
Zeljko Ranogajec Zeljko Ranogajec (born 22 May 1961) is a businessman and professional gambler from Australia. The London-based Ranogajec is known for horse betting, blackjack and other forms of advantage gambling. Early life Ranogajec was born in Hobart, Aust ...
, 2011, professional gambler from Australia, former blackjack professional player. * Ian Andersen, 2012, expert and author * Robert Nersesian, 2014, Las Vegas lawyer specializing in lawsuits by players against casinos. *
Don Schlesinger Donald Schlesinger is a gaming mathematician, author, lecturer, player, and member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame who specializes in the casino game of blackjack. His work in the field has spanned almost five decades. He is the author of the book ...
, 2015, author, researcher, columnist, editor of numerous blackjack books, and long-time Blackjack player. *
Bill Benter William Benter (born 1957) is an American professional gambler and philanthropist who focuses on horse betting. Benter earned nearly $1 billion through the development of one of the most successful analysis computer software programs in the ...
, 2016, blackjack team manager and horse-racing expert. One of the highest earning gamblers in history. *
Don Johnson Donnie Wayne Johnson (born December 15, 1949) is an American actor, producer and singer. He played the role of James "Sonny" Crockett in the 1980s television series ''Miami Vice'', for which he won a Golden Globe, and received a Primetime Em ...
, 2017, beat the Atlantic City casinos for over $15 million. * Wally Simmons, 2018, blackjack and horse handicapping pro. * Rob Reitzen, 2019 * Anthony Curtis, 2020, blackjack tournament player, author, publisher of the ''Las Vegas Advisor'', a newsletter founded in 1983 that covers discounts in Las Vegas, and operator of Huntington Press.


References

{{Blackjack Blackjack Halls of fame in California Organizations based in San Diego 2002 establishments in California Organizations established in 2002