Donald Schlesinger is a gaming mathematician, author, lecturer, player, and member of the

Blackjack Hall of Fame The Blackjack Hall of Fame honors the greatest blackjack experts, authors, and professional players in history. It was launched in 2002, and its physical premises are in San Diego, California. History The Blackjack Hall of Fame is housed at the B ...

who specializes in the

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

game of

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 ...

. His work in the field has spanned almost five decades. He is the author of the book ''Blackjack Attack - Playing the Pros' Way'', currently in its third edition, which is considered one of the most sophisticated theoretical and practical studies of the game ever written. In 2023 he and Dave Brolley coauthored, ''The Hi-Lo Card Counting System: A Complete Guide to Index Play''. Schlesinger was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and graduated from the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

(CCNY) with a B.S. degree in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

. In addition, he holds M.A. and M.Phil. degrees in

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

from the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

. Don began his professional life teaching mathematics and French in the New York City school system. In 1984, he changed professions and, until 1998, was a principal (executive director) at a Wall Street

investment bank Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing is ...

. Since his retirement from the finance industry, he has devoted even more time to blackjack, in a researching, writing, teaching, and playing capacity. His contributions to the game include research into optimal betting, risk analysis, optimal back counting, Floating Advantage, camouflage and team play, He is most well known for: *Creating the Illustrious 18, an abridged set of the most efficient

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 ...

indices mentioned in most card counting books published in the last 30 years.Blackwood, Kevin "Play Blackjack Like the Pros", 2005, Harper Collins, pages 18, 68-70, 85 *Creating DI (Desirability Index) and SCORE (Standard Comparison of Risk and Expectation), to optimally compare games under various scenarios. *Publication of the optimal blackjack composition-dependent basic strategy. Schlesinger has edited, consulted and/or collaborated with many of the leading blackjack analysts, programmers, and authors, including

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Karel Janeček Karel Janeček (born 26 July 1973) is a Czech mathematician, entrepreneur, anti-corruption campaigner, creator of the D21 – Janeček method voting system and the online game Prezident 21. Early life and education Janeček was born in Plzeň. H ...

, John Auston, Katarina Walker, and Norm Wattenberger. In addition, he has contributed to many different issues of the aficionado magazine ''

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, atto ...

''.

References

External links

Don's Domain: Official membership site archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schlesinger, Don American gambling writers American male non-fiction writers American blackjack players Writers from New York (state) Year of birth missing (living people) Living people