Robert Michael "Mike" Canjar (September 9, 1953 – May 7, 2012) was a Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at

University of Detroit Mercy The University of Detroit Mercy is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Roman Catholic university in Detroit, Michigan. It is sponsored by both the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the Sisters of Mercy. The university was founded in 1877 ...

(UDM). He started there in 1995, and served as department Chairman from 1995–2002. He was promoted to Full Professor in 2001. He previously taught at several universities, including the

University of Baltimore The University of Baltimore (UBalt, UB) is a public university in Baltimore, Maryland. It is part of the University System of Maryland. UBalt's schools and colleges provide education in business, law, public affairs, and the applied arts and sc ...

. He lived in

Livonia Livonia ( liv, Līvõmō, et, Liivimaa, fi, Liivinmaa, German and Scandinavian languages: ', archaic German: ''Liefland'', nl, Lijfland, Latvian and lt, Livonija, pl, Inflanty, archaic English: ''Livland'', ''Liwlandia''; russian: Ли ...

, part of

metropolitan Detroit The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. State of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and its surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the area, including the ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

Education

Mike Canjar attended the

University of Detroit The University of Detroit Mercy is a private Roman Catholic university in Detroit, Michigan. It is sponsored by both the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the Sisters of Mercy. The university was founded in 1877 and is the largest Catholic universi ...

(now University of Detroit Mercy) where he received his Bachelor of Engineering degree in 1973. He earned a Master of Engineering degree in 1974. He received a Ph.D. 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 ...

from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1982, specializing in

Mathematical Logic Mathematical logic is the study of logic, formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory. Research in mathematical logic commonly addresses the mathematical properties of for ...

Academia

Canjar was Professor of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of the

, where he also served as departmental Chairman from 1995–2002. He was with UDM since 1995. He previously taught at a number of universities, including the

where he'd served as Chairman of the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics. He published a number of articles in mathematical journals on Mathematical Logic and Set Theory. He was also interested in Computer Science, particularly in object-oriented programming and Windows programming, developing courses in those areas.Faculty information
University of Detroit Mercy Canjar has served as president of the Professors' Union of the University of Detroit Mercy.

Gambling theory

Using the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

MathProf, Mike Canjar was a regular contributor to various websites dedicated to the study of casino games and

advantage play Advantage gambling, or advantage play, refers to legal methods used to gain an advantage while gambling, in contrast to cheating. The term usually refers to house-banked casino games, but can also refer to games played against other players, suc ...

, most often to

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 ...

's Blackjack website where he won a record number 16 times the award for Post of The Month. MathProf was considered one of the most prominent contributors to the study of casino Blackjack and the related subjects of

bankroll A coin wrapper, sometimes known as a bank roll or roll, is a paper or plastic container for a number of coins. In the 19th century, coins were distributed in large cloth bags and coins were hand wrapped. Since the onset of the 20th century, coin w ...

management,

risk of ruin Risk of ruin is a concept in gambling, insurance, and finance relating to the likelihood of losing all one's investment capital or extinguishing one's bankroll below the minimum for further play. For instance, if someone bets all their money on a s ...

kurtosis In probability theory and statistics, kurtosis (from el, κυρτός, ''kyrtos'' or ''kurtos'', meaning "curved, arching") is a measure of the "tailedness" of the probability distribution of a real-valued random variable. Like skewness, kurtosi ...

and

skewness In probability theory and statistics, skewness is a measure of the asymmetry of the probability distribution of a real-valued random variable about its mean. The skewness value can be positive, zero, negative, or undefined. For a unimodal d ...

, cut card effects,

large deviations In probability theory, the theory of large deviations concerns the asymptotic behaviour of remote tails of sequences of probability distributions. While some basic ideas of the theory can be traced to Laplace, the formalization started with insura ...

, and others.

Personal life

Robert Michael Canjar was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1953, the only child of his parents, Lawrence N. Canjar and Lillian Patricia "Pat" McDonald. His father was Dean of

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

at the

. His mother, who had received a master's degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Detroit, was a practicing

clinical psychologist Clinical psychology is an integration of social science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and persona ...

. Mike Canjar and Elaine Bell, who has a master's degree in Computer Science and serves as Director of Institutional Research at the UDM, were married on August 8, 2010.Mike Canjar's background story
at

CaringBridge CaringBridge Inc. is a charitable 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established in 1997 which allows people facing various medical conditions and their family and friends to communicate. CaringBridge is the first non-profit social network with g ...

In 2011, Canjar, who was raised as a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

, became a member of th
Disciples of Christ Memorial Christian Church

14 August 2011 During his April 2010 annual

physical exam In a physical examination, medical examination, or clinical examination, a medical practitioner examines a patient for any possible medical signs or symptoms of a medical condition. It generally consists of a series of questions about the patie ...

, he was diagnosed with having inoperable

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...

at an already advanced stage, with distant

metastasis Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then, ...

, and began

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

treatment. Mike Canjar died on May 7, 2012.Death Notices: Canjar, Dr. R. Michael
Michigan.com

References

External links

Why Optimal Betting is not Optimal
by R. Michael Canjar, 2nd Annua
Skaff Memorial Lecture
2011
University of Detroit Mercy
website {{DEFAULTSORT:Canjar, R. Michael 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American gambling writers People from Detroit 1953 births 2012 deaths University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni