Peter A. Griffin (July 19, 1937 – October 18, 1998) was a mathematician, author, and

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 ...

expert and is one of the original seven members 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 ...

. 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 New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, 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 Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

who had written various mathematics textbooks. Griffin's father was an

actuary An actuary is a business professional who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty. The name of the corresponding field is actuarial science. These risks can affect both sides of the balance sheet and require asset man ...

who went on to head up a labor/management consulting company in Chicago. Griffin grew up in

Williamsport, Pennsylvania Williamsport is a city in, and the county seat of, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. It recorded a population of 27,754 at the 2020 Census. It is the principal city of the Williamsport Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a popula ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, and married Lydia.

Academic studies and teaching

He studied at

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the following two decades ...

, and received a master's degree from the

University of California at Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

. He taught statistics, calculus and differential equations at

California State University-Sacramento California State University, Sacramento (CSUS, Sacramento State, or informally Sac State) is a public university in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1947 as Sacramento State College, it is the eleventh oldest school in the 23-campus California ...

from 1965 until his death on October 18, 1998, from

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 ...

."Peter Griffin, Solver of Blackjack, Dies at 61"
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', 2 November 1998

Blackjack

His first exposure to blackjack was in 1970, when he proposed a course on the mathematics of gambling, and went to Nevada to do some research. As the ''New York Times'' put it, he "promptly got his clock cleaned," and this incentivized him to do more serious research on the subject. He was known for compiling extensive statistics on blackjack players in

Atlantic City Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, Boardwalk (entertainment district), boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020 United States censu ...

, and then comparing patterns against players in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the c ...

. Griffin was one of the first to calculate the percentage disadvantage of an "average" blackjack player, at 2%. He was also the first to calculate the average gains by hand realized from varying basic strategy. Griffin wrote the 1979 book, ''The Theory of Blackjack: The Compleat Card Counter’s Guide to the Casino Game of 21'', which is considered to be a classic in the field. Griffin along with Anthony Curtis is cited as coming up with the title for the main column of the Las Vegas Advisor, 'Couponomy'. Curtis states "Griffin pointed out that the suffix “omy” typically means to extract, so Couponomy meant extraction via coupon". The main passion of Peter Griffin remained teaching, which is where he devoted most of his working life. Peter Griffin died on October 18, 1998, at the age of 61.

Works

* ''The Theory of Blackjack'', 1979, Huntington Press, * ''Extra Stuff: Gambling Ramblings'', 1991, Huntington Press,

References

Notes

* Griffin is unrelated to the private, casino-consulting firm

Griffin Investigations Griffin Investigations was once the most prominent group of private investigators specializing in the United States gambling industry; roughly half of the major casinos in the United States, US once subscribed to Griffin's services. The company wa ...

External links

Peter Griffin
at BlackjackHero.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Griffin, Peter American blackjack players 1937 births 1998 deaths Portland State University alumni People from New Jersey University of California, Davis alumni