The history of modern blackjack game began in 1958 when was published basic strategy for playing the hands, the authors were Mc Dermott, Maisel, Cantey and Baldwin. For the first time it appeared in the Journal of the American Statistical Association and caused the violent reaction both among gamers and statisticians.

The work of four researchers based on the serious calculations and the main plot of the book became very popular. The basic blackjack strategy is close to the strategies widely use today in the world of gambling. It was the beginning of the wide-ranging researching program. Blackjack is different from such games as craps or roulette, because its end as a whole and the outcome of each hand in particular depend on the cards which have been already dealt and those which have remained in the deck. In statistic researches such phenomenon is described as dependent or independent trails.

Thorp was the first man who decided to use the idea of dependency with reference to the blackjack game. His famous “Ten-count System” he described in his book Beat the Dealer which was published in 1962. It could be easily used for plying single-deck game, which you found at any casino in Nevada.

Certainly in order to use this system you needed good memory and some other skills. You had to count tens and the exact count of the other cards. You needed to begin with 2 numbers 36 and 16, so you started the countback. After the round you had to divide the count of remaining cards by the tens’ count, that number was called Thorp Ratio. In that way you could guess your chances to win, if you had 2, it meant your advantage at the next hand was 1%. Thought the card counting was quite difficult especially during the play at the casino, the Nevada casinos had to change the blackjack rules, they lowered double downs to 11.

Thorp’s book very soon became the best seller and crowds of people invaded the casinos. They had to find some measure in order to save the profit and one of the answers became the creation of multi-decks.