Participants compete for the title of the world's best blackjack player by answering a series of complex questions about the game

Participants compete for the title of the world's best blackjack player by answering a series of complex questions about the game

In the shadow of the world's most famous casino is a gathering of 110 people, with the distant glow of the neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip in the background and the cumulative success, analytical ability, and overall glow that are usually reserved for the audience of Nobel Prize winning speeches.And if you're curious for more, you can find the full posting

As you can expect, achieving an invitation to this event was not a small feat. Candidates must first be nominated by a sitting member of the Hall of Fame Blackjack, and then approved by the attending committee. My journey to being invited, 19 years ago, at the age of 18, was defeated by a dealer by Ed Thorp when I first read the classic card counting text. Since then, my resume has included multiple graduate degrees, managing a professional blackjack team, developing 2 original casino slot games, becoming a leading analytical consultant and game writer, and successful litigation against Caesars Entertainment. This night was something I had been waiting for and something I would never forget.

The location of the blackjack ball is one of the most heavily guarded secrets of advantage gamblers, and there is a good reason.1 If an employee of a casino finds its place, it will make the career of that employee and at the same time destroy the lives of some great players.

The night started with driving my medium-sized silver rental car toward a 7-foot-high steel security gate at a location I recently disclosed. I gave my name to the guard and she immediately found it on her master list and opened the gate. After parking, I walked towards the front door of the clubhouse and was stopped at a table 15 yards from the door where I was asked for an identification that I gave without hesitation.

The longtime organizer and founder of mymobicasino.com, Max Rubin called and only after he confirmed my invitation, I was able to continue. Max met me at the door, we shook hands and I handed him a premium chilled bottle of champagne in the form of a bottle of 2006 Dom Perignon. A chilled bottle of premium champagne was requested by each attendee and it was far to ensure that the night was special for all present he then escorted me beyond 3 armed guards and I was inside.

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The security precautions may seem excessive, but for advantage gambler, the situation is a perfect metaphor, as long as the casino goes to great lengths to portray advantage gambler as unwanted and, in many cases, they define themselves as criminals who need to defend themselves at all costs. In fact, advantage gamblers are those who need protection from the casino. In most cases, advantage players are very bright and talented people who are motivated for one reason or another to play casino games for profit. Let's take a look at some attendees of blackjack balls and see if they deserve a criminal label that is bestowed upon them by a casino representative.

Blair Hull founded Hull Trading Company in 1985, served as chairman and chief Executive of the company, and sold it to Goldman Sachs in 1999 for553,100 million. Trader Monthly acknowledged that Hull carried out one of the "40 best deals ever," and Worth Magazine named him one of the "25 smartest players on Wall Street."Hull is also the recipient of the 2014 Joseph W. Sullivan Options Industry Achievement Award, in recognition of his outstanding lifelong contribution to the growth and integrity of the U.S. options market.

Bill Venter developed arguably the most successful computer software in the world to attack Hong Kong's huge horse racing market. During the 2010 racing season, betting sales in Hong Kong amounted to9923 million, with just two racetracks. By comparison, all thoroughbred racetracks in the United States combined and in 2010 earned just over1 120 billion. Bill leads the Venter Foundation in Pittsburgh PA and oversees the distribution of millions of dollars each year to a variety of causes in education, health and the arts.

Max Rubin is a 47-year gaming industry veteran, award-winning author, long-term member of the Advisory Board of the American Association for Global Gaming Expo, a former professional blackjack player and exclusive consultant for Barona Resort and Casino in San Diego CA. Home to the Blackjack Hall of Fame and the sponsor of Blackjack ball, Barona has long been the envy of gaming resorts across America. This, with consistent year-to-year growth over the past decade, is one of the very few gaming businesses showing extraordinary financial success; Barona has achieved unprecedented success by employing a very simple strategy: Provide players with what they want while they play. By offering unprecedented "time on device" (contrary to industry standards), offering the loosest slot machines and loosest table games possible, issuing loose comps and feeding players while they gamble, Barona continues to be the dominant gaming operation in the San Diego market. Developed player loyalty.

James Grosjean is considered by most of his peers at advantage gaming to be advantage gaming's greatest intellectual engineer and practitioner who has never lived before. Max Rubin said "In all the years I have thrown a blackjack ball when success is measured as a function of skill, will and focus no one will approach Grosjean.James graduated from Harvard University with a Master's degree in Economics from the University of Chicago. James wrote Beyond counting Caa. This is one of the most comprehensive books on Advantage games ever published.1

These 4 people are a small subset of the Blackjack ball guest list.. It is by no means a cream of the participant's crop. A random selection of any 4 participants will bring an equally impressive set of backgrounds. This begs the question:What is it about the game of blackjack, and more importantly, the skill that one gets when trying to beat the game of blackjack, it contributes to the overall success of each attendee.1 Throughout the night, I was able to discuss the impact blackjack had on the lives of many of the guests.

2016 Blackjack Hall of Fame inductee Bill Venter touched on this theme during his acceptance speech. After first conceptualizing and then thanking the men who practiced advantage blackjack play, Professor Ed Thorp and Stanford Wong, Bill Benter thanked the game of blackjack itself. In a profound discussion to engage in advantage play, says Bill:

The game of blackjack is a tremendous teacher. It teaches us the importance of studying and preparing. Advantage Players have a very narrow edge, so when we want to succeed, it's important to focus our efforts on that goal. And that reasoning is the perfect analogy for life. Blackjack tells us the importance of teamwork, and you can have a bad day, but knowing you did everything right doesn't mean that most days don't go well just because you didn't go well on that day.

Blair Hull often gives stories about his experience as a stock and options trader;he describes his core competencies as systematic, data-driven and disciplined. In a brief conversation with me, he is convinced that these values firmly permeated him during his blackjack training and that his mentor and friend Blackjack Blair would have driven a taxi somewhere if it wasn't for the blackjack game. Even though I am not sure that this is the case, it is clear that he believes blackjack was on shaping who he has become.

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