Dr. Edward Oakley Thorp (born August 14, 1932, Chicago) is an American mathematics professor, author, hedge fund manager, and blackjack player. He is widely known as the author of the 1962 book Beat the Dealer, which was the first book to prove mathematically that blackjack could be beaten by card counting. The technique eliminated the advantage of the house, which had an estimated maximum of approximately 5% (when following strategies with the s...
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Dr. Edward Oakley Thorp (born August 14, 1932, Chicago) is an American mathematics professor, author, hedge fund manager, and blackjack player. He is widely known as the author of the 1962 book Beat the Dealer, which was the first book to prove mathematically that blackjack could be beaten by card counting. The technique eliminated the advantage of the house, which had an estimated maximum of approximately 5% (when following strategies with the smallest possibility of winning, either mimicking the dealer or never busting), and instead gave the player an advantage of approximately 1%. He is also regarded as the co-inventor of the first wearable computer along with Claude Shannon.
Thorp received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1958, and worked at M.I.T. from 1959 to 1961. He was a professor of mathematics from 1965 to 1977 and a professor of mathematics and finance from 1977 to 1982 at University of California, Irvine.
Ed Thorp used the IBM 704 as a research...
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