Since its early ages, Ken Uston was attracted by mathematics. Although his family tried to guide him to play the piano, he managed to graduate Yale at 20 years old and to become one of the greatest Stock Exchange specialists of the 1930 period. However, he felt like his life was not complete until he met the blackjack specialist Al Francesco.
The partnership between Al Francesco and Ken Uston can be considered the first professional blackjack team of the history. The knowledge of Al combined with the intelligence of Uston made them legends, as every casino was honored but also scared to have them at the tables. Of course, the competition was also harsh, as the casinos started to invite them to the tables just to prove that the house could beat them. Unfortunately for those casinos, the team always had something new prepared for every game. The house was always loosing, and the team was soon forbidden from the majority of the Las Vegas Casinos.
The secrets of success
Although for our times the following paragraphs are no secrets, the secrets exposed by this team at that time forced the casinos to change many of their policies. The interview with the players was helpful for so many gamblers, as the managed to win some serious money before the casinos could change their policies.
Besides the waiters, dealers, bodyguards, and chiefs that can be found in a casino, there are also many other people that are part of the casino staff. They are disguised as casino players, pick-up girls, or even janitors. Their purpose is to check the tables and to find those players that are winning constantly. If you are in that position, you will soon find a mysterious player at your poker table that would disappear with all your lifetime earnings, so you will have to borrow money from your friends for your 20 dollars ticket back home.
Those persons are called "spotters," and you must be certain you don't have one around your table. If you manage to win two or three hands in a row at a blackjack game, leave the table immediately, so the "spotter" would lose you.
The microcomputer was also a great discovery for the team. This was a new device for the year 1977, as it had the capacity to transmit signals to the other player. However, after a few successful hits with this device, the team was arrested and the players were forced to quit gambling. |
