Beat the Dealer
A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One
by Edward O. Thorp · first published 1966
33% recommend67% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Classic card-counting and probability book from the blackjack side, valued for showing how a quant approach to a game of chance works and for building intuition about how traders think about edge and risk.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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The best book published in 2017 for me is this one: "A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market" by Edward O. Thorp http://www.edwardothorp.com/books/a-man-for-all-markets/
on “Ask HN: What is the best book you read on 2017?” ↗The best book published in 2017 for me is this one: "A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market" by Edward O. Thorp http://www.edwardothorp.com/books/a-man-for-all-markets/
on “What are the best books you read in 2017?” ↗The best book published in 2017 for me is this one: "A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market" by Edward O. Thorp http://www.edwardothorp.com/books/a-man-for-all-markets/
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in 2017?” ↗The best book published in 2017 for me is this one: "A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market" by Edward O. Thorp http://www.edwardothorp.com/books/a-man-for-all-markets/
on “Ask HN: What are some interesting books you read in 2017?” ↗"A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market" by Edward O. Thorp https://www.amazon.com/Man-All-Markets-Street-Dealer/dp/1400...
on “Ask HN: Simple books and resources would you suggest on investing money?” ↗Ed Thorp literally wrote the book on Blackjack - it's called Beat The Dealer and is definitely worth a read.
on “Voltaire's Luck: The French Philosopher Outsmarts the Lottery” ↗I had a great time reading the following group of related books. How To Beat the Dealer by Ed Thorp. You might think this is lame and outdated, but it will clue you into how bond traders think. In fact, Bill Gross of pimco was so inspired by the book that he went to Vegas and became a…
on “Michael Lewis: Don't Eat Fortune's Cookie” ↗…wrote a book about his life and work - there's a chapter in there about Shannon and his adventures in the casino. Definitely worth a read. "A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market"
on “Claude Shannon built a machine to game roulette (2017)” ↗Ed Thorp's "Beat the Dealer: A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One" is one of the best books ever written about quant trading...despite not being about quant trading.
on “D.E. Shaw and how computer geeks and English majors transformed Wall St. (2018)” ↗There seems to be a good tradition of "gambler hackers", e.g. - Edward O. Thorp ("Beat the Dealer" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_O._Thorp ) - Keith Taft (http://www.blackjackforumonline.com/content/taftint.html) - the MIT Blackjack Team ( "Bringing down the house" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bringing_Down_the_House_(book)…
on “Hacking Real World Systems” ↗That's what Edward O. Thorp[0], the inventor of the modern Blackjack counting system, did. He devised a way to beat the dealer, tested it on a computer at MIT, went to Reno and made a bunch of cash. But instead of following that path, he wrote a book which was boon to the gambling industry, and started a hedge fund. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_O._Thorp
on “How 'Advantage Players' Game the Casinos” ↗…of them on his site[2]. Of particular note is his paper "Blackjack Systems"[3] describing a proto card counting strategy, "The Mathematics of Gambling"[4], and of course the book that started it all: "Beat the Dealer"[5]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Blackjack_Team [2] http://www.edwardothorp.com/articles/ [3] http://www.edwardothorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Black... [4] http://www.edwardothorp.com/books/the-mathematics-of-gamblin... [5]…
on “A casino card shark’s first time getting caught” ↗…computer staged formal discussions designed to train their people on how to fight properly over ideas and not egos. PARC held weekly meetings they called "Dealer" (from a popular book of the time titled Beat the Dealer). Before each meeting, one person, known as "the dealer," was selected as the speaker. The speaker would present his idea and then try to defend it against a room of engineers and scientists determined…
on “Bob Taylor Has Died” ↗…about blackjack over 50 years ago.[1] He's a seminal figure in this field. Here's one site I recall mostly because it has a memorable name: http://wizardofodds.com/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_the_Dealer#History
on “The Coin Flip: A Fundamentally Unfair Proposition? (2009)” ↗…computer staged formal discussions designed to train their people on how to fight properly over ideas and not egos. PARC held weekly meetings they called "Dealer" (from a popular book of the time titled Beat the Dealer). Before each meeting, one person, known as "the dealer," was selected as the speaker. The speaker would present his idea and then try to defend it against a room of engineers and scientists determined…
on “What made Xerox PARC special? Who else today is like them?” ↗