When it comes to the world of gaming, many of us forget just how much effort and strategy goes into the process. It is a common mistake, and one that could see a good gamer turn into a great one if they grasp that issue. However, to understand gambling and playing the odds right, you need a mathematical mind. Just as well, then, that the legendary Edward O. Thorpe – the ‘Master of Mathematics’ – was around in the 1930s and beyond!
With the expertise of Thorpe, we now understand better than ever the concept of probability. Thorpe came up with the probability theory in its most modern forms, using the information to his advantage. Indeed, he showed how to take a very small number of correlating factors and then establish them for financial gain and benefit. Indeed, he also wrote the famous Beat the Dealer book which showed that in a game of blackjack in a casino could be won by the player through card counting.
He wasn’t just an expert in the gambling industry, through; Thorpe was also an expert in hedge funding, working alongside the likes of Claude Shannon to develop what would have been the first wearable computer device. On top of this, he was a mathematics professor at New Mexico State University, as well as the University of California, Irvine, where he also served as professor of mathematics and then mathematics and finance.
A genius, he was capable of showing people who were used to losing to house advantage in a game of blackjack how to turn the tables, take control, and enjoy better-than-average success. It is for this reason, then, that Edward Thorpe is a name well worth remembering.
Society rarely produces people with the mind-set and the mettle of Thorpe; a true genius who, among other things, put his expertise to use to create a system worth learning.