Blackjack Hall of Fame

The Blackjack Hall of Fame honors the greatest blackjack experts, authors, and professional players in history. It was launched in 2002, and its physical premises are in San Diego, California.

History

In the winter of 2002, a diverse selection of 21 blackjack experts, authors, and professional players were nominated for membership in the Blackjack Hall of Fame. The public was allowed to vote for about a month through the Internet. The final voting was completed at the January 2003 Blackjack Ball, an event open only to selected professional blackjack players and experts and hosted by blackjack author Max Rubin [http://www.blackjackhero.com/blackjack/hall-fame Blackjack Hero] ] , whereby the first 7 members were inducted .

The following year, at the 2004 Blackjack Ball, 2 more inductees were added, again with primary voting done by professional gamblers at the Ball. Nomination of candidates, after 2006, has become the permanent responsibility of the members of the Blackjack Hall of Fame themselves [ [http://www.blackjackforumonline.com/content/bjhalloffame.htm Blackjack Forum] ] . The Hall of Famers inducted 2 more members per year through 2006, and then agreed to drop to only 1 person per year.

However, in late 2007, 4 new members, were inducted in the Hall of Fame "as a group" [ [http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jan/04/the-inside-straight-they-invented-basic-strategy-j/ Las Vegas Sun : They invented Basic Strategy] ] .

ponsorship

The Blackjack Hall of Fame is sponsored by the Barona Casino, in San Diego, California, which also accommodates its premises. The Barona Casino awards to each inductee a permanent lifetime comp for full room, food, and beverage, in exchange for each member’s agreement never to play on Barona’s tables.

Inductees

The current members of the Blackjack Hall of Fame are the following:

* Al Francesco, 2002, one of the founders of the concept of blackjack teams. Considered one of the most famous players of all time.
* Peter Griffin, 2002, mathematician, theoretical pioneer and author of "The Theory of Blackjack"
* Arnold Snyder, 2002, former professional player, author and editor of "Blackjack Forum"
* Edward O. Thorp, 2002, author of the 1960s classic "Beat the Dealer"
* Ken Uston, 2002, professional player and author who popularized the concept of team play, often playing in disguise and successfully suing the Atlantic City casinos for the rights of card counters
* Stanford Wong, 2002, author and popularizer of the strategy known as "Wonging"
* Tommy Hyland, 2002, manager of one of the longest-running blackjack teams
* Max Rubin, 2004, known for media reporting about gambling events, and optimizing casino comps
* Keith Taft, 2004, inventor who manufactured hidden computerized devices to aid with play
* Julian Braun, 2005, pioneering author who used computers to analyze blackjack statistics
* Lawrence Revere, 2005, author of "Playing Blackjack as a Business" and blackjack teacher
* James Grosjean, 2006, computer analyst and professional player, author of the classic "Beyond Counting", who successfully sued casinos and the Griffin Agency
* John Chang, 2007, former MIT team manager and basis for the Mickey Rosa character in the movie 21 (2008 film)
* Roger Baldwin, Wilbert Cantey, Herbert Maisel and James McDermott, (2008), collectively known as [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/05/AR2008070501588.html "The Four Horsemen of Aberdeen"] , who, while serving in the U.S. Army in the fifties, discovered and published in the "Journal of the American Statistical Association" the first accurate basic strategy for Blackjack, using only desk calculators.

References