It is a story that has gone down in Blackjack history. It seems that no other story has contributed to the game's reputation and appeal as this story of college students and graduates who decided to take on the casinos and managed to overpower them in their own playground.

The movie 21 has brought their story to the big screen. We will bring it to you here.

While studying at MIT, Bloch became part of the MIT blackjack team, featured in the book Bringing Down the House. 3 Bloch said he has made up to $100,000 in one session while playing blackjack. 4 He was one of the members of the team to play in Monte Carlo as detailed in Ben Mezrich 's Busting Vegas.

This amazing story started in the form of an innocent club that students attended after class, where they would relax and have a laugh by seeing how their mathematic abilities could be used to profit from card games. Then the MIT Card Counters, or the MIT Blackjack Team as they were known, took their skills to Atlantic City and Las Vegas in an attempt to beat the casinos using card counting, with limited success.

The Real Stars Of The Mit Blackjack Team When 21 hit the movie theaters it immediately unleashed a firestorm of controversy among those who knew the real story of the MIT blackjack team. In the movie, the principal members of the team are Caucasians. The truth, however, is that the most successful members of the MIT blackjack team were Asians. The team was founded in the late 1970s by an MIT student and a Harvard University student with membership totaling about 50 over the years, according to Hirschtick. 'Eventually, everyone I knew left blackjack and went on to real life except one player - the character Kevin Spacey plays. Before too long Chang, who finally graduated from MIT in 1985 (he did his undergraduate thesis, which you can find here, on blackjack), became the senior person on the MIT team. He says he got the.

The club was set up by a Blackjack professional who got in contact with an MIT graduate called J.P. Massar about setting up a crack Blackjack team. After a short while J.P. Massar met with a player called Bill Kaplan, who decided to lead the group. This new partnership upgraded the team by creating order and structure in it. Success was around the corner!

As time went by success came on. The group became stronger both in numbers and ambition. They began to rent out space to simulate real casino environments and set about training those involved in the card counting to ensure they were playing a faultless game that couldn't be detected or suspected.

Throughout the 1980s the team grew larger. Outside investments poured into the group and the return was huge. It was said that the players were bringing in about $162 an hour per person.

But with success came trouble. Bill Kaplan, the man behind the group's success could not walk into a casino and was basically haunted by the gambling industry. Although forbidden by law to harras cards counters, The casinos managed to make Kaplan's role untenable. In 1984 he stepped down to a backseat position.

But even without Kaplan's active support, the team continued its development. With profits rising more and more players and investors joined the group, who was said to produce a 300% return to its investors.

Over time the casinos managed to track down the MIT players. Photographs of the players were obtained and the group suffered a huge setback as their players began to be found out. Since the center of their activity was the anonymity of the card counters, this was basically the end of their activity as a group.

The players went their own separate ways and new branches of the Team set up across the country under different guises. Even though players involved in the group still remained involved in card counting they were in separate groups doing their own thing. The MIT Blackjack Team as it was known was dead.

It had still created such a large impact on the global Blackjack scene that many people try to re-enact the success it had but casinos are ready for card counting groups now and the levels of success the MIT Blackjack Team had are unlikely to ever be reached again. The organization, communication and ambition of the team was unparalleled in casino history and those who made the team what it was have gone down in Blackjack folklore forever.

This is a brief glimpse into the serendipitous lives and times of the MIT Blackjack Team, one of the most enduring legends of contemporary gambling.

This group of geniuses met when they were studying at the most prestigious universities in the United States, including Harvard, Columbia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). They were math whizzes and, judging by the story that unfolded after their legendary collaboration, it seemed that their favorite sport was risk-taking. Together they formed the MIT Blackjack Team and their story was immortalized in the 2008 movie 21.

The students learned card-counting techniques, beating casinos across the U.S. and winning millions of dollars. In the mid-1990s each member went his or her separate way; some stopped playing while others continued their gambling endeavors. Now, nearly 20 years later, here’s an update on the legendary MIT Blackjack Team.

Semyon Dukach

This Russian-born entrepreneur has always been open and willing to chat about his days as a member of the MIT Blackjack Team. Dukach has invested in several startups, like Fast Engines, which sold for more than $35 million. Today Semyon is an Angel Investor and spends his time looking for new investment opportunities.

The Real Mit Blackjack Team

Jeffrey ‘Jeff’ Ma

Once his MIT Blackjack Team days were over, Jeff founded a sports stock market website called PROTRADE, which, unfortunately, is no longer active. Jeff also co-founded Citizen Sports and made a fortune when Yahoo! bought it in 2010; published the book The House Advantage: Playing the Odds to Win Big in Business, and is the CEO and founder of tenXer, a company that develops software to manage developers. Currently, Jeff is a sports columnist for ESPN. You can read more about Jeff here.

The Real Mit Blackjack Team Movie

Jane Willis

The math whiz who graduated from Harvard University in 1991 said in an interview with the Boston Globe that her blackjack days were behind her. Today she’s an attorney with Boston’s famous Ropes & Gray firm. She is recognized as a top attorney in business litigation, one of the best lawyers in America, and has been nominated for several awards, including the Chamber USA Women in Law Award and the Best Lawyers Antitrust Lawyer of the Year.

Mike Aponte

After a decade-long hiatus, Mike made returned to professional blackjack, winning the 2004 World Series of Blackjack. Afterward, he co-founded the Blackjack Institute with David Irvine; the school teaches students proven methods and techniques used by the MIT Blackjack Team). Mike also consults on professional blackjack and the mathematics of gambling, writes for the blog mikeaponte.com and works as Chief Research assistant for Peerless Analytics.

Johnny Chang and Laurie Tsao

The Real Mit Blackjack Team Members

As one of the masterminds behind the operation, Johnny was in charge of acquiring talent and managing relationships. He married Laurie Tsao, who was also a member of the team. Johnny was added to the Blackjack Hall of Fame and is a speaker and coach.

Laurie is still a professional player. In 2012 she ran into some trouble after entering the Caesars’ Palace hotel and casino in Las Vegas. Because of her connection with the MIT Blackjack Team, Laurie is banned from this and other casinos in the area. It’s not clear whether the two are still married.

The Mit Blackjack Team Sub Indo

Click here to see how the real team looks like vis a vis their Hollywood counterparts.