The Story of Ken Uston

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Early Years

Ken Uston was born Kenneth Senzo Usui in New York City in 1935 to a Japanese immigrant father and an Austrian immigrant mother. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Yale University, with a degree in economics, and went on to earn an MBA in finance from Harvard University. He then entered the business world, and quickly moved up the corporate ladder to become Director of Operations research at the Southern New England Telephone Company, Director of Strategic Planning at the American Cement Corporation, and, while still in his thirties, the youngest senior vice president in the history of the Pacific Stock Exchange.

Ken's meeting with Al Francesco has already entered into the world of blackjack mythology. There are reports that they met at a party, that they met at a poker game, that Ken called Al and requested an appointment, that Al called Ken at the Stock Exchange and said, "I understand you know a thing or two about blackjack." Whatever the actual circumstances, it proved to be a meeting that would change the course of blackjack history.

Entering Professional Blackjack

Ken soon quit his "day job" and became a member of Al Francesco's team. The team concept of blackjack worked like this: "counters" placed small bets at the various blackjack tables in the casino. By keeping track of the cards that had been dealt, and using mathematical systems such as the Reverse System and the Hi Opt I System, they were able to determine when the odds of the game had moved in their favor. They would then signal the "big players" on the team, who would come to the table and place big bets and win big money.

In 1976, Ken formed his own team that played in casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and elsewhere. They joined forces with Keith Taft, a California scientist, and his computer George. George was small enough to hide inside a blackjack player's shoe, yet powerful enough to calculate the odds and instruct the players to hit, stand, double down, or split.

Ken and his team won millions of dollars at the blackjack tables, which did not endear them to the casino bosses. Ken was assaulted by casino security guards, arrested, and banned from the casinos. To evade the bans, he used disguises to enter the casinos without being recognized; eventually, he became almost as well known as a genius of disguise as he was as a genius of blackjack. Ken also battled the casinos in court, claiming that their actions in barring him were an infringement of his civil rights. Ken explained his position, whose reasonableness can not really be disputed, as follows:

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"Basically I am just using skill in a casino. I'm not cheating. I'm not doing anything other than trying to use my brain. And the fact that I'm not allowed to play bothers me. It would be as if Bobby Fisher was not allowed to play chess, or Pete Rose not allowed to play baseball, or Charles Goren isn't allowed to play bridge. And I like to play blackjack and I feel that in a way my skill has effectively hampered me in this profession, and it's unusual. Sort of against the American Way."

The New Jersey State Supreme Court agreed with Ken and, in the case of Uston v. Resorts International Hotel Inc., it ruled that the Atlantic City casinos could not bar card counters from their premises. The legal triumph, however, turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory: the casinos responded to the court ruling by adding decks, moving up the shuffle point, and taking other steps that effectively negated the potential benefits of card counting.

Ken's Publications - Blackjack Books

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