Ken Uston (January 12, 1935 – September 19, 1987) was an American blackjack player, strategist and author, credited with popularizing the concept of team play at blackjack.[2] During the early to mid-1970s he gained widespread notoriety for perfecting techniques to do team card counting in numerous casinos worldwide, earning millions of dollars from the casinos, with some bets as high as $12,000 on a single hand.
He was banned from casinos around the world and would adopt various costumes in order to conceal his identity and still be able to play.[3] He filed a high-profile lawsuit against these casinos and successfully received a ruling from the New Jersey courts that absent a valid New Jersey Casino Commission regulation excluding card counters, casinos could not ban someone simply for counting cards at blackjack. In response, many casinos changed their systems, increasing the number of decks in games or changing rules to increase the house edge.
In the early 1980s, Uston also authored several popular books on video games and personal computers. He was the subject of a 1981 segment on 60 Minutes and in 2005, he was the subject of the History Channel documentary, "The Blackjack Man".[3][4]
^ abBiography on Ken Uston's Blackjack World – The Official Ken Uston Web Site
^Stanford Wong (1982). Basic Blackjack. p. 17.
^ abCite error: The named reference bigplayer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Sarah Crump (5 May 2005). "History Channel gives a hand to late local card counter". The Plain Dealer.
KenUston (January 12, 1935 – September 19, 1987) was an American blackjack player, strategist and author, credited with popularizing the concept of team...
the man who taught KenUston how to count cards, and Tommy Hyland, manager of the longest-running blackjack team in history. KenUston, perhaps the most...
Retrieved 2021-06-04. Uston, Ken. KenUston's Guide to Buying and Beating the Home Video Games (Signet, 1982) p.605 Uston, Ken. KenUston's Guide to Buying...
(1993), ISBN 1-879712-02-4 KenUston on Blackjack, KenUston, 1986, ISBN 978-0-8184-0411-5 Knock-Out Blackjack, Olaf Vancura and Ken Fuchs, 1998, ISBN 978-0-929712-31-4...
Scholars at Harvard. 10 May 2020. Retrieved 24 Mar 2024. Uston, Ken (June 1986). "KenUston on His Beating at the Mapes Casino (From Blackjack Forum VI...
developed a truly elegant solution to the controller problem." KenUston published KenUston's Guide to Buying and Beating the Home Video Games in 1982 as...
Uston, Ken (Fall 1983). "Arcade Games: Mastering Pac-Man Plus and Super Pac-Man". Creative Computing: Video & Arcade Games. Vol. 1, no. 2. p. 32. Ken...
Puzzle Panic, also known as KenUston's Puzzle Panic, is a puzzle video game created by blackjack strategist KenUston, Bob Polin (designer of Blue Max)...
Forum. Edward O. Thorp, 2002, author of the 1960s classic Beat the Dealer KenUston, 2002, professional player and author who popularized the concept of team...
Vol. 8, no. 9. p. 162. Retrieved 2021-11-11. Uston, Ken (Mar 1984). "Barbara Isgur talks to KenUston; an industry analyst speaks out". Creative Computing...
play was first written about by KenUston, an early member of Al Francesco's teams along with Bill Erb and Blair Hull. Uston wrote The Big Player (1977) and...
described in the same episode. "Breaking Vegas" "Blackjack Man" — story of KenUston "Card Count King" – story of Tommy Hyland "The Gadget Gambler" – story...
Gazette. pp. D-3. Retrieved 10 January 2015. Uston, Ken (March 1984). "Barbara Isgur talks to KenUston; an industry analyst speaks out". Creative Computing...
Universal Press Syndicate. KenUston's Guide to Buying and Beating the Home Video Games (ISBN 0-451-11901-0) by KenUston. Published in May 1982 by Signet...
members, including three “Big Players”: KenUston, Bill Erb, and Blair Hull. In 1977, after team member KenUston published a book called “The Big Player”...
a profit, and their story is outlined in the book "The Big Player" by KenUston. "When Hull played blackjack, he saw it not as a risk-taking endeavor...
Platform, puzzle Epyx Jungle Hunt 1984 Side scroller Atari Atarisoft KenUston Blackjack/Poker 1983 Gambling Coleco Includes overlays for hand controllers...
Tatsuno, businessman and filmmaker Kevin Tsujihara, CEO, Warner Brothers KenUston, blackjack player, strategist, and author Keiko Agena, actress (Gilmore...
identified it as one of "the first 2 'how to' video game books" alongside KenUston's Mastering Pac-Man which came out the same year. Hirschfeld divides the...
mathematical prowess, and the card-counting method devised by American player KenUston to its advantage. In his first year of using the martingale, Andruet won...
card counters, a member of the Czechoslovakia team, and a companion to KenUston. She then moved on to 7-card stud and dated David Heyden. In 1996, Card...
Semyon became proficient at the game by reading KenUston's Mastering PAC-MAN. This led him to read Uston's other titles on blackjack, giving him an understanding...
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