Games - Ken Uston

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Ken Uston was a famous blackjack player who became notorious for using card counting techniques to earn a windfall in casinos during the early 1970s.

Famed as a mathematics genius with an IQ of 169, Uston attended Yale University at the age of 16 and later got an MBA from Harvard University. He rapidly rose the corporate ladders to become the vice-president of the Pacific Stock Exchange in San Francisco.

He became fascinated by blackjack and joined a team that used card counting techniques to win consistently. After winning hundreds of thousands of dollars, Uston's team found itself effectively barred from playing in Las Vegas after having been blacklisted at most of the city's casinos.

Uston moved to Atlantic City when gambling was legalized in 1976, although he was soon barred from playing at that location as well as at most other casinos in the world. He filed suit against Resorts International, claiming that casinos do not have the right to bar skilled players. In Uston v. Resorts International Hotel Inc., 445 A.2d 370 (N.J. 1982), the New Jersey State Supreme Court ruled that Atlantic City casinos did not have the authority to decide whether skilled players could be barred. To date, Atlantic City casinos are not allowed to bar card counters. Many skilled blackjack players argue that Uston's legal victory actually worsened blackjack in Atlantic City because casinos responded to the court ruling by adding decks, moving up the shuffle point, and taking other measures to decrease the skilled player's potential advantage.

Uston is the author of the book Million Dollar Blackjack (ISBN 0897460685). It is considered to be one of the most definitive books on blackjack; it details simple and effective means of playing basic strategy and manipulating bets to achieve astonishing results. Uston authored another book, Ken Uston On Blackjack (ISBN 0942637569), also one of the most popular blackjack bestsellers today.

In the 1980s, Uston wrote several books about arcade games and home video games, including Mastering PAC-MAN (ISBN 0451118995) and Ken Uston's Guide to Buying and Beating the Home Video Games (ISBN 0451119010).

On September 19, 1987, Ken Uston, at age 52, was found dead in his rented apartment in Paris, apparently from a heart attack.

Uston, Ken

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