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Name: Ken Uston
Born: January 12, 1935
Birth Place: New York City
Died: September 19, 1987
Blackjack has had its share of colorful and interesting characters, and when it comes to card players with analytical minds, blackjack has a bevy of professional players that easily make the mark. Ken Uston definitely belongs to this elite group of blackjack geniuses. In fact, he holds the reputation of being the most accomplished professional blackjack player. Uston has been the big thorn on the backs of casino operators.
Uston was a marked man in leading casinos, and in order to join in the action on the casino floor, Uston had to resort to all sorts of disguises. He is the author of several famous blackjack guides such as the “Million Dollar Blackjack,” the “Ken Uston on Blackjack” and “The Big Player.” Ken Uston is acknowledged as one of the topnotch blackjack players, and his most productive years were during the 70s and the 80s. Uston is known for his analytical mind, a mathematical genius who combined his talent with sheer hard work to become one of the best players that has ever played blackjack.
Ken Uston was born to parents who were immigrants of Austria and Japan. At an early age, Uston already exhibited an analytical mind and as a young man, he was able to earn an economics degree at Yale University. He pursued his post-graduate studies at Harvard University and earned an MBA degree. He immediately entered the business world and rapidly rose up the corporate ladder until he became the youngest executive to ever occupy the vice president position at the Pacific Stock Exchange.
One of the major milestones in Ken Uston’s career as a professional blackjack player was when he met Al Francesco. Ken Uston trained under the watchful eye of Francesco and later on became a member of his blackjack team. Francesco’s team of blackjack players was able to develop a scheme that would shift the odds on the blackjack table to their favor without being detected by casino dealers and security personnel.
Later on, Uston formed his own team of blackjack players and covered various casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas. His team also lent its expertise and went into a joint effort with a group of scientists based in California in the development of a computer named George. This highly sophisticated device was designed to give blackjack players a decided advantage while playing the card game. It is an extremely small device which can be placed inside the shoe of the player and is capable of a wide range of complicated mathematical computations that help determine the odds in a blackjack game. The device can give instructions to the blackjack player when to split, double, stand or hit.
The team of Uston was able to rake in millions of dollars in winnings using this portable device and card counting system. Ken Uston died in 1987 – he was 52 years old.
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