The Four Horsemen of Blackjack

In 1957 a smart players had the time of their lives.

Blackjack was put under a new situation where players had finally the tools to make smart moves.

What do you get when you mix together the wisdom of four men, some free time spanning over two years, and some army calculators from 1950's?
You get a winning combination.

Roger Baldwin, Wilbert Cantey, Herbert Maisel and James McDermott were army buddies in the 1950's and all of them were equipped with great math skills. After becoming bored with poker they decided to delve into blackjack and became intrigued with the idea of finding the optimal way to play the game.

This was time before computers. Every calculation had to be done manually with simple calculators of that time. By 1956 their task was complete and they published the first accurate blackjack strategy article in the Journal of the American Statistical Association.

A year later a book followed - Playing Blackjack to Win.

Newer version of the book is still sold today.


Sadly, the book or the game itself didn't make the authors rich. But it made them famous.

Roger Baldwin, Wilbert Cantey, Herbert Maisel and James McDermott were included in the Blackjack Hall of Fame in 2008.

Aha very interesting,.... gonna have to check the book out😎👍

Worth mentioning, their book included the 1st "Basic Strategy" chart ever, the one still used today.

What is also interesting is that the background story did not reveal why these men were given this nickname? I know that it originates from Bible which begs the question, were they portrayed as the end of blackjack?

Personally, whenever multiple horsemen are mentioned I tend to remember these 3+3 guys

Very interesting. So four men pooled their wisdom and wrote a book on how to beat the casino game blackjack? Have to check it out soon.

Sunz of Beaches said:

So four men pooled their wisdom and wrote a book on how to beat the casino game blackjack?

Click to expand...

I don't think writing a book was their initial goal
I assume they were more intrigued and driven to find a way to "beat the game" so to speak.

Tero said:

I don't think writing a book was their initial goal
I assume they were more intrigued and driven to find a way to "beat the game" so to speak.

Click to expand...

Yes it makes a lot of sense and you are probably right about this. I assume they were not the only ones at that time that tried to find a way...