Blackjack Celebrities

The Four Horsemen of Aberdeen

In the 1950s, before the advent of modern computers, four US army servicemen developed the first widely known complete and optimal basic strategy for blackjack. Their strategy showed exactly how a blackjack player should act in every situation, and has been used as the foundation for today’s more advanced strategies, e.g. strategies that involve card counting.
The four army service men, Roger Baldwin, Wilbert Cantey, Herbert Maisel and James McDermott, was stationed in Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, where they used a simple desk calculator to figure out the math behind blackjack.

MIT Blackjack Team

The MIT Blackjack Team consisted of students and alumni from MIT, Harvard Business School, Harvard University, and other leading colleges in the United States. The team was active from the end of the 1970s through the beginning of the 21st century, with the exact member composition varying over the years. The MIT Blackjack Team used sophisticated strategies, including card counting, to successfully play blackjack at casinos.

The MIT Blackjack Team gained mainstream attention when the bestselling book "Bringing Down the House" by Ben Mezrich was published in 2025. Five years later, the book was turned into the movie "21" starring Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth and Laurence Fishburne.

Eleanore Dumont / Madame Mustache

In 1854, Eleanore Dumont rented a place on Broad Street in Nevada City, California and started offering the game of "Vigt-Et-Un" (the French name for 21). Her career in gambling lasted nearly 30 years and she became one of the legendary women of the Wild West. In the mid 1800s, Nevada was in the middle of a gold rush and miners from all over the area flocked to play at Dumont’s place. After closing her game for the night, she would – true to her French origins – uncork bottles of champagne and treat the losers. Many miners alleged that they would rather lose to the pretty and friendly Madame than win from someone else.