MIT Blackjack Team Shares Tips, Stories
By Kathryn M. O'Neill in MIT AlumniMIT’s Endicott House was recently featured in MIT’s Slice (alum.mit.edu), which covered a reunion event where five former members of the MIT Blackjack Team gathered at the Dedham estate to share real‑life stories behind their high‑stakes card‑counting exploits and the movies they inspired. The article highlights how Jon Hirschtick ’83, Semyon Dukach SM ’93, Deborah Lapides, John Chang ’79, and Laurie Chang reflected on the team’s mathematical edge, strict discipline, and business‑like structure, drawing lessons about risk, teamwork, and strategy for an audience of MIT alumni and guests. Read an excerpt of the article below:
Former members of the MIT Blackjack Team—“the team that proved that brains can, in fact, beat the house,” as Jon Hirschtick ’83, SM ’83 says—reunited at MIT Endicott House in Dedham, Massachusetts, recently to share some of the real-life stories behind such movies as Breaking Vegas. Active mostly in the ’80s and ’90s, the blackjack players credited mathematics, discipline, and teamwork for creating a winning enterprise. Among the takeaways? One small purse can hold $70,000.
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