Scribd
Upload
9 views

Dresher 1964

Dresher, M., & Thorp, E. O. (1964). Beat the Dealer: A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One. Mathematics of Computation, 18(86), 331. doi:10.2307/2003323

Uploaded by

M M
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
9 views

Dresher 1964

Dresher, M., & Thorp, E. O. (1964). Beat the Dealer: A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One. Mathematics of Computation, 18(86), 331. doi:10.2307/2003323

Uploaded by

M M
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Review

Author(s): Melvin Dresher


Review by: Melvin Dresher
Source: Mathematics of Computation, Vol. 18, No. 86 (Apr., 1964), pp. 331-332
Published by: American Mathematical Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2003323
Accessed: 22-12-2015 02:28 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

American Mathematical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Mathematics of
Computation.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 129.16.69.49 on Tue, 22 Dec 2015 02:28:58 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
REVIEWS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF TABLES AND BOOKS 331

the concept of a norm, an effective notation for particular types of matrices, and
the so-called K6nig ratio and its generalizations. The emphasis throughout is on
matrix problems, and presumably much of this material will be developed in
greater detail in his forthcoming book on matrices.
D. S.

46[K].-A. E. SARHAN & B. G. GREENBERG,editors, Contributions to Order Sta-


tistics, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1962, xxv + 482 p., 24 cm. Price
$11.25.
If the random observations Xi , X2, x,, of a sample drawn from a continuous
population are arranged in ascending order of magnitude, X(1) ? X(2) < ...< X(n)
theni we have the order statistics of the sample and X(i) is called the ith order
statistic. Order statistics are inherently much more informative than the ordinary
random sample alone, and therefore have considerable practical value. It is prob-
ably for this reason that within the last fifteen years there has occurred a rather
large-scale attack on the theory of order statistics.
Interest in order statistics runs high. For example, are the least or greatest
values, or both, "outliers" which perhaps should be discarded? What are the dis-
tribution properties of the order statistics and how efficient are the order statistics
(in particular, various linear combinations of them) in estimating population
parameters? The great, practical point regarding order statistics is that computa-
tions involved in their use are rather minimal compared to that for the "most
efficient" statistics, while the loss in efficiency is not very significant.
The present volume brings together the more pertient theoretical background,
applications, and tables required to use order statistics. Indeed, it provides a very
worthwhile manual, which is sorely needed at the present state of progress in this
area of Mathematical Statistics. As examples of topics covered, we mention in
particular the exact and approximate distributions and moments of order statistics
from normal, exponential and gamma populations, the range X(n) - X(1), best
linear estimates of population parameters, theory and applications of extreme values,
tests for suspected outlying observations, the maximum variance ratio for several
independent samples, multiple-decision and multiple-comparison techniques for
ranking treatment means, optimum grouping and spacing of observations, short-cut
tests, and tolerance regioIns.From this list alone, we get a general idea concerning the
over-all value of the book as a welcome addition to the statistical library. The
editors of the book are to be congratulated for a job well done.
FRANK E. GRUBBS
Ballistic Research Laboratories
Aberdeen, Maryland

47[K, X]. EDWARD0. THORP, Beat the Dealer: A Winning Strategy for the
Game of Twenty-One,Random House, New York, 1962, xiii + 236 p., 21 cm.
Price $4.95.
Although volumes have been written about blackjack, the first mathematical
attempt to obtain an optimal strategy was made in 1956 by Baldwin, Cantey,
Maisch, and McDermott. To simplify the computations, they assumed that all

This content downloaded from 129.16.69.49 on Tue, 22 Dec 2015 02:28:58 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
332 REVIEWS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF TABLES AND BOOKS

hands were dealt from a complete shuffled deck. As the game is actually played,
however, the later hands come from a decreasing deck. Thus, the probability of
winning and the optimal strategy should fluctuate. Further, the player should
have the advantage frequently. Using an IBM 704, the author computed, as a
function of the cards in the depleted deck, the situations when the player has the
advantage.
The book begins with a discussion of the rules of the game and then proceeds
to describe the optimal strategy as a function of the amount of information (the
cards depleted from deck) the player is able to remember. If no information is
remembered, the optimal strategy yields 0.21 percent advantage to the casino.
However, keeping track of the fives, the player obtains an advantage of 3 percent.
If a player is able to keep track of more than four cards, tens and aces, he can
obtain an advantage which ranges from 4 to 15 percent.
The book contains an account of the author's successful test in Nevada. The
chapter on how to spot cheating is unique. The book also contains an appendix
giving the probabilities for hands dealt from a complete deck.
MELVIN DRESHER
The RAND Corporation
Santa Monica, California

48[L]. ROLIN F. BARRETT,Tables of Modified Struve Functions of OrdersZero and


Unity, MS of 55 typewritten sheets 8' x 11 in., deposited in the UMT File.
Following a one-page introduction, which gives the general definition of the
Struve functions, their expansions in both power series and asymptotic series,
and an outline of the contents of the tables, the author presents decimal approxima-
tions to Lo(x) and Ll(x) to 5 and 6S for x = 0.02(0.005) 4(0.05) 10(0.1) 19.2,
calculated by power series, and approximations to 2S, in floating-point form, for
x = 6(0.25) 59.50(0.5) 100, calculated by asymptotic series. All calculations were
performed on an IBM 650 at North Carolina State College, where the author is a
member of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
No bibliography is presented, and apparently no comparison of these data was
made with existing tables such as those of the National Bureau of Standards [1].
A single comparison with the latter tables revealed numerous last-place errors
(ranging up to 5 units) in the tables under review.
Apart from these discrepancies, the manuscript tables appear to be reliable,
and they supply tabular information corresponding to a range of the argument
extending considerably beyond that of previous tables of these functions.
J. W. W.
1. National Bureau of Standards, Tables of Functions and of Zeros of Functions, Applied
Mathematics Series, v. 37, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1954, p. 113-
119.

49 [L ].-AVNER FRIEDMAN, GeneralizedFunctions and Partial Differential Equations,


Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1963, xii + 340 p., 23 cm.
Price $10.00.
The main subject of this book by Avner Friedman is a somewhat specialized
topic in the theory of partial differential equations; namely, the Cauchy problem

This content downloaded from 129.16.69.49 on Tue, 22 Dec 2015 02:28:58 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy