About the MIT Blackjack Team and the Blackjack Institute

From Blackjack Theory to an MIT Student Team

The Blackjack Institute was founded by leaders of the MIT student Blackjack Club, a group associated with applying blackjack theory through a structured training approach. The team’s story, as presented by the Institute, begins with the idea that blackjack could be beaten over the long run through card counting.

The account traces that idea to MIT professor Edward Thorp in 1959. Thorp believed that it was possible to gain an advantage over the house in blackjack. After analysis and computer simulations, he developed a method based on counting cards. In 1962, he published Beat the Dealer, revealing card counting to a wider audience.

Although the publication drew attention to blackjack as a game that could potentially be beaten, the Institute noted that most blackjack players did not succeed over the long run. Its approach emphasized that knowledge of theory alone was not enough; training and coordinated execution were also important.

The MIT Student Blackjack Club

In the summer of 1994, a group of MIT students was secretly recruited to test blackjack theory alongside newly developed training methods. Drawing on previous experience and a new training approach, the group began playing in casinos. This marked the beginning of the run of the MIT student Blackjack Club.

According to the Institute’s account, the team went on to win millions and became widely known for its casino play. The group’s exploits were chronicled in Ben Mezrich’s bestselling book Bringing Down the House. The Institute described its own system as an effort to make the team’s training methods available to the public.

Blackjack Institute Team Members

• Mike Aponte was a co-founder of the Blackjack Institute and one of the main characters in Bringing Down the House. His blackjack career began in 1992 while he was a student at MIT. He became one of the team’s leading “Big Players” and money winners, later serving as one of its managers and contributing both inside and outside casinos. In 2004, he won the championship in the first World Series of Blackjack.

• Mr. J was a co-founder of the Blackjack Institute and a former member of the MIT student Blackjack Club. Recruited by Mike as an MIT undergraduate, he played for the team for five years and developed his blackjack skills while playing in casinos around the country. He earned a master’s degree in biological engineering from Cornell and an MBA from Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management. He also owned an engineering consulting company.

• Johnny C served as a technical expert for the Blackjack Institute and had more than 20 years of professional blackjack experience. He began studying blackjack at MIT through a thesis titled Win/Loss Distributions in Blackjack. Beginning his professional career in 1982, he became known as an advanced strategy player. In 1994, he brought together the team of MIT students featured in Bringing Down the House.

A Training-Based Approach

The Institute presented blackjack success as the result of more than simply knowing that card counting exists. Its account linked the MIT team’s results to a combination of established blackjack knowledge, intensive preparation, newly developed training methods, and organized team play. The Institute’s founders positioned their work as a way to share the system developed through that experience.