Dubbed as “The Master of Blackjack,” Ken Uston is considered by many people as the most famous blackjack player of all time. He was born in January 12, 1935 and as a teenager, he was certified a genius, with an IQ of 169. He started studying at Yale at 16 and got his MBA from Harvard. Ironically, it was his brains that made him the blackjack player that he was.

Yet Ken Uston was not always a blackjack player. In fact, he lived a life as mundane as the next person. Well maybe not exactly as the average person. After he got his MBA, he started off his career and went on to join the rat race and climb the corporate ladder. Eventually, Kenny – as his friends called him – became the Vice President of the Pacific Stock Exchange in San Francisco, California. He had achieved the dreams of many young men. In the eyes of others, he was a made man.

Along the way, Kenny Uston developed a taste for blackjack. This is really no surprise as blackjack is a game of mathematics and skill anyway. Perhaps the precision and numbers involved in the game appealed to his math-oriented mind. Anyhow, in 1973, he was introduced to Al Francesco by a girl he was then dating. Al Francesco is known as the father of the team play concept. It was from this man that Ken learned to count cards. The blackjack bug then bit him and unbelievably – or perhaps understandably, depending on your perspective – he quit his day job to join Francesco’s team and be a professional blackjack player.

He didn’t really make a name for himself while in Francesco’s team, though. In fact, more often than not, he found himself only breaking even! However, in 1976, gambling was legalized in Atlantic City. Ken then moved there and made it his base of operations. By then he had his card counting techniques down pat. Ironically, his skill got him barred from most of the casinos! His high IQ applied to his blackjack playing techniques was such that the casinos found themselves losing a lot of money. Kenny fought back though and took them to court. Surprisingly, the courts ruled in favor of Kenny. However, the casinos armed themselves and laid down measures to make it much more difficult for skilled players to win.

Ken Uston created more controversy in 1977 when he turned author and wrote the book The Big Player. In this book, he stirred up a hornet’s nest by exposing secrets that Al Francesco’s group had. As a result, a large part of the blackjack player community saw him in a different light and condemned Ken. More importantly, the book caused a rift to develop between Ken and Al. However, more objective people stated that the book was instrumental in how blackjack players looked at the game as a whole and that it brought about positive things to the game. As a matter of fact, three of the best and most popular blackjack teams were established a year after The Big Player was published. These teams were the MIT Team, the Tommy Hyland Team, and the Czech Team.