Kenneth Senzo Usui (Ken Uston) was born in New York City on January 12th 1935. Uston is arguably the most well known blackjack player in the world depending on who you’re asking. Before playing blackjack Ken graduated from Yale University and also received an MBA at Harvard University. Just like most players in the blackjack world, Uston was a very intelligent man.
Uston spent several years of his life moving up the chain in the corporate world, but working a 9-5 job wasn’t what he wanted to do his entire life. Eventually, Ken started going to casinos on the weekends where he would play blackjack. Ken Uston was always known as a master card counter around the blackjack tables and wasn’t afraid to let people know about his style.
Gambling in Atlantic City wasn’t legal until 1978, but once it became legal Uston moved to the city and started playing blackjack full-time. It didn’t take long for Uston to form a blackjack team and once he assembled the players they started making massive amounts of money. Team play was a huge success at the blackjack tables around the world and it would have never become so popular if it wasn’t for Ken Uston.
After only a year in Atlantic City many of the casinos had started targeting Uston and banning him from their casinos, but this didn’t stop Uston. Ken decided that he was going to sue the casino that barred him and he ended up winning the lawsuit. All casinos in Atlantic City aren’t allowed to ban a player because they’re skilled to this day and it’s all because of Uston deciding to sue the casinos.
While Ken was making millions from playing team blackjack with different groups he also loved playing video games. One of his favourite video games was Pacman which he also mastered. It seemed that anything Uston wanted to do he could do. Ken also has a great flare for writing and has written several best selling books on the New York Times list.
One of his best selling books was titled “Million Dollar Blackjack” shows people the ideas and concepts behind team play. It also goes through many different systems on how player’s can gain an edge playing the game. This book is really old nowadays and a bit outdated, but if you want to learn more about team play then this is a great book to read. Uston has written several other blackjack books and has also written books about video games and computers.
Ken is not only known as a famous blackjack player for his strategies, but also because he was a master of disguise. While Uston was being barred from casinos around the United States he would come up with elaborate costumes so he could sneak into casinos and play. Ken passed away in 1987 from heart failure, but we’ll never forget what he did for the world of blackjack. The game would definitely not be what it is today without the contributions from Ken Uston and several other famous blackjack players.