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Blackjack gives the house a low statistical advantage compared to other casino games. Beyond the basic strategy of when to hit and when to stand, individual players can use a combination of betting strategy, card tracking, and card counting to improve their odds. Since the early 1960s a large number of card counting schemes have been published, and casinos have adjusted the rules of play to counter the most popular methods.
The origin of the MIT Blackjack Team was a mini-course called 'How to Gamble if you Must', taught in January 1979 at MIT over what is known as 'Independent Activities Period' (IAP). A number of MIT students from a living group known as Conner III, who often played penny-ante poker with each other, attended this course and learned about blackjack and card counting methods.
Determined to put their newly-discovered knowledge to work, the group resolved to travel to Atlantic City in the spring of 1979 to win their fortunes. Failing miserably in this endeavor, the group went their separate ways when most of them graduated in May, but two members maintained an avid interest in card counting. These people decided to give their own IAP course on card counting in January 1980, and created a course-listing in the MIT Independent Activities Period Guide, published in early November of 1979.
In late November of 1979 a person known only as 'Dave', who claimed to have been a member of Ken Uston's Blackjack team, contacted the organizers, and proposed forming a team to travel down to Atlantic City and taken advantage of the New Jersey Casino Commission's recent ruling that made it illegal for the Atlantic City casino's to bar (that is, prevent from playing blackjack) card counters.
The team, consisting of four players and an investor who put up most of its $5000 in capital, went to Atlantic City in late December after weeks of intense training, and over the next few weeks doubled and then redoubled its capital.
This was the beginning of the actual MIT blackjack team. The team members held their January IAP course and recruited a number of additional MIT students as players. The team continued to play in Atlantic City with moderate success. In May of 1980, Dave was ousted from the group because of disagreements over whether certain shuffle-tracking techniques were mathematically correct or based on false hypotheses, as well as personality conflicts.