Blackjack debut at Seminole Hard Rock
June 22, 2008 | blackjack strategy, land casinos, pop culture
Celebrities flock to The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Florida tonight to attend the debut of 71 new card tables, including about 55 for blackjack. This is the first time blackjack, one of the most popular casino games, will be legally played in Florida.
Blackjack is a banked card game, which means players compete against the house. Such games were illegal in the state of Florida until now. They are now allowed exclusively at the Seminole tribe’s seven Florida casinos under a deal signed in November by Gov. Charlie Crist and Seminole Tribe chairman Mitchell Cypress in November, 2007.
“With the introduction of Blackjack and the other card games, Las Vegas-style casinos will now be at the doorstep of the residents of Florida,” said James Allen, Seminole Gaming CEO. “Floridians won’t have to go to Las Vegas or Atlantic City to play their favorite casino games.”
Celebrity packed gala will include Miami Heat players Dwyane Wade and Alonzo Mourning; former Heat player Eddie Jones; former National Football League players Nat Moore, Bernie Kosar and O.J. McDuffie; actresses Carmen Electra, Heather Graham and Lorraine Bracco; and fighter Kimbo Slice.
The launch of Blackjack, Baccarat and several variations of poker, including Pai Gow Poker, Let It Ride and Three Card Poker grabbed attention of professional gamblers. In anticipation of the thousands of gamblers expected to try their hand at new card games, a pair of former students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are teaching a few blackjack players a way they might beat the house.
Mike Aponte, 37, of Los Angeles, and David Irvine, 37, of Naples, are famous for their card counting techniques that earned them millions, inspired book “Bringing down Vegas”, and film “21″, and made them most unwelcome in all Las Vegas casinos. Now, the pair banned to play in casinos turned to teaching others how to count cards.
In 2004 they opened The Blackjack Institute, offering Blackjack tutorials that sell for about $135 apiece to private tutoring sessions that cost $7,000. To date, the pair said they have taught about 250 students nationwide. Students identieties are highly protected as casinos can ban anyone it suspects is counting cards.
