Donald Schlesinger is a gaming mathematician, author, lecturer, player, and member of the

Blackjack Hall of Fame The Blackjack Hall of Fame honors the greatest blackjack experts, authors, and professional players in history. It was launched in 2002, and its physical premises are in San Diego County, California. History The Blackjack Hall of Fame is housed ...

who specializes in the

casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

game of

blackjack Blackjack (formerly black jack or ''vingt-un'') is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as " twenty-one ...

. His work in the field has spanned almost five decades. He is the author of the book ''Blackjack Attack - Playing the Pros' Way'', currently in its third edition, which is considered one of the most sophisticated theoretical and practical studies of the game ever written. In 2023 he and Dave Brolley coauthored, ''The Hi-Lo Card Counting System: A Complete Guide to Index Play''. Schlesinger was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and graduated from the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

(CCNY) with a B.S. degree in

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

. In addition, he holds M.A. and M.Phil. degrees in French from the

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

. Don began his professional life teaching mathematics and French in the New York City school system. In 1984, he changed professions and, until 1998, was a principal (executive director) at a Wall Street

investment bank Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources into something expected to gain value over time". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broade ...

. Since his retirement from the finance industry, he has devoted even more time to blackjack, in a researching, writing, teaching, and playing capacity. His contributions to the game include research into optimal betting, risk analysis, optimal back counting, Floating Advantage, camouflage and team play, He is most well known for: *Creating the Illustrious 18, an abridged set of the most efficient

card counting Card counting is a blackjack betting strategy, strategy used to determine whether the player or the dealer has an advantage on the next hand. Card counters try to overcome the casino house edge by keeping a running count of high and low valued c ...

indices mentioned in most card counting books published in the last 30 years.Blackwood, Kevin "Play Blackjack Like the Pros", 2005, Harper Collins, pages 18, 68-70, 85 *Creating DI (Desirability Index) and SCORE (Standard Comparison of Risk and Expectation), to optimally compare games under various scenarios. *Publication of the optimal blackjack composition-dependent basic strategy. Schlesinger has edited, consulted and/or collaborated with many of the leading blackjack analysts, programmers, and authors, including Stanford Wong,

Edward O. Thorp Edward Oakley Thorp (born August 14, 1932) is an American mathematics professor, author, hedge fund manager, and blackjack researcher. He pioneered the modern applications of probability theory, including the harnessing of very small correlatio ...

Peter Griffin Peter Löwenbräu Griffin Sr. ( né Justin Peter Griffin) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the American animated sitcom ''Family Guy''. He is voiced by the series' creator, Seth MacFarlane, and first appeared on television, a ...

Arnold Snyder Arnold Snyder ( 1960 – 6 June 2023) was a professional gambler and gambling author. He was elected by professional blackjack players as one of the seven original inductees into the Blackjack Hall of Famebr>�� hosted at Barona Casino – for hi ...

, Karel Janeček, John Auston, Katarina Walker, and Norm Wattenberger. In addition, he has contributed to many different issues of the aficionado magazine ''

Blackjack Forum ''Blackjack Forum'' was a trade journal for professional blackjack players, founded in 1981 and published by Arnold Snyder. Originally a 100-page quarterly journal, it expanded into an online forum which is frequented by professional gamblers, att ...

''.

References

External links

Don's Domain: Official membership site archiveGWAE interview podcastGWAE second interview podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schlesinger, Don American gambling writers American male non-fiction writers American blackjack players Writers from New York (state) Year of birth missing (living people) Living people