Notes from Ed Thorp

 

#	Note	What You Need to Know
1	Such total concentration	He would only pay attention to something in his visual field, with the result that his mother would end up yelling and have to get in his face, while he was reading, to get his attention.
2	Poor but valued books	They got him what they could - usually stuff way above his grade level
3	Ritherer swing shift at Douglas aircraft	That's how the narrator pronounced it - "riveter" is more like it
4	Josie the ritherer	after Rosie the riveter - his Mom's reputation
5	California test of mental maturity	They gave him a test to confirm he was okay to shift to the 7th grade and, without his knowledge, it was actually this test, instead of an achievement. And he scored the highest in history
6	Morse code training margin of safety	He got himself a tape-machine (cost three weeks wages from paper-delivery job) and kept upping the speed till he was at 21 wpm when the requirement was 13 wpm
7	Experiment with nitro	Used to make craters in sidewalks.
8	Subject sang to me	Talking about chemistry (I think) he mentions his background in experimentation, etc
9	Use two textbooks simultaneously	A good idea - what wasn't explained well in one book was explained well in the other one - he worked his way through two in prep for a big test
10	Aniline red	One gram can color 6 million grams of water - that's how strong it is
11	Misprints	A professor (at Berkeley?) offered rewards for mistakes and then retracted after Thorp found hundreds of errors
12	Berkhoff MacLaine survey of modern algebra	Garrett Birkhoff and Saunders Mac Lane - a classic "“We have tried throughout to express the conceptual background of the various definitions used. We have done this by illustrating each new term by as many familiar examples as possible. This seems especially important in an elementary text because it serves to emphasize the fact that the abstract concepts all arise from the analysis of concrete situations."
13	Mark Stewart gangster number two	Lost the reference :(
14	Manny Kimmel	The guy who bankrolled the validation of the beat the dealer concepts - from Kinney Parking Co to Waner Bros. Discovery ultimately - racketeering, bootlegging, etc..
15	Russell barnhardt magician	One of Thorp's wingmen during the blackjack exploits - you needed magicians to spot the sleight of hand used by the dealers to cheat (peek and second deal, etc - very hard to spot even when you knew they were doing it). Check out Russ's books if you can get your h on them!
16	Percy diaconis	Lost the reference - also a math guy and magician
17	Mickey McDougall danger in the cards	Another magician's guide to cheating employed by the establishment
18	Peek and deal second	A way of skipping top card and dealing the one below it
19	Yellow orange tint glasses	Used for spotting markings on cards - used by shady dealers
20	Griffin investigations photo gallery 1967 Beverly Robert	Griffin Investigations Inc is the premiere trusted leader in the gaming investigative field. Contracted on six continents, you can bet we live up to the prestige. We are the only gaming investigative service with actual investigators working in the field with decades of casino and game protection experience. Griffin Investigations has a massive online database that can be searched by using a multitude of sort criteria filters to expedite immediate recognition of subjects. We have been exposing cheaters and advantage players successfully since 1967, and we are world renowned for such triumphs as the more widely publicized MIT card counting team that was taken down exclusively by Griffin Investigations. Our expertise goes beyond our investigative resources and network of surveillance and gaming personnel, offering shadowing and support 24/7. When it comes to gaming investigative services, there are no others in our class. Trust the experts. Trust Griffin Investigations.
21	Ken euston senzo usu I	Ken Uston - Kenneth Senzo Usui (Million Dollar Blackjack, Buying and Beating the Home Video Games)
22	Big player	To beat the system, the card counters would signal a player to come to the table, when the advantage shifted from the house, so he could place the big bets he had already been placing at other tables (to avoid suspicion). As in, if one of those already at the table varied their bets, it would be suspicious
23	Peter griffin theory of blackjack	Like Beat the Dealer - about card counting - 20 years after BTD
24	Shannon a joy to work with	Shannon , with his treasury of intriguing information and ingenious ideas, was a joy to work with. Shannon had invented all kinds of contraptions and had a massive tool-box in his basement. Had even invented a coin-flipping device.
25	Kelly strategy	Optimal betting - bet sizing, etc
26	Ralph crouch NMSU	An outlier - an extrovert mathematician. Picked up card-counting quickly
27	Beat the market	About price-arbitrage in stock warrants - find cheap ones
28	Jay Regan	Someone who read BT Market and decided he wanted to work with Ed
29	Louis bachelier theory of option pricing	Stochastic analysis applied to finance - options valuation, etc - the father of it all
30	Greedy driving insincere smile eyes mock can’t trust him. Wife has a sad look	Vivian (Ed's wife) could smell a rat! How do you know he's greedy? From the way he drives. When he smiles, his eyes mock you - you can't trust him. And his wife has a sad look, so something isn't right Sure enough, that guy was a big time swindler, who, even after being caught, said, try and make me pay - it'll cost you. It's not worth it
31	Vonnegut heller	At a rich guy's house party, Heller says the one thing he has that the rich guy doesn't : The satisfaction of knowing I have enough
32	Jerry bamburger	Chain-smoling orthodox jew who joined Ed's team to try new arbitrage ideas
33	William Poundstone fortune’s formula	Related to the Kelly formula - about scientific betting - highly starred on AMZN - which is not very reliable - still, will plough through this one.
34	Bill gross pimco	Also someone who got his start by reading Beat the Dealer and made a living at the Blackjack tables before studying finance
25	Angus' reference for a job application	Ed thought it was neutral, but the folks told him it was the only positive one Angus Taylor had given ever. Sherwood/Taylor Calculus is a classic