Stanford Wong

While Stanford Wong may not have actually been born with that name, he's known the world over for it now. Born John Ferguson in 1943, Stanford Wong became famous for his incredible gambling strategy and ability. Legend has it that he first encountered and mastered tic tac toe at the age of six. By twelve, Stanford Wong was interested in blackjack and started to use an office calculator to figure out how the game worked. He became an expert at card counting and then had to wait patiently until he turned 21 to really get into the game that the high rollers were all enjoying.

Stanford Wong Joins the High Rollers

He began his professional gambling life in 1964 while he was still an undergraduate student at Stanford University. From there, he would get his PhD in Statistics from Stanford. Someone in his PhD program gave him the nickname "Stanford Wong" by taking the name of their university and the Asian last name to capture his mystical nature. Eventually, Stanford Wong joined the Stanford faculty and continued to work on his high rollers skills at gambling.

High Rollers Hone Their Skills

Eventually, Vegas blackjack changed its rule sand went from using a single deck to using four decks. All of the calculations that Stanford Wong had were no longer correct, and he needed to use more statistics to remain with the high rollers. He published his first book, Professional Blackjack, with his findings for the four deck game in 1975 and his success grew quickly. It has actually become one of the cornerstones of the blackjack industry and has even been called the "Bible of blackjack!"

Stanford Wong and His Many Successes

After this first success, Stanford Wong went on to many more high rollers successes. He has written more than half a dozen books on gambling strategies and he started a sports gambling website at sharpsportsbetting.com. He also has a blackjack website, of course, at bj21.com which provides all sorts of information about blackjack games around the world. Today, Stanford Wong no longer plays professional blackjack himself - he just writes about it and helps others to become the high rollers that they can be! Interestingly, he says that he no longer plays blackjack because he's mastered the game. He claims that you have to have a thirst to win and to be one of the high rollers, and he no longer has this thirst because he's already mastered this skill.

You Can Be Like Stanford Wong

It's amazing to see how Stanford Wong put his thoughtful research into action and became an international star. His books and his websites are a great resource for anyone who has that thirst and wants to master the games that Stanford Wong has always loved!