Don Schlesinger
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Donald "Don" Schlesinger is a gaming mathematician, author, lecturer, and player who specializes in the casino game of blackjack. His work in the field has spanned almost three 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 to date.
Schlesinger was born in New York City and graduated from the City College of New York (CCNY) with a B.S. degree in mathematics. In addition, he holds M.A. and M.Phil. degrees in French from the City University of New York. 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. 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 leading edge research into optimal betting, camouflage, risk analysis, team play, and card counting systems comparison. He is most well known for the "Illustrious 18," an abridged set of the most efficient card counting indices, the "Floating Advantage," and the SCORE concept of games and systems comparison, as well as elaborating on the concept of back counting.
Schlesinger has edited, consulted and/or collaborated with many of the leading Blackjack analysts, programmers, and authors, including Stanford Wong, Edward O. Thorp, Peter Griffin, Arnold Snyder, Karel Janecek, John Auston and Norm Wattenberger. His work extends to Spanish 21, where he is a mentor to Katarina Walker. In addition, he has contributed to many different issues of the aficionado magazine Blackjack Forum. Currently, he hosts a blackjack forum called Don's Domain.
Don Schlesinger is married with two children and lives in a suburb of New York City.
