| Semyon Dukach | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 25, 1968 Moscow, Soviet Union |
| Alma mater | Columbia University Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Occupation | Professional blackjack player, entrepreneur |
| Known for | Member of Strategic Investments Founder of Amphibian Investments |
Semyon Dukach' is the CEO of SMTP, Inc., (OTCBB: SMTP) [1] and a former professional blackjack player with the MIT Blackjack Team[2]. He played with Strategic Investments and later was one of the founding members and team leaders on Amphibian Investments whose exploits were chronicled in Ben Mezrich’s Busting Vegas and referred to in Mezrich’s Bringing Down the House.
Dukach was the main character in Busting Vegas and the only member of the team to be referred to by his real name in either book. Born on the 25th of October 1968 in Moscow, Dukach moved to the US in 1979. He completed a BS in Computer Science at Columbia University in New York in 1990 and a MS in Computer Science at MIT in Boston in 1993.[3] While attending MIT, Dukach was trained as a player on the famous MIT Blackjack team whose exploits have been chronicled in the Hollywood movie 21. Starting out with Strategic Investments (SI) in 1992, Dukach was a major player on the team and enjoyed great success in those early years. After the end of the SI, Dukach continued to play with a few other team members.
At the end of 1994, Dukach and a few players split off and formed a second, independent team. This new team was referred to as the Amphibians and the team that they left was referred to as the Reptiles.
The Amphibians focused more heavily on more advanced playing strategies like card sequencing and steering while the Reptiles focused most of their playing time on card counting.[4]
Since stopping play in the late 1990s, Dukach's involvement in blackjack has been limited, although he does offer seminars teaching the techniques that were used by the Amphibians to prospective players today at Blackjack Science. He has also been involved in many other notable ventures outside of his blackjack career:
Dukach is the brother of Inna Dukach the opera singer married to Sean Altman, former front man of Rockapella.[11]