Lawrence Revere

Lawrence Revere (born Griffith K. Owens; November 5, 1915 – April 23, 1977[1]) was an author, casino pit boss, and professional blackjack player best known for his book Playing Blackjack as a Business. Revere played under multiple aliases, including Leonard "Speck" Parsons and Paul Mann.[2]

Education and personal life

Revere had a degree in mathematics from the University of Nebraska.[3]

He died of cancer on April 23, 1977.

Card counting

Revere promoted the following card counting strategies developed with Julian Braun, which were detailed in Playing Blackjack as a Business:

  • The Revere Point Count
  • The Revere Five Count Strategy
  • The Reverse Plus-Minus Strategy
  • The Ten Count Strategy

Revere Point Count was highly popular in the early days of counting and is still considered a benchmark strategy. His book only gave the single-deck version. He sold the multi-deck version and it is still sold decades later by relatives. He also sold high-level strategies referred to as Revere Advanced Point Count (RAPC.) These are now generally considered obsolete due to unnecessary complexity – although they are still valid and in use today.

Revere was a controversial figure as he worked both sides of the game at once (casino and player), advising both sides. But he was also known as a master of avoiding detection by casinos, and as an early proponent of composition-dependent strategy and floating advantage.[4] And he trained many of the early counters, some of whom use his strategies to this day.

References
  1. "United States Social Security Death Index". FamilySearch. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  2. "The Encyclopedia of Casino Twenty-One". blackjackreview.com. Retrieved 2011-09-03.
  3. "The official website of Lawrence Revere". reverebj.com. Retrieved 2011-12-03.
  4. Schlesinger, Donald "Blackjack Attack." 3rd edition, March 2, 2005, RGE Publishing.
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