DAVID IRVINE of the MIT BLACKJACK TEAM
One of the Real Guys behind New Film “21”

By Len Sousa

Las Vegas, like Hollywood, is a city of lists. Get on the right one and you’ll be treated like a king. Get on the wrong list, and you’re in trouble. MIT alum David Irvine found himself on the wrong side of every Vegas casino, but it’s gotten him on a short list knocking at Hollywood’s door.

Irvine was a member of MIT’s infamous Blackjack Team, which according to some reports raked in over $10 million from various casinos across the country over a period of seven years. Their method was simple ~ but not for the simple-minded. Using an intricate card-counting system, Irvine would act as the “spotter” and count cards while playing blackjack at a gaming table. When the card count ratio reached the team’s favor (more high cards than low cards left in the shoe), Irvine would call over a more seasoned player ~ like his friend Mike Aponte ~ to bring in the big bucks.

It was perhaps only a matter of time before Irvine and the rest of the Blackjack team members were discovered and listed as “undesirables” by the casinos interested in keeping card counters out of their establishments. “They have a sheet on me,” Irvine confesses, but he claims he was never dragged into a back room and given the lead pipe treatment.

“Casinos definitely use strong arm tactics but they don’t actually physically accost you because they can get in big trouble for that,” he says laughing. “A lot of times they’re actually very polite about it. But sometimes, they’re not as polite.”

After retiring from gaming in the late ‘90s, Irvine joined Aponte in co-founding the Blackjack Institute in 2002. The company sells training kits and offers seminars that promise to teach customers the secrets behind the MIT team’s successful card counting technique.

“Blackjack is the only game you can beat legally,” Irvine explains. “It’s very unique in that respect. We don’t consider ourselves gamblers. If we were gamblers, we’d go play the slots.”

In recent months, the Blackjack Institute has expanded its training with the help of LightSpeedVT, a technology company specializing in online virtual training. The result has Irvine and Aponte teaching customers through a series of videos right on their home computers.

“The beauty of it being all on your computer is that we can track every single bet, every single card, how players react to it and how they play it, and see how they do week to week,” Irvine says. “We can show them what they need to work on more, what they’re really good at, and at the same time track against every other person who’s on the BlackjackVT system.”

While Irvine insists it should only take a relative novice two to three months and only 20 minutes a day to perfect card counting, some casino experts say that at least six months training plus several years’ experience at the tables are really needed to be any good. Ultimately, the key to card counting is concentration ~ something the hustle and bustle of casinos doesn’t easily afford.

But Irvine believes his company’s latest venture will give players the necessary tools. “The theory of card counting isn’t real complicated,” the former MIT student says, “but getting good at it takes a lot of practice and that’s what BlackjackVT is going to allow people to do.”

Having left the glamorous lights of Las Vegas behind them, Irvine and Aponte are now basking in the attention afforded by the recent Hollywood version of their story in the film 21, starring Kevin Spacey (in the film, Aponte’s character is called Fisher). Not to be outdone by Hollywood’s version, the duo is currently at work on two television projects, one a fictionalized drama series based on their lives, the other a blackjack reality series.

Asked if he still had any favorite casinos despite claiming to have retired from the game, Irvine bursts into laughter. “I should probably keep that a secret.”

LOCAL CONNECTIONS: MIT Blackjack Team member Jeffrey Ma was the basis for the main character in Ben Mezrich’s book Bringing DownThe House on which the film 21 is based. Ma is originally from Worcester and attended May Street Elementary and Forest Grove. He’s a co-founder of the popular sports fantasy website Protrade.com, where users can trade players like stocks. Ma’s father is a professor at WPI in the chemical engineering department and Ma’s mother was a nurse/anesthetist at Worcester Memorial Hospital. In the film, Jeff’s character is named Ben Campbell (it was Kevin Lewis in the book) and is played by actor Jim Sturgess.

Photo: David Irvine at a Blackjack Institute speaking engagement in San Francisco. Courtesy of www.blackjackinstitute.com