Stanford Wong

Stanford Wong was born in John Ferguson. Research says his name wasn’t this and must have changed gradually but his love for games has always remained the same. When he was about six years old, he learned the rules for tic tac toe. While his friends were jumping right in and playing the game, Stanford was figuring out the best strategy. He never lost a game of tic tac toe. At the age of twelve, Stanford developed an interest in blackjack. He read numerous books on the subject and mastered the art of card counting. Then he just waited until he turned 21 to put his knowledge to practical use.

In 1964 while he was still doing his degree from Stanford University, he began gambling professionally. He would go on to attain a PhD in Statistics from Stanford and receive his well-known pseudonym in the process. A friend in the PhD program dubbed him Stanford Wong, taking his alma mater as the first name and an Asian last name to capture the “mystique of the Orient.” Wong became a member of the university’s faculty and continued to hone his skills at online gambling.

Working on an early college computer, he developed strategy numbers for four-deck blackjack games and published his first book, Professional Blackjack, in 1975. The success of the book was unquestionable. It has become the cornerstone of the blackjack industry and many have gone so far as to label it “the bible of blackjack.”

Wong has written these books dealing with various casino games. They include:

• Winning Without Counting (1980)
• Professional Video Poker (1991)
• Basic Blackjack (1992)
• Blackjack Secrets (1993)
• Sharp Sports Betting (2001)
• Wong on Dice

He started a sports gambling website (www.sharpsportsbetting.com) and remains a frequent contributor. He also runs a blackjack website (www.bj21.com) which provides a newsletter dealing with information about various blackjack games in online casinos in the United States and some other countries. But, surprisingly, Wong does not actively play blackjack professionally today.