James Grosjean
2006
Computer analyst and professional player and author of the classic Beyond Counting.
James Grosjean
James Grosjean started playing blackjack professionally while a graduate student in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Chicago. He happened to spot his first dealer hole card at a Three Card Poker game not long after, began running original analyses of how best to play the opportunity, and never looked back.
James Grosjean is the author of the professional hole-carder’s bible, Beyond Counting, which established for the first time the accurate edge and playing strategy for a number of hole carding plays and other professional gambling techniques. The book was published by Arnold Snyder’s RGE Publishing in 2000 with a $40 price tag. Today, used copies can be found on Amazon with prices ranging from $800 to $1200.
Grosjean has also worked with Keith Taft on a blackjack computer that was used in a casino situation where computer play was legal. Keith Taft, another member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame, called James Grosjean’s programming “brilliant.”
Like Tommy Hyland, James Grosjean has taken on serious legal battles with the casinos to establish the legal right to play with an advantage. After suffering false arrest at Caesars and Imperial Palace, he successfully sued both casinos and the Griffin Detective Agency. In fact, James Grosjean’s lawsuit was directly responsible for bankrupting the Griffin Agency and stopping them from libeling other professional gamblers.
In 2007, Grosjean published an expanded edition of his book, Exhibit CAA: Beyond Counting. This book was privately published by Grosjean and made available to professional players that he personally knew or who were recommended by pros he knew.
This book can almost never be found available online or elsewhere, and when a copy becomes available, it will usually be offered for $4,000+ and it disappears quickly.