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Semyon Dukach

The MIT Blackjack Team had taken the casinos by storm when they first used the card counting techniques to win millions at casinos in the US as well as the other countries. It all started in 1979 when a short course on "How to gamble if you must" had been introduced in the college. Several students who had already been interested in the game attended the course to learn more about the card counting techniques.

The members of this early course soon formed their own team to test their knowledge in real life casinos. Though, they initially did not earn a lot at the casinos they still continued to play. It was only when J.P. Massar met Bill Kaplan that things changed for the MIT Team. Under the guidance of both, soon various teams were set up and these teams earned millions during the next ten years.

Short Bio

Semyon Dukach was a member of the MIT team and a professional player. He had played with the team Strategic Investments, which had been set up by John Chang, Bill Kaplan and Massar in 1992. Semyon later became the leader of the team and the founder of Amphibian Investments. This team's experiences were chronicled in the famous book Busting Vegas. The team was also referred to in the famous book, Bringing down the House which had later been made into the movie 21.

Life

Semyon Dukach had been the main character in the book, Busting Vegas. Another interesting fact is that he was the only member who had been referred to by his own name in the book. Dukach was born in 1968 in Moscow and had later moved to US. He studied at the Columbia University and later enrolled in MIT in 1993.

While Dukach had been in MIT, he had been recruited in the MIT team. He had been trained and coached to use the card counting techniques and had been made a member of the Strategic Investments team in 1992.

Semyon Dukach had been an important member of the MIT Team and had been greatly successful in the early years of the team. Once Strategic Investments ended, he still continued to play blackjack. He then formed his own team in 1994 with a few players which was named Amphibians Investments.

Other than the card counting techniques, Dukach's team also made use of various other advanced strategies and techniques like card sequencing. Dukach finally quite playing blackjack professionally towards the end of 1990s and since then he has not been very involved in the game.

However, Semyon has continued to speak at events and offers various courses and seminars to teach people the techniques that had been used by his team. He formed the Blackjack Science Company which coaches interested players in the blackjack techniques. Apart from blackjack, Semyon has also been a part of various other successful ventures over the years.