Do you know that feeling when you’re sitting at a blackjack table and the dealer keeps pulling blackjacks to himself out of nowhere? In the 1960s, a discrete mathematics professor named Edward Thorp discovered how to invert that situation. Edward O Thorp didn’t only beat the casinos.

Philip Dennis Ivey Jr. represents a fascinating case study in the world of casinos. Born in 1977 in Riverside, California, and raised in Roselle, New Jersey, Ivey developed a profound understanding of mathematical and psychological aspects of games of chance that transcends traditional gambling.