Who Is Tommy Hyland?

Tommy Hyland is a famous blackjack player and card counter, and he's one of the original members of the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

But he doesn't work solo. Tommy Hyland has managed a team of card counters and professional blackjack players since 1979. Most blackjack card counting teams fall apart quickly because of the inevitable losing streaks. Hyland's teams manage to stay together because of his leadership abilities. According to former members of his blackjack teams, he is able to command loyalty and trust among the members of his blackjack teams. The Tommy Hyland blackjack team is considered the most successful blackjack team in the history of the game. (Making them possibly even more successful than the MIT blackjack team.)

Gambling, Tommy Hyland, And Card Games

Tommy Hyland has been gambling since he was a kid in New Jersey. His first bet was on a sporting event, but he and other kids he knew used to pitch coins against the wall. When he was eleven years old, he was winning nickels, dimes, and quarters from the other kids by practicing and becoming skilled at this simple schoolyard gambling game. He also played a number of sports, including basketball and golf.

In high school, Tommy Hyland got involved in sports betting, but he didn't just bet sports. He was the house, making his own parlay cards. He used parlay cards he'd get from his dad, but the payouts were so bad that he'd raise them to offer the other high school players a better deal. He also set his own spreads on high school football games, but he did so poorly at this that he had to sell his pool table to pay everyone off. That was the end of his career as a high school bookmaker.

Hyland played poker and other card games in college. He also played golf and wagered on that. And backgammon gambling was on the menu of activities too.

Blackjack and Card Counting

According to an interview he gave to Blackjack Forum, he started playing blackjack after being inspired by Lawrence Revere's Playing Blackjack as a Business. The 1979 blackjack team consisted of four players who each contributed $4000 to the endeavor. In those days, Atlantic City casinos offered blackjack with early surrender. A smart player knows the correct strategy to take advantage of this early surrender rule. In less than a year, this team's bankroll grew from the initial $16,000 to $50,000.

In 1994 the blackjack team had some members who were arrested for "ace sequencing" at the Casino Windsor in Canada. The judge in the case rules that ace sequencing, card counting, and team play were not cheating. (Intelligent strategy does not equal cheating.) Another famous blackjack player, Arnold Snyder, testified in the trial as an expert witness. He's a well-known blackjack expert.

You can read the account of the trial at Blackjack Forum online here, and an interview with Tommy Hyland from the same site here. (This interview is also found in Richard Munchkin's Gambling Wizards.) You can also read an interview with Tommy Hyland at the American Casino Guide here.