The name of Peter Griffin is probably well-known by every blackjack player who considers himself to be the fan of this noble and exciting card game. He was honored posthumously as a member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame, and Griffin blackjack books proved everyone the fact his name had a right to stand at one level  with such magnificent and famous gurus of blackjack as Edward O. Thorp, Ken Uston, Arnold Snyder and others.

Who is he?

Peter Griffin was not a very experienced blackjack player by himself and he was not very interested in the game of blackjack itself. He was actually interested in the mathematics’ influence on gambling, and Peter had chosen blackjack as a card game for his researches.

Griffin was a mathematician by himself, a great mathematician indeed. In 1970, he went to Nevada for making a research in mathematics of gambling; it was the year of his “meeting” with blackjack actually. Griffin’s university proposed him to make a research on this topic, and in spite of many disappointments and losses that year, Peter did not give up blackjack and continued his analyses and researches.

What is he famous for then? Griffin blackjack books

Peter Griffin is widely known as the author who had written two great blackjack books: first of them was published in 1978 and was called The Theory of Blackjack: The Complete Card Counter’s Guide to the Casino Game of 21. This book is considered to be one of the most important on this topic, and it was second as for its popularity according to experts after Beat the Dealer (Edward O. Thorp is the author). Thorp himself called Griffin’s book to be a fundament of blackjack understanding, unusually written and pleasant to read.

The second Peter Griffin’s book was called Extra Stuff: Gambling Ramblings and it was published in 1991. Besides, Griffin was the author of many papers and articles on the topic of gambling and mathematics: these articles were published in different mathematical journals.

Isn’t blackjack the main interest of him?

Probably, it is strange to hear but blackjack was not the main passion of Peter Griffin as it could be thought at first. Yes, he was interested in gambling but not as a player but as a researcher: his bestseller books are the great proof of him as a wonderful author and a master of his business. The main passion of Peter was always teaching: he had been working as a professor of mathematics at California State University since 1965 till 1998 when he died because of cancer at the age of 61.