Tommy Hyland

The very famous and reputed blackjack player Tommy Hyland is one of the initial members adorning the Blackjack Hall of Fame. Tommy is also an excellent card counter.

Hyland has a team that comprises of card counters and blackjack players. Losing streaks lead to the breaking up of most teams, but Hyland's abilities of leading has managed to keep his team together since 1979. His team of blackjack players is probably one of the most successful teams ever, probably beating even the MIT blackjack team. Hyland commands loyalty and trust from his team members, and that is what keeps them together.

Tommy Hyland's abilities of gambling:

Gambling since Tommy Hyland was a kid, his first wager was on a game where his friends and he used to throw coins at a wall. By eleven, Tommy was almost a professional in this game and won money from his friends. Hyland was also a basketball and golf player.

Hyland was involved in betting during his high school stint, where he used his father's parlay cards and raised the bets on them. However, he fared poorly on these bets and lost out. He had to sell off his pool table to pay off the debts incurred. Tommy Hyland also wagered on games of football, as well as on games of golf.

In college, Tommy Hyland was a poker player. He also indulged in various other games that involved cards. Golf, backgammon, football, and other such games, were his wagering games.

Tommy Hyland's blackjack games:

Blackjack Forum interviewed Tommy Hyland, and according to it, Playing Blackjack as a Business, a book by Revere, was what had inspired Tommy Hyland to begin playing blackjack. His blackjack team of the year 1979 boasted of only four players who gave $4000 each. The Atlantic City casinos then had the early surrender rule in blackjack games and efficient players knew how to use that to their advantage. By the end of the year, the team's initial $16,000 grew to a large $50,000.

Tommy Hyland's blackjack team of 1994 had a few members who were accused of something known as "ace sequencing" in the Casino Windsor in Canada, which was later on ruled as not cheating, but merely clever strategizing. Even Arnold Snyder, a professional blackjack player, testified for the release of the team members of Tommy Hyland's team.