Semyon Dukach Blackjack
Dec 29, 2010
By posting a comment, you agree to our terms and conditions. 11 responses to “Semyon Dukach, the MIT Blackjack King, Takes SMTP Public in Latest Effort to Fight the Power”. Prior to becoming a full-time angel, Semyon co-founded several technology companies including Vert and Fast Engines. Fast Engines was sold to Adero in 2000. Beyond startups, Semyon is known for leading one of the MIT blackjack teams in the early 90s. Semyon earned his B.S. From Columbia University and M.S. From MIT, both in Computer Science. The Amphibians were primarily led by Semyon Dukach, with Dukach as the big player, Katie Lilienkamp (a controller), and Andy Bloch (a spotter). The other team was the Reptiles, led by Mike Aponte, Manlio Lopez and Wes Atamian.
- Blackjack Career. While attending MIT, Dukach was trained as a player on the MIT Blackjack team whose exploits were loosely depicted in the Hollywood movie 21.At a young age he had developed an interest in video games and specifically Pac Man. Semyon became proficient at the game by reading Ken Uston's Mastering PAC-MAN.
- Semyon Dukach This Russian-born entrepreneur has always been open and willing to chat about his days as a member of the MIT Blackjack Team. Dukach has invested in several startups, like Fast Engines, which sold for more than $35 million.
Semyon Dukach made a name for himself by winning at blackjack, but now he directs a company called Terrafugia that builds flying cars.
Dukach was a member of the MIT Blackjack Team that used advanced card counting strategies to take Las Vegas casinos for tens of thousands of dollars in the mid-1980s. Dokach’s blackjack career went on to include participation in other blackjack card counting schemes, working with teams like Strategic Investments and later the Amphibians. He used his advanced blackjack strategy to win money in Vegas until the late 1990s.
Dukach still enjoys playing blackjack card games, but he is focusing his energies in other pursuits these days. Since setting aside his blackjack career, he has dabbled in virtual reality with IBM and has been involved in a number of software and internet products.
Now, it seems Dukach has a new passion – flying cars. In federal documents concerning millions of dollars in equity financing, Dukach is listed as one of three directors of aviation company Terrafugia, which focuses developing hybrid flying machines; basically, flying cars.
Earlier this year Terrafugia signed as a subcontractor on a $65-million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project to develop a four-person flying car, but the company is best known for their smaller flying vehicle called The Transition. It is a personal airplane with foldable wings that is just as comfortable driving down the road as it is flying through the clouds. The Transition went into small-scale production in September, and with a $10,000 reservation deposit, anyone can take a step towards owing a flying car of their very own.
Tags: Blackjack, Card counting, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Flying car, IBM, internet products, Las Vegas, member of Blackjack Team, MIT, MIT Blackjack Team, Semyon Dukach, Terrafugia, USD, virtual reality
Semyon Dukach Blackjack
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Semyon Dukach Blackjack Science
http://blackjackscience.com/seminars.html
Semyon Dukach was the founder and president of Amphibian Investments, the largest and most successful of the MIT blackjack teams. Banned from the casinos for winning too much money, he has trained and mentored over 100 successful MIT blackjack team players, including the ones on whom the characters in Bringing Down the House are based.
Mr. Dukach has an MS from MIT and a BS from Columbia. He was the founder and CEO of Fast Engines, an internet software company sold to Adero in 2000, and currently sits on the board of Vert Inc., and is a CEO mentor at the Cambridge Business Development Center. His current projects include running EMUmail, Inc., with offshoot sister sites SMTP.com and SendSimply, investing in start-ups, and, of course, running Blackjack Seminars.
In recent television appearances including ABC Primetime and in an interview on CNN, Semyon Dukach has vowed to share his knowledge about beating the casinos with a larger audience. On May 9, the History Channel released a two-hour feature on the development of the MIT Blackjack Teams, featuring Mr. Dukach as one of the key original players. Future TV spots will include a BBC special (date to be announced).