Advanced Mathematics for Fun and Profit

“Some guys have all the luck,” croons the dejected Rod Stewart. At Harvard, one lucky man makes his own.

Life Science 1a professor David R. Liu ’94 began counting cards in high school and soon mastered the game of blackjack. By keeping running indexes of revealed cards in his head, Liu gains a long-term mathematical advantage over the house. And by greatly increasing his chances of winning, Liu has aroused the ire of some powerful casino bosses.

“I was barred from playing at a well-known Las Vegas casino,” Liu writes in an e-mail, “This happened several years ago, however, and it’s entirely possible that the casinos won’t know or care if I return.” Indeed, Liu seems out of the pit bosses’ reach here at Harvard. “I’ve certainly never seen any gambling goons with baseball bats come around the lab looking to get even,” said Brian N. Tse, a 4th year grad student and Liu’s advisee.

But even if Liu says he doesn’t need to worry about “a large, one-eyed man named Vinnie” breaking his thumbs for counting cards, the gambling life has its downsides. “Quite a few times,” Liu says, he has had to “sit in a chair for 15 hours straight, fed only by cranberry juice...while a small army of chain-smokers shares their carcinogens.”

But even if Liu’s card counting doesn’t win him glory, his teaching skills have earned him some enthusiastic fans. “I love that guy; he’s a flipping genius,” says Andrew D. Wong ’09, a fall-semester Life Science 1A student. “I want to have his babies.”

A job offer as Rod Stewart’s life coach is pending.