Stanford Wong is the nickname of the successful professional blackjack player John Ferguson, who was born in 1943 in Georgia, USA. At 12 years he began with the earning calculation and probabilities of blackjack, a real advance for his young age, although it was still too early to put it
into practice.
Wong graduated at Stanford University with a doctorate in statistics and finance. There is an interesting anecdote that says that his first nickname was “Nevada Smith” but knowing that another writer already used this name he decided to change it to “Stanford Wong” based on an Asian surname and on the university where studied. In addition to playing blackjack professionally, he dedicated to write books on the subject. In
1975, he published his first book “Professional BlackJack”, a book that still can be found in libraries around the world.
The term “wong” or “wonging” was a word taken by the players blackjack as synonymous for a blackjack technique in the decade of 80. This technique involved observing the game without risking money, without participating, until they prove that it was advantageous to start counting
cards, and then they bet. Due to the use of this technique some casinos stopped allowing the entry in the middle of a game already started.
In addition to his books and his achievements as a player, Wong has worked with well-known blackjack writers like Don Schlesinger and Ian Andersen and is one of the twelve members of the “Salon of the fame of blackjack”. Another important detail of his career is that he has been the
creator of the first software that analyzes blackjack hands, the “Blackjack Analyzer.”