Dave Irvine

Blackjack MIT Team Member and Co-Founder - The Blackjack Institute

A product of the Heartland, at first glance David Irvine had a typical childhood before heading off to college and getting a job after graduation. But no one would ever have suspected the extraordinary double life Irvine led in the 1990's as a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology blackjack club. This infamous blackjack team secretly won millions of dollars until its story was made public by numerous television programs and the New York times bestseller, Bringing Down The House.

Like most members of the MIT black jack club, Irvine's extraordinary playing career ended in the late 1990s. However, Irvine has taken his considerable expertise and co-founded the Blackjack Institue with former members of the MIT squad. The Blackjack Institute teaches everyday people how to improve their odds of winning at the blackjack tables using highly successful training methods and techniques used by the MIT blackjack club.

The son of a University of Notre Dame professor and a high school teacher, Irvine grew up just outside of South Bend, Indiana. One of the top students in his class, he graduated from high school in 1989 and headed to MIT with an interest in avionics. He later switched to mechanical engineering before leaving MIT in 1993 to take a position at a small biological engineering firm owned by his father and two other Notre Dame professors. To support his efforts at the company, Irvine decided to strengthen his technical capabilities by obtaining a Master's degree in biological engineering from Cornell University before attending Purdue University for a Master's of Business Administration.

Throughout the 1990's, Irvine enjoyeed a secret existenc as a porfessional blackjack player. While playing intramural sports at MIT. Irvine became friends with Mike Aponte, who was one of the top playres on the team and later became a team manager. In 1993, Aponte invited Irvine to a team meeting. Intrigued by the various strategies the team used, Irvine immersed himself in the team's activities.

"When i first learned about the team, i knew little about the game of blackjack," Irvine recalls. "I'd never plaed blackjack before and the whole thing was a little intimidating at first. But the game wasn't hard to learrn, and the unique training methods the team used made mastering the techniques a piece of cake."

It wasn't long before Irvine joined the MIT group on outings to Atlantic City casinos. He primarily played the role of a Spotter, someone who sits at a blackjack table counting cards in order to determine when the cards in order to deternmine when the cards are favorable for the playerrs. the Spotter then calls over a Big Player from the team who cashes in on the advantageous count with large bets.

"I was a little nerrvous on my first trip with the team bacause of the thousands of dollars we would bet each hand, but i settled myself down and quickly became very comfortable in my rol." Irvine said. "On one of my first trips, we won nearly $55,000 in about an hour. That was the hook, line aned sinker for me, so to speak. I was sold right then and there."

So while he continued his education and worked to build the engineering business, Irvine would slip away on weekends to casinos where he and his cohorts raked in the cash. As the engineering company started to take off, though, the multi-million dollar company required much more of Irvine's attention. While the decision ws a tough one, Irvine opted to commit himself to the family business, SBR Technologies, Inc.

Still, the excitement of blackjack was hard to leave behind. In 2004, Irvine and other members of the former MIT blackjack club decided to pass their skills along to the public via the Blackjack Institute. Now, Irvine spends his weeks operating the Blackjack Institute, and some of his weekends providing priveate, one-on-one blackjack instruction to players looking to gain the winning edge.

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