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An engineer in semi-conductor integrated circuits, Keith Taft first discovered blackjack in Reno, Nevada in 1969 and, having read several strategy books, embarked on a career as a card counter. Having experienced only limited success, he set about building a computing device, which he could wear on his person, to count cards for him. He trialled his initial, bulky prototype, which weighed in at 15lb, in Reno in 1972 but, after an initial run of success, lost his entire bankroll and gave up playing blackjack for a while.

Following the invention of the microchip, in 1976 Taft revisited the idea and created a smaller, slimline machine, built in a pocket calculator, which was easier to conceal. He was subsequently introduced to blackjack ‘guru’ Ken Uston and, together, they formed a professional blackjack team. In April, 1977, the team doubled its $50,000 bankroll with ten days but, having experienced some ‘heat’ in Las Vegas, subsequently relocated to Harvey’s Lake Tahoe, where a frightening experience with security staff caused the team to disband.

Nevertheless, Taft soon returned to blackjack, creating increasingly sophisticated, pioneering solutions, including shuffle tracking, networking and digital photography, until his team – which included his brother Ted and son Marty – were arrested and imprisoned after being caught at the Marina, now part of the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas in 1985. Hailed as a pioneer, Taft was inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame in 2004.

Justin Bonomo, known online as ‘ZeeJustin’, has the distinction of being the highest earning poker player, in terms of live tournament play, in history. At the last count, Bonomo had amassed $45 million in total live earnings, approximately $3.1 million ahead of his nearest rival, Daniel Negreanu. He owes his position in the all-time money list, in large part, to the $10 million he collected for winning the World Series of Poker (WSOP) The Big One for One Drop at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas in July, 2018. However, the previous month he had already won his second WSOP bracelet in the Heads Up Championship at the same venue and, in the year as a whole, won nine tournaments and earned over $25 million.

Born in Fairfax, Virginia in 1985, Justin Bonomo graduated to online poker from ‘Magic: The Gathering’ in his teenage years, but enjoyed a breakthrough in 2005 when, at the age of 19, he cashed for €31,500, or $40,815, for a fourth-place in the European Poker Tour (EPT) French Open at Casino Barriere de Deauville. Subsequently banned by PartyPoker for operating multiple accounts, Bonomo won his first WSOP bracelet in 2014 and has been a regular participant on the ‘high roller’ poker circuit ever since.