Thanks Xaston. I share your interest. I knew this card playing savant, Oswald Jacoby, who was vey accomplished at many things. He was America's most famous tournament bridge player and author of game books for decades. Jacoby wrote books on backgammon, bridge, poker, probability, and gin rummy. If you play any gin, get a library to get Jacoby's book on interlibrary loan. He had this giant trick mind and could do these incredible demonstrations.

I became a bridge Life Master when I was 26. Tournament bridge was a big deal back then. Anybody play bridge? The most fabulous, unbelievable, larger than life person I ever met was Oswald Jacoby, I appeared on TV in a bidding contest with Ossie and my Mother when I was very young. I'd watch him play and play against him. I watched him shoot dice and play gin (throw low and save dough was an article title}. He'd look once at his cards in bridge or gin, never sort them, and play them without ever looking back at them as fast as he could get the others to play. Each time he pulled a card without looking, it changed the arrangement.

He remembered hands for fifty years. Jacoby was the actuary for insurance companies making computer like calculations like Xaston's subject.

It was really weird because lots of bridge players are very smart. However, this one guy had a mind that it was impossible to understand. Many bridge players have incredible memories. When i was playing, I could remember every card played for three or four days in a bridge tournament. However, many people could do that, including some bad players. It is an acquired skill. I can't do it now. People would ask Jacoby about a hand in a tournament that happened thirty years ago and he could remember every card in every hand. People who had played against him would test this with questions.