As a former Muscovite, he beat the casino and became a legendary investor in the US - ForumDaily
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As a former Muscovite, he beat the casino and became a legendary investor in the USA.

Semyon Dukach. Photos from your Facebook page

Recently, entrepreneur and professional blackjack player Semen Dukach launched venture fund One Way Ventures. Together with Evelyn Buchatsky, with whom Semyon managed the Boston accelerator TechStars, he aims to invest in projects based on immigrants, including Ukrainians.

As a student, Dukach came up with the first e-commerce protocol, created a number of successful Internet projects, and patented his software development. MC Today told the story of an entrepreneur.

Mathematics helped Dukach to learn to beat casinos, for several years he took more than one million dollars from gaming establishments all over the world. Having earned capital on gambling, Semyon admits that he does not like casinos and is confident that they bring a lot of harm to society. Now the former player has changed his outlook on many things and supports startups and charitable projects in different countries.

How to beat a casino

Dukach was born in 1968 in Moscow, in 11 years he moved to the USA with his parents. The first thing that interested the future casino thunderstorm in the States is video games and slot machines.

In Houston, where Semyon lived at that time with his parents, there was a little shop with a game of Pac-Man for 25 cents. But 25 cents was too much for a teenager. It became important for him to learn to play so well that he could play longer on these 25 cents. And Dukach went to the library to look for books on how to beat Pac-Man.

There he found a book in which he described in detail how to do it: draw, remember the movements of the players, repeat so, to the left, to the right, quickly, forward. Read, tried, practiced, learned. And I could play 25 cents until I get bored.

After school, Semyon entered Columbia University, and then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). There he learned to program cool, but he was bored with this occupation, and Dukach began to look for a way to make quick money.

In those years, the blackjack team at MIT won millions in casinos in the US and around the world. It all started in 1979, when the college introduced the short course “How to play, if needed”, where they talked about the methods of counting cards. Members of this course formed their own team to test their knowledge of mathematical modeling in real casinos. At first they earned a little, but continued to play and save up experience.

In 1993, Semyon Dukach entered MIT, joined the team and became a professional player. A year later, he headed his own - Amphibian investments. In addition to the card counting methods, the Dukach team used a variety of advanced strategies and game techniques. For example, they played more often when they gathered more than other players with big stakes: during major boxing matches, on the New Year and big holidays.

About the experience of these guys written a famous book "Strike casino" (Busting vegas) Ben Mezrich, he also became the basis for the film "21". By the way, Dukach is the only member of the team mentioned in the book under his own name.

To beat the casino is not an easy task. It was necessary to make up, play the fool and disguise themselves as simpletons who lose round sums for fun - the casinos do not like professional players and watch them carefully. In Las Vegas, Dukach felt smarter than anyone else: there were fools all around throwing out their money, and he easily earned it.

Semyon Dukach. Photos from your Facebook page

Take money from the rich

Dislike of the system came back in school. Everything he saw there was built on lies. Therefore, to beat the casino for Seeds was a kind of robingism - hack the system, earn a lot of money and be free.

At that time, he led a life of a successful person: he could work only a couple of hours a week, lived in a comfortable suburb, surf and was fond of tango. But over time, Dukach began to realize that this was a destructive road to nowhere.

Casino games have reached automatism and are no better than factory days. Tired of constant flights, the fear of being recognized, pretense and the feeling that you are making money out of thin air, which means they do not weigh anything.

Success gives you the feeling of your own omnipotence and it becomes easy to forget about the fragility of important things. Semyon broke up with his first wife, with whom he had been together since poor times at Columbia University. Then he will recall with regret that he absolutely did not think how it will affect the children.

Dukach stopped playing, but continued to speak at events and hold seminars, teaching people the methods of his team. He created a company Blackjack Science Company on training blackjack players.

By the age of thirty, he was already rich and began to look for the meaning of life for himself - simply enjoying life turned out to be too boring.

Semyon became interested in the program of social adaptation of difficult teenagers, but, having gotten to know her better, he quickly became disillusioned. In fact, the children there were deceived without giving any actual help.

The next hobby was an attempt to alleviate the lives of the poor in Tanzania, where the economy is controlled by a small layer of people and democracy does not work. Whatever you donate to the poor, the rich will take it away, and the poor will remain poor. Dukach worked to enable people to earn money that will belong to them. But this story ended with time.

Life as a venture capitalist

In 1997, Dukach founded his first software development company. Fast engines, and already in the 2000 year, sold it for 35 million dollars, having lost by that time most of the state. In 2002, he acquired SMTP, which was the main cloud provider for email delivery. Over the years, he has led dozens of companies, supported about 75 projects around the world in the role of an angel investor, 5 of them in Ukraine. Including he invested in a company founded by Ukrainians Petcube, about which ForumDaily wrote earlier.

By the way, Semyon has a close relationship with Ukraine: here in the Odessa train Chernomorets he met his second wife, Natasha. From time to time he comes to Ukraine to consult projects and family affairs.

Dukach also instituted a prize Troublemaker, which receive people carrying into the world "positive craziness." This year, its owner was the Ukrainian Rufer Mustang.

Today, Semyon Dukach is a founding partner. One way ventures. Together with Evelyn Buchatsky, with whom Dukach managed the Boston Techstars, he aims to invest in projects based on immigrants. Starting and promoting a startup requires diligence and bold ambitions, as well as emigration to a foreign country to start a new life. Dukach and Buchatsky in a joint interview for Forbes stated that in One way ventures (the name comes from the concept of "one way"- immigrants do not buy return tickets) believe in fundamental right of people to achieve success through their efforts and dedication, regardless of place of birth.

Semyon Dukach and Evelina Buchatsky. Photos from Seeds Dukach’s personal page on Facebook

“I still need to be someone needed. It's nice when the founders of the companies are somehow grateful to me and appreciate what I can do for them, ”admits Dukach.

Semyon felt by his own experience that meaninglessness is the most destructive form of evil. And now he is opposed to this not only by the example of his own life, but also by supporting other people in their aspirations.

The author material: Marianna Vishnevskaya

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