Al Franschezco is credited as the inventor of the team strategy where one player is tasked with making the big bets. And this concept of the big player doesn't stop at card-counting. Distracting the casino's attention from what's really going on by dividing up the work is a concept that has been reused endlessly in advantage play. Franschezco also understood that it wasn't good enough to take someone's word that they could count the cards. Some verification was required. So Blackjack teams have always utilized tests to ensure competence.

I had a friend who was in the statistical business statistics and he had met Al on an airplane and had given him my name. I said, well, give him my name. Unfortunately, my friend Jerry Johnson was killed at an automobile accident shortly after that. Unfortunately, so my connection with Al had really been broken, but somehow Al had kept my number and he called me about a year later and I went and met him. And then I had to take tests to join the team. And the first time I took the tests, I failed a number of the tests. My either my times for counting the cards were slower than they should have been or I made strategy errors. I was using the thought point count at that time and we had switched to the rear-revere advanced point count. And so it was a more difficult counting system. And so I immediately, my next trip, the Blackjack trip that I took, I switched and I was able to play, I played 20 hours using that counting system, came back and was able to pass the test to make the team.