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Book Reviews: The Classic Blackjack Books

In 1978 when the first edition of this book was self-published, it contained my review and comment on every blackjack book in existence at that time. The same was true in the 1980s edition. Then, with the opening of the Atlantic City Casinos, the market for blackjack methods, information and instruction increased dramatically throughout the 1980s. In the 1990s, with the passing of the Federal Indian Gaming Act and States and Localities legalizing gaming to get in on the gravy train, the market for gambling information exploded. When the 1990s edition was published, there were around 50 blackjack books in print and many of them, mainly oriented to card counting methods, were just a rehash of many others. So I selected 27 for review and comment. Now, as this new millennium edition goes to press, there are close to 200 blackjack books in print, an impossible number for even the most experienced blackjack player to confront, not to mention the beginning players.

This growing list presents a serious problem to the many new blackjack players who seek more information about how to win. How does a player new to the game confront this many titles and choose one or more books that may be useful to him or her? You can get an idea of the scope of this problem by going to the amazon.com web site and entering keyword blackjack. You will be confronted by close to 200 titles as you scroll down the pages.

Regarding this morass of information, we are compelled to ask the question: Have there been that many breakthroughs in the game, that many new approaches to playing and winning, to justify this plethora of books published about just one casino game? My answer is a qualified no, and this conclusion is based on over 25 years as a player, author, system developer, instructor, and analytic observer. Most of these new books, and most books published over the last 15 years of the 20th century for that matter, contain rehashed data and, in my opinion, are not worth your time, let alone your money.

As an example of this plethora of blackjack books, and their usefulness or lack thereof, I will review one of the best selling card counting books: A book which simplifies the card counting process considerably for traditional players: Knock-out Blackjack by Olaf Ventura and Ken Fuchs. The book presents a one-level unbalanced count that obviates the use of a true count calculation for betting and playing the hands (the true count is a complicated method for factoring the remaining decks to play into the running count). But the book does not recognize the problems of betting up on losses into a low-card clump nor the fact that most counters do not play to the long term. For example, in the 2-deck game which Ventura conveniently selects to make his points , he states that a 1,000 unit bankroll, playing at about 100 hands per hour, would require 450 hours to double with less than a 1% chance of ruin. Ventura’s analysis also assumes a player advantage of 1.14% for this 2-deck game which assumes 75% penetration and a betting spread of 1 to 5.

All of these assumptions are, in my opinion, unrealistic in the real world of casino play beginning with the 100 per hands per hour assumption. There are few, if any, double-deck games even in Las Vegas where you can get that kind of volume. Even in a heads up game, if you approach that volume, the 75% penetration is an unrealistic assumption. Few games penetrate much over 2/3s of the two decks. A cut card marks the shuffle point in most two-deck games, so it’s not like the old days when a tip could buy you an extra round or two. Fifty to sixty hands an hour is usually the standard assumption in this kind of analysis. Assuming the 50 hands per hour figure to simplify the calculation, the time to double for his example now explodes to 900 hours which, of course, is unrealistic, because, as discussed earlier, most blackjack players simply do not play to the long-run. Moreover, Vancura’s conclusions in his favorable two-deck game do not factor in the lesser penetration, and the risk of getting barred.

Finally, using Ventura’s expectation calculation of 1% for the more common 6- and 8-deck games for a betting spread of 1 to 15 and 1 to 22 respectively, you begin to get an idea of the risks confronting traditional card counters in today’s game. Factor in the clumping in these games for the traditional player on a day trip or weekend trip, add to that the extreme difficulty of achieving the betting spreads noted and you begin to see where this evolution of blackjack systems and methods is ending up.

That 1 to 22 betting spread in the 8-deck game is unrealistic in his assumption of the 1% expectation. Can you imagine a jump from $5 to $110 from one hand to the next? Or from $25 to $550? The only factor holding down the risk of ruin with these kinds of assumptions is the extreme likelihood of getting barred, shuffled up on, or restricted to a flat bet by the casino pit personnel. I would estimate the true theoretical advantage in this kind of game at no more than 0.5% and that can quickly evaporate in the heat of casino play, especially so in an over-clumped game.

Classic Blackjack Books
Now let’s get to the list of classic blackjack books that I am recognizing for: (1) having one or more outstanding attributes (which I will list); or (2) having had significant impact on the game; i.e., have contributed to changes to the game by the casinos or to changes in the players’ playing methodologies; or (3) an interesting read and telling some great blackjack stories.

Some that I list may be out-of-print, but, with the availability of the major book retailers online, the online web sites specializing in gambling books, and the rare book stores online, these out-of-print books are accessible to any blackjack player who invests a little time to make the search.

These books can be considered as the blackjack classics. With two exceptions, they were all published before 1982. This year is significant and can be considered as the “timeline” in the evolution of blackjack systems and methods. There is no coincidence to the 1982 timeline as that was the year that everything changed in the world of blackjack. 1982 was the year Kenny Uston won his suit against Resorts which prevented the Atlantic City casinos from barring card counters, the year that 8-deck games were introduced, the year the elaborate shuffles and washes began to clump up the multi-deck blackjack games and make card counting obsolete in these games for all but the long-term card counters. 1982 was the year that the Research Pathway 2 was undertaken.

With two or three exceptions these classics were all originally published in the “good old days” when card counting worked in the shoe game. So listing them and reviewing them is a fitting way to end our discussion of the evolution of blackjack systems and methods.

By the way, although I believe the book you are reading now belongs on this list, I did not include it. I will leave that up to you, the reader.

Position 13
Wong, Stanford. Professional Blackjack. Pi Yee Press, 1994, paperback, $19.95. Originally published in 1978.

Reason for inclusion on list: Back-counting method – playing only on positive counts; good book for traditional players wanting to use the high/low count to play the hands

When this book was first published in 1977, it revolutionized the way card counting was employed to gain an advantage at the blackjack table. Prior to this book, the standard way to play was to sit down at a blackjack table, keep a running count of the cards, and make small bets when the count was low and the dealer had the advantage, and large bets when the count was high and the player had the advantage. Wong’s book changed this standard card counting procedure. His approach involved keeping a count behind the table without sitting down and therefore without playing any hands disadvantageous to the player. This method came to be called “back-counting” or “Wonging it.” The player entered the game only when he had the advantage, leaving once again when the count turned negative and favored the dealer. In this way the player was making flat bets and not following the usual up-and-down betting patterns of the typical counter.

It took the casinos two or three years to catch on to this method and implement countermeasures. In many cases the dealer is instructed to shuffle up or restrict the player’s bet size to table minimum until the shuffle. This countermeasure is usually taken only if a player is obviously standing behind the table, waiting for a high count to occur. In today’s games, many casinos simply bar mid-shoe entry which, essentially, eliminated the strategy and made it obsolete except for those traditional players who use the book as a reference for its many tables and matrices, keyed to the high/low count, showing how to play each blackjack hand according to the true count.

Position 12
Meadow, Barry. Blackjack Autumn – A True Tale Of Life, Death, and Splitting Tens In Winnemucca, Anaheim, CA: TR Publishing, 1999, hardback, $27.95.

Reason for inclusion on the list: The best description for what it’s like to operate as a solo professional blackjack player

Blackjack Autumn is a must read for any player who’s ever considered playing blackjack for a living. Publisher of a monthly horse racing newsletter and a casual but skilled card counter for over 20 years, Barry Meadow puts together an $8000 bankroll, arranges to take 60 days off from his business, and heads for Nevada with the objective of playing in every casino in the State. As you read further into this list you will realize that I like blackjack stories and Meadow has plenty to tell from his 60-day caper. And he tells them with charm and wit. Consider: “As I walk the floor of the Owl Club, I assess the situation. Here I am in some godforsaken, trailer-filled town playing in a four-deck game with bad rules, joined by two poor players, with a half dozen drunks at the bar and one guy playing quarter video poker. Surely professional gambling can’t have much less glamour than this.” And it only gets better as Meadow wanders through casinos from Las Vegas northwest to Reno, stopping along the way in such out-of-the-way places as Beatty, Hawthorne, and then continuing on from Reno to Winnemucca (where he does split a pair of tens as the subtitle indicates) and then East to Wells, South to Ely, back South to “Glitzville” and then completing the circuit in Laughlin having played in 192 casinos and won over $21,000 (I suspect most of this was won in the single- and double-deck games which are favorable to card counters). Meadow tells about the life in real terms: The huge swings in his bankroll, the loneliness of cheap motel rooms, the bad buffets, the heat from the pit bosses, the fear about getting barred from play and of getting rolled for his bankroll, fighting to get a good game and a decent betting spread, and the nagging question of “why am I doing this?”

Meadow has the knack of pulling the reader right into his blackjack sessions and his adventures along the way. In fact, about half way through the book, somewhere East of Winnemucca, I began to get bored with the book, just as Barry was bored with his play and his travels. On his way home, he sums it up: “Once the trip had seemed like a great adventure, but by the end it had simply become a burden. In those last days, rather than thinking of casinos as exciting vacation destinations, I thought of them as items on an unpleasant to-do list.” Meadows opening epithet sums up his feelings (and mine) about Las Vegas, about Nevada, and about the casinos and casino personnel: “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.”

Even if you have no inclination whatsoever to turn professional, I recommend strongly that you read this book.

Position 11
Perry, Stuart. Las Vegas Blackjack Diary, conjelco 1997, Paperbound, $19.95.

Reason for inclusion on the list: The second best description for what it’s like to operate as a solo professional blackjack player.

I reviewed this book in my new edition of Casino Gambling published in February 2000. A different book, different objectives, different ending than Blackjack Autumn. But same conclusion – the life of a professional blackjack player is not a pleasant one. Backed by a $20,000 bankroll, Perry spent four months in Vegas playing professional blackjack. He played 231 hours and won $2303, about what you can make at a Burger King flipping hamburgers. Perry blamed his small win on bankroll fluctuations and the fact that he did not play to the “long run.” Perry estimated that 50,000 hands or more are needed to play to the long-run and “in decent games.” I blamed his small win on the fact that he didn’t play in enough single- and double-deck games where card counting can work “in decent games” as long as you don’t get thrown out by pit bosses or “counter catchers.” Which he did, by the way, at least four times.

Position 10
Canfield, Richard Albert. Blackjack Your Way To Riches, Secaucus, NJ: A Lyle Stuart published by Carol Publishing Group, 1998, paperbound, $14.95. Originally published in 1977.

Reason for inclusion on list: Great blackjack stories

I’ve met Richard Canfield only once but that was not enough. Former pit boss, raconteur, blackjack player, he is truly a character right out of Damon Runyon. His book discusses the usual run-of-the-mill topics of interest to traditional blackjack players: basic strategy, card counting, money management, how not to get barred from casinos – but with one important difference. He is an excellent writer, tells a great story and has a marvelous sense of humor. His is the kind of book you pick up and cannot put down. Canfield organizes his book well and uses sidebars liberally. He’s as comfortable as an old pair of slippers and when you read the book, it’s almost as if he’s sitting across from you, telling you these stories in person. And the stories. He sprinkles them liberally throughout the book’s pages as sidebars. Read the sidebars if nothing else.

Position 9
Humble, Lance, and Cooper, Carl. The World’s Greatest Blackjack Book. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1980. Revised edition, 1987, paperbound, $9.95.

Reason for inclusion: More good blackjack stories

This is an excellent book for the traditional blackjack player. It covers the game from A to Z, with a thorough description of basic strategy and card counting. It touches on the psychological side of the game and makes the player aware that he must gain control of his emotions if he is to become a consistent winner. It contains Humbles heavily promoted, but effective Hi-Opt I card counting system.

And the stories.. There are some very interesting blackjack stories in this book. The most interesting are those about Lawrence Revere and his trips to Toronto (Lance Humble’s home city) and joint play, with Lance and his friends, in the private games that Humble introduced him to – games that could be found in any big city in those days before the Atlantic City casinos opened. Chapter Nine, Blackjack Outside The Casino, makes the book a bargain at $11.95.

Position 8
Revere, Lawrence. Playing Blackjack as a Business, Secaucus, NJ: Carol Publishing Group, 1976, paperbound, $16.95.

Note: 1999 Edition (Replica Books) does not contain color charts of basic strategy; I recommend the older version above if you can find it.

Reason For Inclusion On List: First book with detailed data on single- and multi-level point-count systems

This book was the card counter’s Bible for a number of years. Published originally in 1971, it contains beautiful basic-strategy charts in color and descriptions of four of the counting systems Revere developed with the assistance of Julian Braun. I first read this book in 1977 when I was doing the research for the initial self-published edition of this book. I remember devouring Revere’s book from cover to cover and being extremely impressed with the work he and Braun had done. The book still sells well to this day and its data on point count systems is better, in many ways, than the book’s successors which have rehashed and juggled this data upside down and backwards without really coming up with anything new.

Lawrence Revere was a colorful character, a demanding instructor, a creative system developer and a winning player. As a former pit boss and with many casino connections, he was active on both sides of the table. There have probably been more stories told about him than any other blackjack player. As noted above, you can find very interesting ones in Humble’s The World’s Greatest Blackjack Book.

I never had the opportunity of meeting Lawrence Revere, who passed away in 1977. I wish I had.

Position 7
Roberts, Stanley (with Edward O. Thorp, Lance Humble, Ph.D., Julian Braun, Jerry Patterson, Arnold Snyder, Ken Uston, D. Howard Mitchell). The Gambling Times Guide to Blackjack, Gambling Times, Hollywood, CA, 1984, paperbound, $5.95.

Reason for inclusion on the list: The only book in print which features several of the notable blackjack authors of the 1970s and 1980s

When I first decided to make up this list, I knew this book should be on it for the reason cited above, but, not having read it or even opened it in several years, I had forgotten most of its contents. Then, when I went to retrieve it from my library, I found it missing – lent, long ago, to a student or instructor.

Since the book is out of print, I searched to Internet and found a copy on the amazon.com zShops. I ordered the book for just $5 plus $5 shipping and handling and received a ragged, dog-eared copy formerly owned by the Montgomery County Maryland Public Library.

What a pleasure it was to open this book, first published in 1984, and read the chapters by Thorp, Roberts, Braun, Humble, Uston and others.

Two stand out and offer all the reasons you need to search for this book and purchase a copy: Chapter 3 by Edward O. Thorp, Ph.D. on “The Principles of the Game and Why it can be Beaten” and Chapter 10 by Stanley Roberts on Cheating.

Thorp’s chapter takes you back to the days right after he wrote his best selling book, Beat The Dealer” (reviewed below) and relates some fascinating stories about the early winning players.

Roberts’ Chapter 10 segment on dealer cheating, his pictures of deck stacking, dealer card manipulation including peeking and “second carding” make extremely interesting reading. Even though this topic of dealer cheating is covered elsewhere, I believe Roberts’ description and graphics makes this book unique.

There is much more, including Uston’s comments which we’ll get to below, but I think I’ve given you enough to justify an Internet search. But don’t wait too long because, in my opinion, this book has the potential to become a valuable collector’s item.

Position 6
Braun, Julian H. How To Play Winning Blackjack. Chicago: Data House Publishing Co., 1980, $12.95. Out of print, but sometimes available from the Gambler’s Book Club in Las Vegas.

Reason for inclusion on list: Best description of basic strategy

The book is classic and timeless. It not only defines basic strategy but shows you graphically and in color why each hand is played the way it is.

But the book is more than a treatise on basic strategy. Braun recognizes the value of discipline and the advantage to the player of departing a losing table. He also sensed that there were cycles in the game, and is the first author I know of to comment on their occurrence. He offers no method for exploiting them other than the generalities of betting up when you are winning and backing off when you start to lose. How do you know when these winning and losing cycles occur? “Develop that sixth sense,” he advised. “Sensitivity is a developed skill.” These words, although general in nature, gave me some of my reasons for doing research that ultimately led to the development of the TARGET 21 Method.

Position 5
Uston, Ken. Million Dollar Blackjack. Originally published in 1981 by SRS Enterprises.

Reason for inclusion on list: Best description of team blackjack and Uston’s stories on team blackjack.

Million Dollar Blackjack book is a veritable handbook of card-counting techniques together with practice routines. It leads the reader on a step-by-step program for learning the basic strategy for playing the hands, a simple Level I count and, for those up to it, Uston’s Level III Advanced Point-Count System.

Uston gives excellent instruction on betting strategies, multiple- and single-deck play and blackjack team methods. His chapters on front loading, “spooking” and cheating are fascinating.

But the best part of the book, in my opinion, is the chapters on his own teams: their formation, their operation, and their successes and failures.

Million Dollar Blackjack is the book read by over 90% of the players who call my gaming company for instruction. Even if you never learn how to count cards, it is must reading and belongs in your blackjack library.

An interesting footnote to this review is that Uston may have been the first player to recognize card clumping and its effect on the player’s chances of winning. He discusses a game he got into several years ago in which new cards were introduced into play.

To quote: ”As we began play, I couldn’t believe how the cards were coming out. Seven of the first ten cards were 4s. Then, a batch of 3s came out, followed by a group of 6s; then, a clumping of 10s and aces. I kept track of the count, which soared astronomically, as more little cards came out. Staying at $25 minimum bets, I lost hand after hand.”

What Uston is discussing here is a game with an insufficient wash and the devastating effects of like-card clumping.

Position 4
Uston, Ken with Rapoport, Roger. The Big Player. Originally published in 1977. Out of Print.

This book is a non-technical narration of Uston’s original Team 1 and the team approach to winning blackjack. His plans in the early days of Atlantic City casinos were to make the book into a major motion picture. He had the connections with Frank Capra, Jr. and Dale Crase as producers, but for a number of reasons I am not fully aware of, could never get it done. At one point, I remember, he became dissatisfied with the screen play and actually rewrote it himself. Later he was disappointed with the actor selected to play himself and told me that he was the only one who could play himself.

Read about his many capers in fooling the casinos into thinking he was just another losing high roller, and you will believe him as I did.

Position 3
Thorp, Edward O. Beat the Dealer. New York: Random House, 1962. Revised version, New York: Vintage Books, 1966, paperbound, $5.95.

Reason for inclusion on list: First book to publish a card counting method for casino blackjack

This is the book that started blackjack on the road to becoming the most popular casino table game with the publication of the first card-counting method for beating the game of 21. The original edition was published in 1962, and contained a strategy for counting 10s and “others” (all other cards). This system turned out to be extremely difficult to use in casino play. Card counting for the masses never really caught on until the second edition of Thorp’s book was published in 1966. This included Harvey Dubner’s High-Low Point Count System, with basic strategy variations calculated by Julian Braun.

There were many other winning tactics published in this remarkable book, including a method for counting aces and 5s. But the most interesting of these tactics is the one which involves “end play.” In the old days, the casinos dealt the deck right down to the bottom, dealing 51 of the 52 cards. A counter had a tremendous advantage near the end of the deck because he or she knew what was left to play.

If you buy this book, try to find a copy of the original hardbound edition published in 1962 by Random House. In the 1966 edition, the publisher had to cut some of the most interesting parts out of the original edition to make room for the section on the High-Low Point Count.

Position 2
Uston, Ken. Two Books On Blackjack. Originally published in 1979. Out of Print, but copies can be found on the Internet.

Reason for inclusion on list: (1) A veritable history of Atlantic City blackjack in 1979 when the “candy store” was open for business; (2) excellent instruction for recreational players; (3) great pictures of Kenny in his glory days

Two Books On Blackjack is really two books in one: (1) An adventure book titled One-Third Of A Shoe, and (2) an instruction book titled How You Can Win At Blackjack In Atlantic City and Nevada. The One-third of a Shoe portion of this book is Kenny telling the day-by-day story of forming Team 5 and playing during these halcyon days (Teams 1 – 4 were described in his first book, The Big Player). He describes the problems of selecting and deciding on the Team Members, of deciding on the size of the bank and the bet size, of the Team almost disintegrating before it even began play because of a personality clash.

He takes the reader along with him on a wild 9-day ride – the wins, the losses, the bankroll swings, the first double of a $60,000 bank, the encounters with the casino bosses and the other teams, the media attention, and the inevitable day when the fun had to end (“Black Tuesday”). His Team 5 ended up with a win, after expenses, of about $145,000. And memories they will cherish for a lifetime (unfortunately Kenny’s lifetime ended just seven short years later, he died of unknown causes).

But this history of Atlantic City blackjack is only part of this wonderful book. The other half is a how to book containing instruction for learning basic strategy including flash cards, some interesting facts about card counting and a discussion of some common misconceptions and commonly asked questions.

I was hanging out with Kenny Uston in the late 70s when Two Books On Blackjack was conceived, written and published. If you would like to read some interesting stories about my experiences with this most famous blackjack player ever, I’ll be happy to send you an article I wrote. See SECTION FIVE for details. (Also ask about sources for where to find Two Books On Blackjack, and, if I’m aware of any, such as a cache of 500 that turned up in the Year 2000 at Leaf Press in San Diego, I’ll give you the information.)

Position 1
Playing Blackjack To Win: A New Strategy For The Game Of 21, the 92-page classic by Roger Baldwin, Wilbert Cantey, Herb Maisel, and James P. McDermott. Originally published in 1957. Out of print. Collectors’ Item.

Ok, so it’s out of print and almost impossible to find, a true collectors’ edition. And probably very pricey if you can find one.

Playing Blackjack To Win was published in 1957 with a near-perfect basic strategy. This book is really the forerunner to all the card counting studies and strategies that have since been published.

I worked with two of these four pioneers of blackjack back in the early 1960s in the Aerospace Industry. In fact, Will Cantey was my advisor on the project to develop the first computer simulation of casino blackjack. He gave me an autographed copy of Playing Blackjack To Win; I wish I had it today.

The last copy I heard of was Julian Braun’s when he put it up for auction at, as I recall, a starting bid of $400.

If you would like to examine a copy of this “Holy Grail” of blackjack, visit the Special Collections Room at UNLV next time you are in Las Vegas. Barry Meadow did and, to quote him from Blackjack Autumn: “Holding it in my hands, I feel like the guy in the archives who got to caress the Rosetta Stone.”