Rating: 
Summary: Good, practical sound advice by an experienced BJ player
Review: Anyone who has read this book and not placed himself as one who Patrick is talking directly to at sometime or other is not being honest. Personally I know that I would have been better off with his win-loss goals and money management techniques as they would have many times made me either less of a loser, or maximized the times when I was winning. I have started trying his techniques and although I don't win big bucks, I don't get
killed either. His conservative deviations from basic strategy I can definitely live with such as not splitting 8's against dealer's upcard of 9, 10, ace. I feel I have gotten a lot of sound, valuable info. from his first book "You wanna be a gambler" and plan on reading his advanced blackjack book.
Rating:
Summary: Good, practical sound advice by an experienced BJ player
Review: Anyone who has read this book and not placed himself as one who Patrick is talking directly to at sometime or other is not being honest. Personally I know that I would have been better off with his win-loss goals and money management techniques as they would have many times made me either less of a loser, or maximized the times when I was winning. I have started trying his techniques and although I don't win big bucks, I don't get
killed either. His conservative deviations from basic strategy I can definitely live with such as not splitting 8's against dealer's upcard of 9, 10, ace. I feel I have gotten a lot of sound, valuable info. from his first book "You wanna be a gambler" and plan on reading his advanced blackjack book.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent advice in one area
Review: By chance, this was the first book I ever bought when I decided to learn how to play blackjack. Some 15 books and four years later, it is still the book I recommend friends read first when they come to me for advice on how to improve their game.Sure, Patrick's basic strategy is in error. Still, it's not a bad strategy to start out with. I didn't win in the long run with it, but I had some very good days. As a beginner, I definitely lost less in those sessions and days when I was getting killed and didn't know enough to recognize it. Eventually you'll want to learn and adopt the true basic strategy, available in virtually any other reputable blackjack book.Of course Patrick's counting system (taught in his follow-up book, Advanced Blackjack) is creaky and nebulous compared to most medium-level systems that are just as easy to learn. Read Best Blackjack by Frank Scoblete, start with the Hi-Lo count taught there, then advance into the better systems.I still contend that this book stands alone as the best on the topics of discipline and money management, and I consider myself lucky to have read this one first.Patrick's concepts on win goals, loss limits, pocketing profit and playing the excess are extremely valuable to any and all blackjack players, but especially to those just starting out. Any time I find myself losing and ultimately playing poorly, it is Patrick's money management rules I am breaking. No single blackjack book teaches you everything. Read as many as you can, because most of them will give you a little something. Patrick's books will give you a solid money management approach to use as a starting point. As you get better you'll vary it, but you'll know when and why.Pay attention, too when Patrick writes on the topic of discipline. No one tells it better or more accurately.This year (1998), my fourth year of playing, I will finish the year with a tidy little profit, for a $5-table player. I credit Patrick's writings for some of that.
Rating:
Summary: Patrick knows What He's Doing
Review: Follow Patrick's advice if you're willing to accept small, consistent returns. If you want someone to tell you that once you win to keep playing and be greedy, go somewhere else. Yes, he admits his basic strategy is slightly different from the time worn model, but his is geared toward conservative players. He recommends socking it to the dealer when he is weak, and not doubling down against power cards. If you follow Mr. Patricks advice of the Big 4, you WILL win. Not every trip to the casino, but overall. To all the detractors that wrote bad reviews of the book: If his methods did not work, how has he stayed one of the most respected and well known professional gamblers?
Rating:
Summary: Learn how to win!
Review: Get this book and you can say goodbye to losses once and for all! This book teaches you how to win at Blackjack. Everything from basic knowledge of the game to advanced money management is taught right here. For the person who has suffered loss after loss at the Blackjack table, time to change your outlook. Get this book and practice the advice. You will become the best of the best, and turn your "luck" around for good
Rating: 
Summary: John Patrick's Blackjack
Review: Great book. Easy to understand. The principals he teaches are easy to apply. I have read several books and found this book to be the easiest to understand. I enjoy playing blackjack much more becuase of the monney management technique's taught in the book.
Rating:
Summary: John Patrick's Blackjack
Review: Great book. Easy to understand. The principals he teaches are easy to apply. I have read several books and found this book to be the easiest to understand. I enjoy playing blackjack much more becuase of the monney management technique's taught in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: So you wanna be a loser?
Review: Hard to tell where to start...The correct way to play each hand without counting cards (called Basic Strategy) has now been known for over 40 years. Amazingly, this book dismisses these facts and recommends well over a dozen mistakes in their place. To put into perspective how bad this book is, John Patrick actually recommends splitting a pair of fives against a dealer's six. His book is replete with coupons and offers to play in different casinos in Atlantic City and Nevada. This fact alone, that fact being casinos are BEGGING you to come play at their tables and play blackjack the John Patrick way, should tell you everything you need to know about a John Patrick gambling system. There are many good books in the Amazon listing. This book is definitely among the very worst of the WORST of them, rivaled only by John Patrick's other gambling writings as to which one comes in last place.
Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC
Review: I bought this and his advanced BJ book at the same time. I have read several books and I must say that Patrick has no idea what math is all about. Many of the book's tactics violate simple Basic Strategy - which has been proven by BILLIONS of computer simulated hands. If you play his strategies you will lose as a matter of mathematical fact. There is some decent attempts at humor, but that's it.
Rating:
Summary: Patrick doesn't understand BJ math
Review: I bought this and his advanced BJ book at the same time. I have read several books and I must say that Patrick has no idea what math is all about. Many of the book's tactics violate simple Basic Strategy - which has been proven by BILLIONS of computer simulated hands. If you play his strategies you will lose as a matter of mathematical fact. There is some decent attempts at humor, but that's it.
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