Blackjack Wisdom

Rating:
Summary: A nice addition to your Blackjack library!
Review: I love this book! Its an excellent book to read on the trip down to the casino. Filled with great text instead of dozens of tables. Definately worth it.

Rating:
Summary: A nice addition to your Blackjack library!
Review: I love this book! Its an excellent book to read on the trip down to the casino. Filled with great text instead of dozens of tables. Definately worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Very enjoyable read
Review: Well this isn't a "how to" book it's more a collection of a decade or so of writing by Arnold Snyder. As such you won't learn any particular counting system or style. Snyder writes in a clear, witty style with piercing insights into the nature of gambling.

Some gems from the book include Social Irrelevance class where you will come to grips with the "existential essence of being a replaceable cog in a machine that produces nothing" and how card counters are essentially parasites "siphoning money from a meaningless cash flow system". Humour abounds, for example in reviewing one of the blackjack systems, Snyder remarks "My heart goes out to the tree that died for this".

All in all a very worthwhile text covering a whole range of different blackjack topics. Occasionally digresses from the main theme but this is more an observation than a complaint it does not detract from the book whatsoever.

The book's final conclusion? You won't win. Why? Statistical fluctuations mean that on a bell curve some will end up all the way on the right and some will end up all the way on the left. Sure with card counting you have an expectation that is slightly positive, however there's still a big margin for statistical variation that could plonk you pretty much anywhere in terms of winnings. In which case you may as well take your bankroll and plonk the thing on the damn roulette wheel.

Rating:
Summary: Very enjoyable read
Review: Well this isn't a "how to" book it's more a collection of a decade or so of writing by Arnold Snyder. As such you won't learn any particular counting system or style. Snyder writes in a clear, witty style with piercing insights into the nature of gambling.

Some gems from the book include Social Irrelevance class where you will come to grips with the "existential essence of being a replaceable cog in a machine that produces nothing" and how card counters are essentially parasites "siphoning money from a meaningless cash flow system". Humour abounds, for example in reviewing one of the blackjack systems, Snyder remarks "My heart goes out to the tree that died for this".

All in all a very worthwhile text covering a whole range of different blackjack topics. Occasionally digresses from the main theme but this is more an observation than a complaint it does not detract from the book whatsoever.

The book's final conclusion? You won't win. Why? Statistical fluctuations mean that on a bell curve some will end up all the way on the right and some will end up all the way on the left. Sure with card counting you have an expectation that is slightly positive, however there's still a big margin for statistical variation that could plonk you pretty much anywhere in terms of winnings. In which case you may as well take your bankroll and plonk the thing on the damn roulette wheel.