Cutting Edge Blackjack

Rating:
Summary: Refreshing
Review: Having already read his first book, Blackjack the Smart Way, I knew what to expect with Richard Harvey. Much like his first book, I love the fact that he doesnt portray the game to be a lesson in quantum physics and understands that the things he teaches have to be practical. He understands that the game is everchanging at the table and being able to quickly employ a quick but educated decision with a strong foundation in basic strategy is vital. Rather than inundate the reader with twenty charts to memorize knowing full well the average player is going to draw a blank in the casino environment if this is the extent of their knowledge, he concerns himself more with helping the player think on his feet but keeping a strong foundation in basic strategy.
The bottom line for me is how comfortable the system makes me at the table and results. I feel much more comfortable at the table than I did a few years ago and the results paid for the book a hundred times over in five short visits. The book is a refreshing mix of Revere and Thorpe with modern day innovations for todays game. I'd recommend this book whole heartedly.

Rating:
Summary: This book is fantastic!
Review: Imagine you have a goal. Imagine that goal is to walk into a casino, play blackjack, and leave with more money than you had when you entered. How do you achieve this goal? By utilizing the correct tools. Richard Harvey's Cutting Edge Blackjack is a toolbox crammed full of new and exciting tools that help you achieve your goal. Richard has developed and refined these tools with the loving care of a true craftsman. Some of the tools are difficult to handle, some of the tools may not make sense to you right away, some of the tools may require years of practice to utilize properly, but the tools are there. The tools themselves were crafted by hand. Instead of relying on and rehashing computer simulation, Richard used real cards to discover trends and card behavior patterns that computer simulations ignore. These patterns tend to repeat and offer insight never before realized at the tables. As an attendee to one of Richards's seminars, I witnessed the power of some of these tools. I was especially impressed by his ability to predict the value of the hole card at a pitch (face down) game. Impossible you say? Not when you use the tools in Cutting Edge Blackjack. I didn't say it was easy, I didn't say I could do it, but knowing it can be done is inspiring. Cutting Edge Blackjack debunks some popular myths, makes some bold assertions, but mainly shows advanced blackjack players ways to have profitable outings. Study and practice are required to attain most of the skills taught in the book, even advanced players may struggle with some of the methodology, but the tools are sound. I highly recommend this book for blackjack aficionados.

Rating:
Summary: Impressed with Theory- Not Convinced on Strategy
Review: Much like the last reviewer, I'm not sure what to make out of Mr. Harvey's book. His method to the game, although fresh and creative, doesn't bring enough confidence where I would want to use his system in a game. The Circle of 13 seems to be ingeniously written- but all its hyped up to be are spreadsheets on probablities to win or bust on hands.

For example, he states that by having an A & 2, I can draw 5 cards which would help me win the hand. However, my odds on getting one of those 5 is slightly over 38%. Well yeah- no kidding. Based on his Circle of 13, 5 divided by 13 is a little over 38%. So what's so informative about that ?

Another issue I had is this model doesn't give much emphasis on hi-low card-counting, a system that I religiously rely on whenever I play. For anyone who does truly card-count, they would know that your seating position or the number of people at a table is irrelevant to your chances of winning. That's because you're relying on bet placements, which means you're betting at certain times when the card count gets high enough (or positive as some may say) that the odds swing in your favor where you increase your wage. Harvey practically neglects this in his book. He is so enthralled by his system that I don't believe he gives enough respect much less credibility to more realistic and systematic card theories of blackjack. The only information that I did enjoy was on shuffle tracking. His charts gave good examples on shuffles and their patterns.

Lastly, there are way too many intangibles in his system to keep track of, i.e., counting the Aces exclusively, determining the hole card of not just the dealer but other players (as if I'm going to sit there patiently and calculate my predictions on that!) and "repeating phenomenons". This is just a plethora of information any savy card player does not want to take with him to the table. Ladies and Gentleman, unless you have a photographic memory or are regarded as a scholar of mathematics, the speed of the deal is fast enough where you won't be able to take into account all of what Harvey is asking you to do.

I would recommend Knock-Out blackjack, which has tremendously improved my game and more importantly given me the confidence I need to beat the casino each time I go. There theory is not too simplistic yet not too technical and gives you a realistic method of how to beat the game. I have heard of good things on Wong's book and that will probably be my next purchase.

Rating:
Summary: Progressions are a scam
Review: This book advises using strategies that are proven NOT to work. Stay away from this scamster progression book, and keep with the books that utilize sound mathematical and stastical theory.

Rating:
Summary: The Best And The Brightest
Review: This book is, hands down, the best thing to come out in many, many years. Cutting Edge Blackjack will earn Richard Harvey a place in blackjack history as one of its greatest innovators, and, with this book, it is clear that he is undoubtedly the world's pre-eminent authority on blackjack. He's certainly the first in many decades to do original research that not only corrects the mistaken premises behind the old research of the past, but that has resulted in startling new discoveries and concepts that turn the old truths on their heads.
Believe me, once you read this book, you'll realize how outdated the others are. I read this book initially because of a recommendation I'd read by Howard Schwartz, one of Las Vegas' bright lights, and he's right: Harvey is alone in charting new territory. I never realized before how the number of betting spots being played affects your likelihood of winning; no one before Harvey had tested this out.
I hadn't been happy with the results I'd gotten from recent books written by the likes of Frank Scoblete, Bryce Carlson, et. al., which I felt were really just rewrites of what I'd read in Thorp, Revere, Uston, Griffin, et. al., decades ago.
In contrast, the material, the concepts, the methods in this book are fresh and powerful. The math in Cutting Edge Blackjack, as well as the research discoveries (explained in detail for anyone to understand), the logic, the new methods, not only make sense, but they work at the blackjack table.
No one else has ever come up with a way to identify the facedown cards at the 1 and 2 deck tables; Harvey's methods give you a huge advantage, as Howard Schwartz had pointed out, I might add. I didn't even realize there were different catagories of facedown cards before I read this book. No one had ever made that discovery.
Anyone who's had a taste of shuffle tracking is aware that the cards don't change much with the dealer's shuffle. In this book, Harvey has laid down the reasons for this, for the first time ever. Every player has noticed repeating patterns, but Harvey has come up with the mechanism for these, as well as how to profit from what he calls repeating phenomenon.
His statistical analyses of how far is up (in other words, how to detect a peak and get out before throwing back your winings)and how far is down (in other words, how low you have to go before it's statistically improbable you'll ever come back up to even) are monumental achievements, which remove the uncertainty when it comes to knowing when to leave.
Just the sections on card analysis vis a vis how to detect when the dealer is strong or weak will make you a lot stronger player.
This book is loaded with math (which won't overwhelm you, like some other books), charts and illustrations, and it's got so much in the way of material that's new to the world of blackjack that you'll be going back to this as a reference book for many, many, years to come, and, if you're like me, each read will make another lightbulb, so to speak, go off in your head.
Another thing about this book is that it identifies where the researchers behind basic strategy and the old card counting systems went wrong; understand this, and you'll see for the first time why you've been struggling to win with the methods that have been around since 1961.
And I'm just scratching the surface here; some of the many other great aspects of this book include its chapter on shuffling (which should really open your eyes about where the cards go and how to follow them through a shuffle), true penetration (which explains how things change with differing numbers of players at the table), auxiliary betting factors (which provide you with your probability of winning in the next round, hence, how you should bet), strategic card analysis (which enables you to pick up on what the cards are telling you about how to play your cards), and the chapter on "What's Your Up Card IQ?" should answer, for once and for all, every question you've ever had about each of the dealer's up cards (unlike other books, this one seems to nail it on the head, because of the way Harvey did his research; he used real cards instead of allowing his computer to simulate the game with a random number generator, which, duh, produces random results!).
I mean, there's much more in this book that you'll find in absolutely no other. You have to read this for yourself.