This book realy sets the rules down for you I have been gambling for years and read a lot of books on the topic ,and this book truly is one of the best .But do not think that just because you purchase a book and read it you automatically good at card counting it takes more than a book ,it takes hours at work.If you truly enjoy reading about card counting the best to tell you about it is Jhon patrick but other than that this is the book to read

This book covers craps, blackjack, discipline, casinos, and money management offering tips and tricks to winning. The craps section is excellent although it covers only three bets extensively and the blackjack section is good for the beginner but, not great. Also covered is the Gollehon Imperial Method for playing. This method appears to work with single deck games, but may have too much rounding for the serious player looking for an accurate card count. A recommended read for beginners. Advanced players can probably skip this one.

This is an hilarious book at times and at other times it really digs in and tells you stuff you never thought of. I think it is worth the price and if you like gambling I would definitely consider buying it. It's an easy read but a great read.

Read this book for the sheer fun of it. You won't learn strategies but you will get inside the head of a gambler. Scoblete is one fine writer, maybe the best gaming writer of all time. His style and wit are rare commodities in the gaming genre. Get this book!

This is not a large book but it is very funny and very insightful. I recommend that you take it with you on your next airplane flight to Vegas! It will help pass the time in an enjoyable way.

I red the first edition of this book. First of all the basic stratedgy slightly differs from what other books say (like doubling 9 against dealer's 7).
The main idea of the book is to bet on a series of wins/losses. If you win first bet you should increase you bet K times, if you lost your unit bet (and after that other 2) you increase you bet K times again. If it doesn't help, you keep loosing a unit bet at a time.
The simplest way to proove the authour is WRONG is the following: he claims that every unit you add to K increases you chances to win by 0.5% (you probable win). Take K = 1000. Do you get 500% edge? No it can not exceed 100%.
The author makes the fallowing mistake: if you average probability to wit is p=0.47 then the probability to loose is 1-p. Our edge (in bets) is -(1-2*p)=-6.0%. We are loosing. The probability to win 2 times is p*p, to loose the second time is p*(1-p). So he says the edge is -p*(1-2*p) is less than -(1-2*p) in absolute value and theirfore (due to blackjack and doubling) he says you can win money. What'a wrong here? It's not an edge. An edge in this situation would be -p*(1-2*p)/p. Because out of 100 bets we only will apply this stratergy p*100 times. And our edge is once again exactly the same -(1-2*p) = -6.0% in bets or (-0.3% in money under playing conditions he describes). You could just increase your everage bet once again with the same result.
A word of causion. If you want to try geometric progression system (doubling you bet every time you loose), it would work, provided you could place an unlimited bets. But as long as maximum bet is restrected, in everage, you will loose onse again. If your chances to win were 50% (much better then 47), your mathematical expectation would be exactly 0.0 dollars to win. The problem is that every time you win the doubling chain you only regain 1 unit bet, when you loose your maximum bet you loose double your maximum bet minus unit (taking into account account what you lost already from the start). You can triple, the result would be the same (when the maximum bet is fixed).
If there is a lawer who belives he could make this guy to pay for deceiving people, I'd be more then happy to help (tol60@hotmail.com).
It doesn't mean you can not win with this strategy. I could give you another one. If it works, you might get reach, if it doesn't, you won't loose much time in a casino: take all your money you have for betting and bet it all (no more then you are redy to loose). If you win, drink free coke and go home, if you loose, do the same. And you save those 10$ for the book.

I play blackjack for a living, and that means before I decided to do so you need to seperate the good from the bad books. I'm not the person to tell you what to do relating towards your goal playing blackjack, but one year after me trying to get it done the easy way, I,m glad that I switched to cardcounting. Remember do no think that blackjack is a easy money program. Many system sellers are making only money from selling books, or working indirectly for casinos. Any form of progression betting will get your cash in the longrun. I know from the early years of me playing blackjack that playing any form of progression you are able to winn money in the short run, but it will burn you out playing into the longrun, and I played too Popik's theory. But you can't compare a flip of a coin with 2 outcomes with a game of blackjack where you have 13 different outcomes relating to your hands.

I play about 100 hours a month, 1200 hours a month. It is not about the no. of sessions you winn, but the no. of hours.

Using Popik's system I won a majority of the sessions playing it in 1991, but the sessions I lost, I lost all what I won related to my winning sessions before. This is happening to all forms of progression play.

Therefore I would suggest you to start reading work from Stanfort Wong, Lance Humble, Arnold Snyder or Peter Griffin.

Again, I want you to winn but If you will ever decide to choose the profession I choosed you will realise that playing fulltime any progression system will hurt you playing about 1200 hours a year.

This book is fantastic. It is an easy read and a logical system based purely on mathematics. It does require some discipline, but when followed the system has proven to be profitable and substantially easier than learning to count cards. Will be useful to the occasional player as well as the consistent player.

Anyone making promises of getting rich by playing blackjack is only out to take your money and make themselves rich by selling books. Gaining an edge in blackjack by counting cards is extremely difficult in today's casino environment. Even with an edge, the best players still lose often. Don't be fooled by overly optimistic promises.

There is no question but that this writer has solved the question of how to keep busting your hand down to an absolute minimum... which I found translates into winning! The thing I liked most about this book, besides the fact that I didn't have to learn how to count cards, was that with minimum practice I was able to win money. The truth is, the book actually told me how to win in a way that mad me understand exactly what I was doing. I strongly recommend this book to every person who plays blackjack..., and who is tried of losing their money.

I can't believe how good this works. I have unquestionably just read and used the best book on the market which deals with how to win money playing Casino Blackjack. This book showed me a number of weaknesses in how the casinos play Blackjack, which has already allowed me to win money. One of the most important things I learned is how to keep pressure on the dealer's hand. How to force the dealer to bust. And how to win without counting cards! I highly recommend Blackjack Wizard to any person who wants to win money playing Blackjack.

Don Schlesinger has a special ability to take theory and original work and make it more practical and understandable.

Chapters 1, 7, and 9 are excellent and chapter 10 is a book of its own.

This book contains some excellent technical and mathematical content and Don trys to solve many problems.

My only objections to this book is that most of the book is material from past Blackjack Forum articles and the author is a little biased on certain issues.

Overall, it is must reading.

This is definately not a book for blackjack beginners. It expects you to be proficient at basic strategy, at least one card counting system, and all the various rules variations. This book teaches you how to apply that knowledge in real world situations. The best chapters (IMHO) teach you how to accurately evaluate your risk and expectation for any set of casino rules. Unfortunately, the the rambling writing style is often difficult to follow and the graphics are weak. I still recommend it since I know of no other books containing this level of detail.

All serious blackjack players own this book. It is a good read and a frequent reference. Chapter 9, on risk of ruin, is important reading for serious gamblers. Ch 10 is a very good quick reference to find the relative favorability and win rate approximations for hundreds of the permutations of rules, number of decks, and betting strategies for blackjack games. I'm a professional gambler and I refer to this book often. It easily ranks among the five or six "must own" books in the field of blackjack.

Wow, dude!
Like just watch where the real cool tables full of happy players are and go sit there with the winners! Ride the wave, the force will be with you, trust your inner Jedi . . .

Sure over a zillion tosses a coin will fall 50-50, but does that mean it'll be heads-tail, heads-tail,heads tail? Of course not, dummy!, So there! Get it? Go where it's sizzling! And if you lose switch tables.

Because cards have memory or magic or something. And there's no such thing as luck but play it as if there is, and you won't go wrong, because, hey, when you're hot, you're hot

Heavy . . .

This is the only blackjack book needed. J. Phillip Vogel covers everything needed in order to beat the casino. He includes basic strategies, easy to read charts and even card counting. No gambler should play without reading this first.

I enjoy reading about gambling almost as much as I like playing it, and I have found Vogel's work to be an excellent source for any player, especially a novice. His basic strategy methods are right on the money when you compare them to every recognized strategy, any he even includes a basic section on card-counting which is important for beginner players. Some of his discussions on trends and probability will probably confuse some players who are less-than-mensa material, but he tries somewhat successfully to make them read easy.

The basic breakdown of the book is a separation into what he terms "The Successful Six" which is generally a breakdown of the six most important weapons in a gambler's arsenal: proper bankroll, knowledge of the game, self-control, strategy, understanding probability, and patience. All of this information is highly useful, and it is presented in a thorough, enjoyable manner.

As a semi-professional gambler myself, I would recommend this book to any gambler, and call it essential reading to any novice.

After a thought provoking discussion of accepted basic blackjack strategy, the author presents his "Percentage Play" strategy (based on the frequency of cards in a 6-deck shoe), but doesn't back it up with any computer simulations or even stories about its use in actual play. Does the author use this system? Does he win when using it? You can't tell from reading this book. I acknowledge some of the weaknesses in the basic strategy that the author points out, but at least it is backed up by scientific and anecdotal studies. This book fails to present a viable alternative.

The author does not believe in counting.

His system is his own spin-off from Basic Strategy called 'Percentage Play '

It's not THAT far off from Basic to qualify it as whacko--it's well.. 'contrarian'---for lack of a better word. One gets the feeling that if every expert predicts a Stock Market crash, Summers would buy . . .

Example from Chapter 20 "Splitting 10's":

"Do you really want to know why I'm leaning in the direction of splitting 10's?
Because in a lot of casinos today they offer classes. On every occasion the instructor says NEVER DO IT...If the casinos say never split 10's that's exactly what I want to do."

Ok, so Summers has unmasked the International Casino Conspiracy or his math is way off.

The greatest departure from convention comes in his advice about playing against aces showing; Stand if you hold a 13.

Why?

Because the dealer has a 39% chance of breaking, 31% of having Blackjack , 23% of being pat and 46% that he's drawing and IF the player can escape the 31% chance of the dealer having BJ,
(How? Prayer?) then it is 2 to 1 that the dealer has to draw to his hand!

Somehow this is better, according to Summers, than having the player risk the 39% chance that he will be the one to bust if he takes a card.

Same advice if you hold a 12 against an ace.

Since comp sims, statistical tables or any other objective proof is not offered, there's only one way to find out.

Buy the book, take out a couple of millions and bust the bank.

Who knows? The old coot may be right . . .

I have never been much of a gambler... primarily because I didn't know enough about the science of the games to not be throwing my money away when I played. This book has made that a thing of the past ! I found it very easy to read and comprehend, and the strategies and insights can be used immediatley. This program works, and I am excited about the possibility of more work from Mr. Summers. This book is well worth your time and money !

This book is very odd. It talks way down to blackjack-savy readers although it's an advanced appendix to Harvey's earlier book, Blackjack the Smart Way. It says obvious things that most players already know: for example, that even when the dealer has a 6 there's less than a 50% chance of him busting. On the other hand, it gives advice on how to count other player's face-down cards. This is odd because the book never covers counting itself! Apparently he uses a simple hi/low count, but who can tell? It cetainly doesn't cover strategy changes based on count. Therefore it's bad for both beginners and advanced players.

For being so long, it's almost devoid of any practical playing advice. The author commits 26 pages-two for each card-showing how dealer up cards can be "absolute ducks" or "absolute bucks". But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the dealer has a weak hand if a 6 hides under his strong ten. Harvey just includes these simplistic charts "to teach you just how variable up card behavior is." (pg. 180)

Much of the work is polemical. Harvey takes gleefully unorthodox positions and ridicules conventional wisdom by deliberatly mispresenting its arguements. For example, he dismisses the possibility that playing head-to-head against the dealer is a sure way to see all preceeding cards. He says you only see a few cards simultaneously at the table head-to-head whereas in a multiplayer game you see many. (Actually, you don't because they're face down, but Harvey says that's OK because you can predict what they are!) At any rate, in a later section he shows he does understand the arguement for head-to-head play: that a more acurate count is achieved for play decisions. He just chooses to take pot-shots at his opponents.

A megalomaniac, every chapter features "inventions" and "discoveries" by Harvey. Most pathetic is his "Circle of 13" (which he always capitalizes, just like that) showing how you can predict the remaining cards when you have a deck of 13 cards. Duh. This might cut it in yuppie seminars, but brainless demonstrations with stupid names are no help to the serious gambler.

Finally, I would recommend against playing with what little advice Harvey conveys. Why? Because he has no understanding of probability and statistics, the math upon which gambling is built. He argues at length that different seats at the blackjack table have unique trends. This begs the question: if someone get up and leaves, might you suddenly be sitting at a "bad" seat? At any rate, he cites evidence for these trends by showing charts with "sine waves, plateaus, up-swings and down-swings." But these are to be expected in the course of random play. He also cites simulations. For example, a computerized player has a strong up-trend for a number of hands. Over time he recieves 70 cards, but never gets 9 cards from the deck--mostly low cards, accounting for his up-trend. This is supposedly because there are "orbiting cards" that gravitate toward certain players at a table. Harvey says that statistics say "we should find...at least each of the 52 different cards represented" in these 70 cards (pg. 115). That's flat wrong! Think of this: you roll a die 8 times. The odds are actually against you having rolled all six numbers. Likewise, for 70 cards dealt, the number you would expect to be unrepresented is (52 cards * (70nCr0)*((1/52)^0)*((51/52)^70)) = 52*1*1*0.256849 = about 13 cards! In otherwords, Harvey's example shows the reverse of what it purports to. In another example, he says there were 10 cards undealt in a run of games lasting 88 cards. The average is 9! Harvey's numbers actually show his simulated players are getting random cards! This invalidates half the book. It also proves Harvey is less qualified than your average statistics student.

I recommend Blackjack for Blood by Bryce Carlton. Not only does it give you a wealth of practical playing information, it also gives realistic expectations about the capital and patience you need to win. Such sober-mindedness is completely absent in Cutting Edge Blackjack. I wouldn't recommend anyone buy this tribute to Richard Harvey's vanity.

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.

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.

This book is trash, and the title is misleading. NO ONE can win EVERYTIME they play, that is impossible. The ONLY way to win consistently is to play under favorable conditions and count cards. Even playing with good rules, and single deck games, one can and often does lose money. But under ideal conditons, the skilled counter will win in the long run. This book attempts to convince you that ANYONE regardless of skill level will win EVERYTIME they play. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Stay away from this book, don't waste your money.

Listen to me very, very carefully. In the world of blackjack, a lot of books get written. Blackjack books make a nice little profit for everyone involved. Many, many BJ books are complete trash, promising riches and sure-fire systems and appeal to gamblers who are tired of losing the rent or mortgage money. They will believe (and buy) anything.Amazon allows reviews. Anyone can write them. Add the two together and you get utterly worthless blackjakc books like this. Read all the reviews listed, all the testimonials, look at all the five-star ratings. These were all written by the author and/or publisher. Posting good reviews on Amazon is part of their marketing plan.Check out the title. It was written to sell books to desparate losers. Listen to me the final time. THE ONLY WAY TO WIN AT BLACKJACK IS TO COUNT CARDS. Any other theory in books exists to take your money as easily as you will lose it at the table.The Author checks this site often and will write a rebuttal. Watch for it.Now go out and buy either Knockout Blackjack if you want a good, easy, level 1 counting system, or buy Blackbelt in Blackjack if you want a more powerful Level 2 system. If you've followed what I've said so far, you are easily smart enough to count cards. This book will only cost you money.

I am a representative of the publisher and I am writing to say one thing. You are wrong when you say that the testimonial was written by the publisher! Not only would that be unethical, it would be fraudulent!

Sorry that YOU didn't like the book, but it is a stunning, excellent book that has made many people winners . . . WITHOUT counting cards which is a completely LOSING proposition!

As you know, casinos now deal up to eight decks, deal only half way into the shoe, and have pit bosses watch the player's every move which prevent the player from staggering his bets to the extent that is necessary to gain the edge by counting cards. You are WRONG on that. Card-counting worked years ago, but the casinos have put that one to bed.

This book teaches the truth about the great game of blackjack, which is more than can be said for most of the other blackjack books. Let people judge for themselves. The methods in this book are proven wisdom. Reread the book and judge it on its advice. You cannot argue with its teachings, especially pages 68 to 89.