Beat the Dealer: A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One

Professor Thorpe published his book in the 1960s. I read it in the 1970s long before there was an Amazon.com. When I read it, the casinos had already gone from single-deck Blackjack to a six deck shoe. This change was solely because of Professor Thorpe's book. To this day, I still hear people say that you can't count cards with a 6 deck shoe. They say this because they labor under the mistaken belief that counting cards involves memorizing the cards that are out of the deck. In fact, counting cards has absolutely nothing to do with memorizing the cards. When you're counting, all you're doing is keeping track of how many big cards are out of the deck versus how many small cards. When there is a disproportionate number of small cards out of the deck, the advantage shifts to the player. When this happens the player makes a larger bet. When the house has the advantage, the player makes a small bet. Therefore, it doesn't matter weather it is one deck, six decks, or 100 decks. The difference between counting with a single deck, and counting with a 6 deck shoe, is that the advantage gained from counting cards is dramatically reduced. After I originally read Professor Thorpe's book, I crunched the numbers to determine the profitability of counting when playing with a six deck shoe. What I discovered was that if someone played blackjack 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and had a bankroll of half a million dollars, they can make $50,000 a year by playing Blackjack. However, if someone has $500,000 in cash, they can probably find better ways to make a living. Nevertheless, this is a very interesting book and well worth reading to learn about professors Thorpe's experiences when he took his system on the road to test it. And, if you play a little Blackjack every once in awhile, counting will make it a little more fun.

I bought this book for my son who is four years ahead in his age level in math to show him that math can be used for fun. Who knows and who cares about Blackjack anymore: Beat the Dealer is widely recognized as the book that kicked off modern financial modeling and started the "hunger" in plenty of those who control the world financial markets for applying their math heads to something concrete. I don't know if I'd put it up there w/ Turing's paper about binary theory but it's close. That it's written entirely focused on Blackjack, and then on gaining a theoretical upper hand in a game where even the highest stakes tables may as well be nickel bets compared to what flows through the financial sector, makes it even more interesting.

First, I was not sure if I really wanted to read and learn about gambling techniques. Is important to notice that gambling and trading there's a plethora of books that sell you a five days recipe to learn a "secret" that is going to make you grossly richer than any neighbor of yours. Well, "unfortunately," this book is not about that bothersome crap that rarely works, if they work at all. What you will find in this book is a technique to beat the dealer and fun while learning to do so. I honestly do not think Ed. Thorp's a charlatan, really, he is the real thing. He knows what he was writing almost 50 years ago. In short, this book is a must for anyone interested in gambling and trading, notably, the Kelly Criterion is cited somewhere in the book.

this is the strategy the university student learned to beat vegas. it works. had this book many years ago and bought it for fun. have no idea if it will work for the new shoe multi-card' systems. and if it did, i'd never be able to memorize it. just a fun read for old time sake.

Excelente me encantó el libro

When this book was first published, single deck blackjack was a common game in Nevada casinos. However, with the advent of casinos using 7 or 8 decks of cards dealt from a shoe, many of the strategies in this book will not work well. The best point of the book is explaining the "basic strategy" of when to hit, stand, double-down, and split pairs based on the dealer's up card. Following the basic strategy will give the player the best odds, but is no guarantee that the player will beat the dealer.

This is a must read for any blackjack enthusiast. System is still relevant decades later after multiple rules changes made by the gaming industry to beat Dr. Thorp's system. Great historical view, easy to understand the probability theory. If you love blackjack, you must read this book.

Years ago I loaned it to someone and never got it back. Always wanted to get it again and found it on Amazon. It is easy to learn and fun to play with a chance to win.

Das Buch ist auf alt gemacht und schaut echt schön aus. Die Seiten fühlen sich auch anders an als bei neuen Büchern. Man bekommt echt das Gefühl man hätte das Buch von 1966 in der Hand. Innen zum Raustrennen auch nochmal die Karten um sie überall üben zu können. Er schreibt sehr ausschweifend über sein Leben und Situationen im Casino. Manches kann man heutzutage nicht mehr verwenden, da mit mehr als einem Deck gespielt wird, aber Basic Strategie geht immer.

If you are interested in investing this should interest you

Livro muito bem escrito para mostrar a ilusão que é o mundo dos jogos de azar. Pouca matemática.

the book size is to small and the font size is to small, makes it hard to read. The actual content may be amazing but since its so small i may never bother to read it.

L'intelligence et la logique dans les jeux. Super livre. Le format ancien est tres bien.