240 pages
List Price: $11.95
Buy new:
$11.95
Beat the Dealer: A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One
by Edward O. Thorp
Spotlight Reviews
The book that started it all!, November 23, 2002
Reviewer: K. Morris (Silicon Valley, CA)
This book started it all. Before this book, only a very few people knew about card counting, and most only had primitive systems. Thorp analyzed the game, ran computer simulations, and devised two effective strategies for beating the casinos at their own games.
Can you run out and use these systems today against the casinos? Sure, but over 30 years have gone by and there are now simpler more effective systems. But if you are naturally gifted at doing complex calculations in your head quickly, I think the 10 count system would still be wickedly effective.
Buy it for the theory and the stories. Then go out and buy a newer book with simpler more modern counting systems.
***** The Foundation of Card Counting *****, December 8, 2004
Reviewer: Richard York
"Beat The Dealer" by Edward O. Thorp is still difficult to beat. Even though it is now quite ancient by current standards, it is still right on target. Everyone who is serious about blackjack has read this book , has a copy of it tucked away somewhere and re-reads it from time to time. This book, with help from Dr. Thorp's: "The Mathematics of Gambling", is responsible for most of the Las Vegas casinos asking me to take my blackjack business elsewhere.
This book, as a follow up and summary of Dr. Thorp's technical papers, is truly the foundation stone for card counting. Although improvements have been made in card counting systems (see: Wong's "Professional Blackjack" or Ford's "How to Gamble at the Casinos Without Getting Plucked Like a Chicken") none has improved on the basic principles this book sets forth..
There is no better place to start an education in blackjack than by reading this book. Just remember, the pit bosses can read, too.
|
