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

Reviewer: Josh Auzins

Rating: 7.0/10

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This book was written in the 1960s and is the first to show how to gain a positive expectation by counting cards in blackjack. For this alone, it deserves some kudos. It starts with the basic strategy, then lays out a few counting methods, from easy to complicated, each giving the player a little more advantage. The key is to balance how much advantage to pursue versus how much you want to tax your brain while playing. Even still, it's not that bad, as I was able to write notes on all the approaches onto half a sheet of paper. The downside mainly comes from the fact that this book is so old. Many of the rules of blackjack that are talked about are no longer in effect and cannot be exploited, such as the cards being dealt all the way to the end of the deck.

Historically interesting, and you get the basics of card counting, but you might want to also consult a book that takes modern blackjack rules into account.

Date Reviewed: September 15, 2005