Help! In my game theory class one of the students wants to know a good book or website that explains how to win at blackjack! What's your favorite?
View 46 previous comments
Many of the above statements about potential returns provided perfect play to a statistically modeled strategy need to be modified with (at minimum) these two disclaimers:
1. Provided the casino is actually offering the ruleset upon which the statistical model was based (which no modern casino intentionally does, having the dealer win pushes over 17, or disallowing doubles, or severely limiting the bet range, etc. etc. etc.)
2. Provided the casino deals deep enough into the deck or decks (or even has decks --- Google "continuous shuffle machines") that statistical variation will eventually guarantee favorable betting conditions AND that pit critters will not be trained to spot players varying their bets in an effort to catch those conditions
Once you've added in these disclaimers, "BlackJack can be beaten!" claims become next to meaningless. But casinos have every incentive to have people believing the larger claims. Indeed, a stack of money is made by casinos because people still believe they can sit down in Vegas, play basic strategy, and walk away a winner. It is in every casino operator's interest to ensure that these ideas never die. Hence the veritable library of "Beat The Dealer" titles that show you how to "beat" games that no casino, anywhere, has ever actually offered.Jan 17, 2013
I believe that casinos introduced continuous shuffle machines to kill off counting, but found that many people stopped playing and profits went down. Now they're back to 4-8 decks and favourable rules in a bid to give the impression that it's possible to beat the house. Jan 17, 2013
+Nic Johns You suspicion is wrong. Only a few very small (and out of business) online casinos cheat in anyway. Doing a stupid trick like having customer win in the start is suicide for them if caught due to non-random behaviour. Besides they have no reason to cheat, the casino will win eventually! I have 100% confidence is all the big casino providers: Microgaming, Cryptologic, RTG, Rival, Playtech, IGT NetEnt, 3Dice, Galewind Software ... I have played 50+ days (playtime) at these casinos years ago, when you got free bonuses for playing BJ with optimal strategy. The result, you played up almost even(+/-) in BJ and then you kept the bonus which was from 100$ to 500$ typical. Good days.Jan 17, 2013
"How to Cheat at Everything" by Simon Lovell is my favorite con encyclopedia, however, for a quick and thorough treatment of cheating period, the Modern Con Artist series by Todd Robbins . Book and DVD series. There are older books that give more in-depth treatment of the long con (one form of which was the plot for the movie "The Sting") and carnival scams. +Brian Brushwood who stars in the video series called "ScamSchool" (on youtube, and rev3 for ipod/iTunes) is an awesome resource for bar tricks, and now and then some serious scamming, but always good for free beer. The British version of "The Real Hustle" which can sometimes be acquired on Buccaneer Harbor gives a gloss version of utterly illegal scams, but features card artist Paul Wilson, a world-class card manipulator - if I remember right the Las Vegas season did do blackjack. And then, there is the ultimate curmudgeon card God: Ricky Jay...a man who has a deadly combination of esoteric mental capacity, and an iron-willed almost neurotic fastidiousness for exacting perfection from his art(s), which are many.
As I'm sure other posters have pointed out, security at casinos is state of the art - cheating in Nevada at a casino is a felony offense with a steep sentence. Using only your mind is legal but quite frowned upon. Expect to be invited to leave and not return, from the whole chain, not just the one casino location. And expect to be recognized for the rest of your life in all casinos once 'caught'. While none of these resources are exactly what he asked for, he will find plenty more there to appease his urge to get one over. However Dear Student should remember two things: first, character is what you won't do, and second, if you can't spot the mark, it's you. Jan 17, 2013
+Sampo Syreeni There's a common form of the sort of savings you describe that has no gambling aspect at all: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotating_Savings_and_Credit_AssociationJan 17, 2013
Blackbelt in blackjack is by Arnold Snyder
http://www.blackjackforumonline.com/
Professional Blackjack by Stanford Wong
http://www.bj21.com/
Beat the dealer is a good intro but outdated (single deck games)Jan 17, 2013