The Big Player: How a Team of Blackjack Players Made a Million Dollars [Hardcover]

Ken Uston (Author), Roger Rapoport (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1977

This is a reprint of the famous book, “The Big Player”, mentioned on the History Channel and news reports showing how a team of blackjack players made millions of dollars at the expense of Las Vegas Casinos. The original book accurately explained what Ken Uston and his teams did, but it did not explain exactly how they did it. Thus, the reader of the original book learned little or nothing about how to replicate the experiences of his teams. Now that Ken is no longer with us, one of the surviving members of his teams reveals for the first time herein exactly how Ken Uston was able to accomplish what he did, including the exact card counting methods used, which are NOT the methods described in “Beat the Dealer”, how Ken Uston and his teams managed to avoid detection, the pitfalls and problems they encountered in the casinos and why the team eventually broke up The original book has been updated with technical information by team member Roy Hoppe explaining how the team and card counting systems worked. Roy Hoppe is a rated chess master and a professional bridge player. He was a professional blackjack player until he "retired" from the game for reasons explained in this book.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ken Uston was born on January 12, 1935 in New York City. He graduated from Yale and earned an MBA at Harvard University. He became Vice-President of the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange. He is the author of several books on computer science and computer games. He died in Paris, France on September 19, 1987 at age 52. Roy Hoppe is a rated chess master and a professional bridge player. He was a professional blackjack player until he "retired" from the game for reasons explained in the book. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 217 pages
• Publisher: Holt, Rinehart and Winston; 1st edition (1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0030169216
• ISBN-13: 978-0030169212
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #688,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #69 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Blackjack

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great adventure of a team of players out to beat the casino!, November 17, 2002

By 

K. Morris (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Big Player: How a Team of Blackjack Players Made a Million Dollars (Hardcover)

Back in the late 70's and early 80's, Ken Uston was the king of blackjack. The Big Player is a story of his adventures where he gets recruited into a team of card counters to play and win blackjack against the casinos. This book does not present any card counting systems. It is a book about the stories he had after going up against the casinos.

He had a wild ride and discusses the never ending battle between his teams and the casinos. How they'd get barred, different tactics and strategies they used, team play, etc.

If you are interested in card counting of blackjack, you'll love this story.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lucky enough to own it!, December 3, 2003

By 

JB "JB" (Palm Springs, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Big Player: How a Team of Blackjack Players Made a Million Dollars (Hardcover)

I consider myself lucky to have a hardcover copy of this book. It reads like fiction while still providing quite a bit of insight into the world of a professional blackjack team. While casino conditions have changed, most of the presented information is still valuable for any serious blackjack player.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exactly what I wanted., June 16, 2010

By 

L. Lenhart - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Big Player: How a Team of Blackjack Players Made a Million Dollars (Hardcover)

Thank you for your book. This is exactly what I was looking for. I will definitely purchase more books from you in the future.