Cutting Edge Blackjack [Paperback]

Richard Harvey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2002

THE most state-of-the-art blackjack best-seller on the market today. Based upon history-making card and computer studies.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 317 pages
• Publisher: Mystic Ridge Productions Inc; 1 edition (April 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967218241
• ISBN-13: 978-0967218243
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,560,684 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pick This Up And See For Yourself, August 15, 2007

By 

Bea True (Princeton, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cutting Edge Blackjack, Second Edition (Paperback)

I attended a recent seminar by Mr. Harvey at which we discussed the negative reviews on Amazon that appear to be written either by disgruntled competiting authors (whose books have been made obsolete by Mr. Harvey's books) or casino types who don't want readers to learn how to beat the house. I went home, then, and read the reviews and I have to say I'm appalled that the snakes who write under fictitious names and post critical comments that have nothing to do with the content of Mr. Harvey's books should be allowed to post self-serving remarks that are filled with lies. There is not one true remark in all of the pretend critical comments on this site. I encourage you to pick up the book and see for yourself. It's a shame that Amazon doesn't police these "reader" reviews and remove the offensive and self-serving ones that do an injustice to such great books as this one.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing, May 27, 2003

By 

Joseph Koskey (Pennsville,NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cutting Edge Blackjack (Paperback)

Having already read his first book, Blackjack the Smart Way, I knew what to expect with Richard Harvey. Much like his first book, I love the fact that he doesnt portray the game to be a lesson in quantum physics and understands that the things he teaches have to be practical. He understands that the game is everchanging at the table and being able to quickly employ a quick but educated decision with a strong foundation in basic strategy is vital. Rather than inundate the reader with twenty charts to memorize knowing full well the average player is going to draw a blank in the casino environment if this is the extent of their knowledge, he concerns himself more with helping the player think on his feet but keeping a strong foundation in basic strategy.
The bottom line for me is how comfortable the system makes me at the table and results. I feel much more comfortable at the table than I did a few years ago and the results paid for the book a hundred times over in five short visits. The book is a refreshing mix of Revere and Thorpe with modern day innovations for todays game. I'd recommend this book whole heartedly.

16 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars If you must own one book about blackjack, this is not it., March 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Cutting Edge Blackjack (Paperback)

This book is very odd. It talks way down to blackjack-savy readers although it's an advanced appendix to Harvey's earlier book, Blackjack the Smart Way. It says obvious things that most players already know: for example, that even when the dealer has a 6 there's less than a 50% chance of him busting. On the other hand, it gives advice on how to count other player's face-down cards. This is odd because the book never covers counting itself! Apparently he uses a simple hi/low count, but who can tell? It cetainly doesn't cover strategy changes based on count. Therefore it's bad for both beginners and advanced players.

For being so long, it's almost devoid of any practical playing advice. The author commits 26 pages-two for each card-showing how dealer up cards can be "absolute ducks" or "absolute bucks". But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the dealer has a weak hand if a 6 hides under his strong ten. Harvey just includes these simplistic charts "to teach you just how variable up card behavior is." (pg. 180)

Much of the work is polemical. Harvey takes gleefully unorthodox positions and ridicules conventional wisdom by deliberatly mispresenting its arguements. For example, he dismisses the possibility that playing head-to-head against the dealer is a sure way to see all preceeding cards. He says you only see a few cards simultaneously at the table head-to-head whereas in a multiplayer game you see many. (Actually, you don't because they're face down, but Harvey says that's OK because you can predict what they are!) At any rate, in a later section he shows he does understand the arguement for head-to-head play: that a more acurate count is achieved for play decisions. He just chooses to take pot-shots at his opponents.

A megalomaniac, every chapter features "inventions" and "discoveries" by Harvey. Most pathetic is his "Circle of 13" (which he always capitalizes, just like that) showing how you can predict the remaining cards when you have a deck of 13 cards. Duh. This might cut it in yuppie seminars, but brainless demonstrations with stupid names are no help to the serious gambler.

Finally, I would recommend against playing with what little advice Harvey conveys. Why? Because he has no understanding of probability and statistics, the math upon which gambling is built. He argues at length that different seats at the blackjack table have unique trends. This begs the question: if someone get up and leaves, might you suddenly be sitting at a "bad" seat? At any rate, he cites evidence for these trends by showing charts with "sine waves, plateaus, up-swings and down-swings." But these are to be expected in the course of random play. He also cites simulations. For example, a computerized player has a strong up-trend for a number of hands. Over time he recieves 70 cards, but never gets 9 cards from the deck--mostly low cards, accounting for his up-trend. This is supposedly because there are "orbiting cards" that gravitate toward certain players at a table. Harvey says that statistics say "we should find...at least each of the 52 different cards represented" in these 70 cards (pg. 115). That's flat wrong! Think of this: you roll a die 8 times. The odds are actually against you having rolled all six numbers. Likewise, for 70 cards dealt, the number you would expect to be unrepresented is (52 cards * (70nCr0)*((1/52)^0)*((51/52)^70)) = 52*1*1*0.256849 = about 13 cards! In otherwords, Harvey's example shows the reverse of what it purports to. In another example, he says there were 10 cards undealt in a run of games lasting 88 cards. The average is 9! Harvey's numbers actually show his simulated players are getting random cards! This invalidates half the book. It also proves Harvey is less qualified than your average statistics student.

I recommend Blackjack for Blood by Bryce Carlton. Not only does it give you a wealth of practical playing information, it also gives realistic expectations about the capital and patience you need to win. Such sober-mindedness is completely absent in Cutting Edge Blackjack. I wouldn't recommend anyone buy this tribute to Richard Harvey's vanity.