Twenty-First Century Blackjack [Paperback]

Walter Thomason (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 1995

Thomason offers a revolutionary alternative to card counting -- a betting system that is easy to learn, impervious to casino harassment and, most importantly, more profitable than flat or so-called inspired betting. Thomason conducts live casino field tests joined by several gaming experts.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Walter Thomason

Product Details

• Paperback: 229 pages
• Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing (June 30, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156625132X
• ISBN-13: 978-1566251327
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #641,364 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #69 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Blackjack

More About the Author

I've been a recreational gambler since I was a child. My Mom taught me the basics of poker when I was old enough to recognize numbers on cards, and never hesitated to win back my allowance if I called a hand I should have folded! My interest in blackjack bagan after college when some friends invited me on a junket to the Bahamas... quickly lost my meager bankroll, but became fascinated with the game. After MANY years of being a consistent loser at the game I bagan looking for methods of play beyond just playing with Basic Strategy and flat betting. Several years of trials and experimentation led me to believe that the betting system explained in my book, Twenty-first Century Blackjack, was the most effective way to beat this game and improve my overall win percentage.
Ten years have passed since the book was published, and I still receive letters from players who found success using my recommended method of play, and I still use it when I play blackjack.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save your money!, June 29, 2000

By 

Roger Harris "rog" (Colorado Springs, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Twenty-First Century Blackjack (Paperback)

The most important thing you need to know about this book is that Thomason's system simply does NOT work. Despite Thomason's claims, there is no logical reason to think it should work; there is no convincing (that is, statistically significant) evidence that it does work; and there is CONSIDERABLE evidence, from both math and computer simulations, that it does NOT work. I have simulated this system using CVSim (a popular commercial simulator), with my own simulator, and with a modified version of a "freeware" simulator. All together, I have the results from many billions of hands. All three simulators gave precisely the same result: This progression produces slightly worse results, in terms of amount lost per dollar bet, than flat betting. My own simulator also accumulated results by "sessions" ranging from 100 hands (about an hour of playing time) up to 50,000 hands, and it also compared flat betting to the progression on the same hands, as Thomason does in the book. In ALL cases, the progression had fewer winning sessions than flat betting, and flat betting beat the progression in more than half the sessions. It seems likely that Thomason was merely self-deluded at the time he wrote the book (as a result of the insignificant number of blackjack hands that he used for testing), but he now knows about these results, after lengthy debate with myself and others on Stanford Wong's [...] forum. It's hard now for me to avoid the conclusion that Thomason simply doesn't care that a lot of people will lose a lot of money playing this system. You don't need to be one of them. Do NOT fall for the idiotic "reasoning" that since card counting is hard, you should play a progression. This is really just an example of Thomason's inability to deal with ordinary logic.

29 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Is Great, February 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Twenty-First Century Blackjack (Paperback)

I have won most of my sessions of play since I bought this book. It is very well written and the author does know what he is talking about. he has data to back up his ideas. If you don't want to learn how to count cards, then this is the next best thing. if you do want to count cards and learn advantage play methods I would recommend Best Blackjack by Frank Scoblette, who wrote introduction to this book, or KO Blackjack by Olaf Fuchs and Ken Ventura. But for me, I like the positive progression that the author describes and I really like the money that I've won!

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Remarkable Strategy, December 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Twenty-First Century Blackjack (Paperback)

Really a much needed work looking at areas in blackjack that have for much too long been ignored. A fresh approach that could well be the first step in a new path at beating the game. Although the book focusses mainly on a 5000 hand sample (that is much too small) for analyses, this sample is reasonably representative of actual real world expectations. I have played this game for over 20 years and found Mr. Thomason's ideas to comply with my observasions - I am glad that someone has at last come forward to share such new ideas in a simple and clear 'no frills' way. This book is certainly not going to go down well with the card-counting community, but then again, their days are COUNTED and it is good news to know that there is hope to surpass the old expectations in the modern game. My gut feeling is that this book may well become a classic like 'Beat the dealer' did thirtysomething years ago.