Blackbelt in Blackjack : Playing 21 as a Martial Art (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In the spirit of Doyle Brunson's Super System, Arnold Snyder's Blackbelt in Blackjack is an underground gambling classic written by one of the grand masters of blackjack and a legend. This newly revised and updated edition is now made available for the first time to a national audience. This is blackjack as a martial art, targeted for serious and professional players looking to win real money at the game. Snyder reveals tips and tricks used by the pros-shuffle tracking, team play, multiple deck camouflage techniques so that the casino can't detect that the player is using winning techniques, and much more. 21 powerful chapters include a complete course on beating blackjack: the devastating red 7 count, the hi-lo count, the zen count, the true count, and so much more.

Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: Cardoza; Revised edition (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580421431
• ISBN-13: 978-1580421430
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #153,133 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great introductory work on card counting, June 20, 2001

By	James Jorasch (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Blackbelt in Blackjack: Playing 21 As a Martial Art (Paperback)

As a former Financial Analyst/Games Analyst for the Tropicana in Las Vegas, I used to spend a huge number of hours reading and studying blackjack. I did a lot of research work for the casino whenever they wanted to offer special promotions or make rule changes to table games, so I had to be familiar with a broad range of gambling theory. While gambling books range wildly in quality, "Blackbelt in Blackjack" was one that stood out in my mind. It offered simple - yet powerful - card counting systems such as the Red Seven Count. While other blackjack books touted more complex higher level multi-parameter systems, Snyder was one of the first to advocate simpler systems. He reasoned that while the more complex systems could theoretically make more money per hour, the higher error rate due to mental fatigue and complexity often more than wiped out the gains over simpler systems which resulted in fewer errors. Snyder is also refreshingly honest in terms of expected win rates and the chances of a beginning card counter succeeding. He understands that most players are not looking to turn professional - they have full time jobs and thus cannot be expected to devote all of their waking hours to blackjack. They want to improve their game, enjoy the intellectual challenge of taking on the casinos, and hopefully make a few bucks and earn some comps in the process. If this is you, "Blackbelt in Blackjack" is a great book. If you are a full-time professional and don't mind spending a huge amount of time learning more complex systems and want to extract the absolute maximum win per hour from a blackjack game, then this book may not be for you. My experience is that the former outnumber the latter by a significant margin. The book covers topics from the rudiments of basic blackjack play (including a set of 10 rules that will cut the casino's edge to about 1%) to basic strategy to card counting (including the Red Seven Count and Zen Count). He also discusses bankroll requirements, how to evaluate table conditions, and camouflage. Please note that even a relatively simple system such as the Red Seven can't be learned in a day - it will take many days of hard work to become accurate and comfortable enough to play in a casino.

If you want to learn card counting there are a lot of classic works that you should read, and this book is a great place to start.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A blackjack classic, revised and expanded, a beginner must., June 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Blackbelt in Blackjack: Playing 21 As a Martial Art (Paperback)

Arnold Snyder, well-known blackjack author and expert, updated his 93 classic. An excellent book for those wanting info on balanced and un-balanced counts. His hi-lo lite is a model of simplicity, showing better results than more complicated strategy tables. A great book for anyone just getting into blackjack and in need of some expert advice.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good beginner's text but extremely outdated, May 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Blackbelt in Blackjack: Playing 21 As a Martial Art (Paperback)

This was probably the best introduction available to the art of card-counting. Unfortunately, the 1983 edition teaches concepts which are useless in today's casinos (such as "depth charging"). The game is no longer single-deck dealt to the bottom, but rather multiple decks dealt only partially, or (occasionally) single decks with bad rules dealt out only partially.

The two systems presented, "Red 7s" and "Zen", are still useful today, although "Hi-Lo" and "KO" are more widely used and (in the case of KO) more modern.

Nevertheless, if you are just beginning to learn the game, this was the best book. I look forward to seeing the 1998 edition, to see how well it has been updated.