Blackjack Books

Despite the title, this is not the book to start off with if you want to learn basic blackjack strategy. Though there is a fairly interesting section devoted to warps and tells, what this book is mainly about is providing a comprehensible overview of all the rule variations you could come across playing blackjack in casinos world wide. You’ll never feel at a complete loss in a foreign casino when faced with rules you aren’t accustomed to while armed with this manual. Planning a trip soon? Check it out.

Edward Thorp’s Beat the Dealer is the book that put card counting on the map. It was a huge best-seller in its day, and though the systems described in it are largely outdated Thorp’s genius still commands admiration. As a cornerstone of card counting history this book is a must-read to all who consider card counting professionally. Read more about this book.

Despite the dated sources (mostly 1999-2000), Bill Haywood’s BeatWebCasinos.com is still the most useful guide out there on how to make money off online casinos. It takes so much more than just cashing in on the right bonuses, and Haywood explains this with great honesty. If you are thinking of playing at a web casino and making a profit, read this book first to find out about the administrative and legal strategies you will need to make it happen. Read more…

Especially the sections on the history of blackjack make this an excellent book. Though there is also lots of information on the Red Sevens count and basic strategy variations for many different types of blackjack games, what really stands out in this book is Snyder’s expertise when it comes to blackjack history and casino experience. Read the full review of The Big Book of Blackjack here!

Ken Uston’s The Big Player was a controversial book to say the least. In it, blackjack team strategy was explained, which led to the disbanding of his former team leader Al Francesco’s blackjack team and caused a rift between Francesco and Uston. But The Big Player was not the end of team play. On the contrary: A little more than a year after it’s publication the first MIT team was put together. Read the full review here.

Arnold Snyder’s Blackbelt in Blackjack: Playing 21 as a Martial Art is a valuable book for the beginning blackjack player, and is designed to help you from being a complete beginner to an understanding of pro techniques such as shuffle tracking and team play. The middle section will be espcially useful, featuring a good discussion on betting strategies and how to avoid being detected by casino personel. Read the full review here.

Fred Renzey’s Blackjack Bluebook II may not be the simplest blackjack book out there, and less suited for beginning players than its introductory chapters would suggest, it does a great job bridging the gap between basic strategy and the High/Low Count with more accessible card counting systems and clever manoeuvres not usually introduced in print. If you’ve mastered basic strategy but are not sure about the next step, check out this book.

Rick “Night Train” Blaine’s fairly recent Blackjack Blueprint is an excellent text on the game, covering everything from basic strategy for beginning players to advanced strategies and essential information for experts. Though the book remains accessible throughout, it is not only written for the casual player. Experts may also find certain chapters of this book very useful. Read more about Blackjack Blueprint.

One of the most famous blackjack books of all time, Bringing Down the House tells the story of the MIT Blackjack team’s students beating casinos all over the world and making millions by using their advanced card counting strategies. This is their compelling story in which they explain everything from how the idea was born and how they kept it a secret to getting into the big high-roller parties and winning huge profits. Read on about Bringing Down the House.

In this book casino manager and advantage player Bill Zender explains the logic behind the application of protective strategies in casinos. Though Casino-ology is aimed at gaming executives, suggesting improvements to casino policies, it may also help the advantage player gain insight into the logic and limits of protective tactics. Zender investigates when and how to implement protective measures, how the skill level is divided among card counters and whether they really form a threat to casino profits. Read more about this book.

In this book Olaf Vancura and Ken Fuchs explain the workings of the simple but powerful KO card counting system. To a player looking the get serious about card counting this book will be a step up towards understanding and mastering more complex techniques later on, to a casual player this book should suffice. It explains both the KO Rookie count and the slightly more difficult KO Preferred system. Take a look at our full review of this book.

Ken Uston was the king of blackjack in the 70s and 80s. Uston’s Million Dollar Blackjack is not the book to use to learn basic strategy or card counting, for which there are newer and more organized books, but if you are interested in the history of card counting and blackjack this is a valuable book. Uston was a relentless self-promoter and the stories with which the strategy guide parts of the text are punctuated reflect an engaging flair and include a lot of historical detail. Read the full review here.

Stanford Wong’s classic Professional Blackjack explains the Wong Halves and High-Low card counting systems. Although some information in this book is a little dated, it is still one of the most authorative works on the High-Low count available, and of use to novice players who know basic strategy as well as more seasoned advantage players. It features many useful charts and accessible explanations of the maths underlying advantage play. Read more about this book here.