Professional Blackjack

Stanford Wong‘s Professional Blackjack is one of the classics. It marks a new era in card counting and revolutionized the accessibility of card counting techniques. Published in 1976, there is some information in there which is a little dated, but this is still probably the best book out there if you want to master the High-Low card counting system.

Professional Blackjack lacks the anecdotes and entertainment value of many other books on blackjack and card counting, but the writing is organized and the information is solid. It presents two card counting systems. One of these is Wong Halves, which is complex and will only hail the best results in very specific circumstances which are harder to find in a casino these days. The other is the High-Low system, and this is the information which makes this book such a valuable resource. Though it is an accessible book, it is advisable to learn basic strategy before tackling this information. However, once you have that covered, Professional Blackjack is the book that will help a novice advantage player move forward by great leaps.

The book also remains a useful source of information for more advanced players using the High-Low system. It covers just about everything you need to know about the system (though it does perhaps fall short a little in its discussion on the importance of deck penetration), the math behind the counting is accessible and concisely explained, and the many strategy charts and expected value charts Wong provides are easy to comprehend. This book teaches the reader a lot about Blackjack in general, and provides a lot of useful practical information in a concise and organized way without any frills or big-talk.