Review of Get the Edge at Blackjack
- Title:
- Get the Edge at Blackjack
- Author:
- John May
- Publisher:
- Bonus Books
- Date:
- 2001
- ISBN:
- 1-56625-151-6
- Pages:
- 167
- Price:
- $13.95
August 12, 2001
Advantage blackjack has come a long way since the days of Thorpe. With
casinos using facial recognition systems, computers that count cards
along with the player, and other high-tech mechanisms, if players aren't
continually improving their skills they soon wouldn't be able to find
a game anywhere. What new methods are there that a player can use
to get an advantage over the casinos? Several answers to this question
can be found in Get the Edge at Blackjack.
In his new book, John May discusses many techniques which can be used
to get an edge against the house at blackjack. The first chapter covers
basic strategy and card counting, summarizing some of the most significant
literature on the topic. May also compares several of the
most popular card counting systems, largely summarizing the work of the
late Peter Griffin in his seminal book, Theory of Blackjack.
Next, May moves on to cover some other ways one can gain an advantage,
including card sequencing, dealer hole card play, and exploiting dealer
errors. Here May also covers the new automatic shuffling machines and
explains Kelly betting, although several chapters after it was first
introduced, which might be confusing. The author also covers some
miscellaneous topics, including spooking, playing blackjack on Internet
casinos, and a play May calls "The Stacker".
These are all interesting advantage plays, but May's description is
very superficial. The book ends up being like a survey course, where
the reader is informed about the existence of each of these techniques,
but none of them are covered in sufficient depth to truly benefit the
reader. For example, I know about front loading, that is, looking
for a dealer who will flash their hole card to the players, but I don't
know how to look for this without appearing suspicious, I'm told something
called a "T-scope" will help train me for this, but I don't know where
to get one or how to build one, not to mention how I should bet without
giving away what I'm doing to the casino.
At least the latter question is answered in James Grosjean's
Beyond Counting, but my main complaint with Grosjean's
book is that he doesn't provide enough details on technique, but this
is far more true of May's book.
While a lot of topics are covered, none are covered in significant
detail. Get the Edge at Blackjack refers to a large number
of excellent books and articles which cover these topics in more
depth, but in my opinion, most of these sources should be part of
every serious blackjack player's library. Therefore, this book
would be very useful to someone new to advantage blackjack play who is
looking for an overview and advice on how they ought to proceed, or
it might be valuable to someone who hasn't followed the field for
a number of years looking to get caught up-to-date. However, there
are only a few topics here that aren't covered in more detail
elsewhere. The well-read blackjack player would probably be better
served by Grosjean's book than this one.
Capsule:
Get the Edge at Blackjack discusses a large number of
advantage techniques in the game of blackjack. The coverage is very
shallow, which is just fine for a "survey course" for novices or for those
that have been out of the game for a while, but the blackjack player
who has kept current can probably afford to pass on this one. Even
though it also lacks some details, I think that James Grosjean's
Beyond Counting is a better book covering many of these
topics, although a more expensive one and containing some difficult
math. Even though the
information in May's book isn't very detailed, what's is there is
pretty interesting, so it's likely that most readers will find at
least some sections worthwhile.
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