Review of Professional Blackjack
- Title:
- Professional Blackjack
- Author:
- Stanford Wong
- Publisher:
- Pi Yee Press
- Date:
- 1994
- ISBN:
- 0-935926-21-6
- Pages:
- 352
- Price:
- $19.95
June 10, 2001
There are many counting systems used by serious blackjack players, but
possibly the most commonly used is the High-Low count. Stanford Wong wasn't
the first person to come up with this counting method, but due to his
research and published information, his name will forever be linked with
it. Professional Blackjack is Wong's
comprehensive description of how to play this system.
Wong starts at the beginning, with a description of the game of blackjack,
definition of common terms, and basic strategy. This is all the sort of
solid information that one would expect from the author. He then moves
into explaining the High-Low count system in considerable detail, how
it works, what its edge is, how strategy changes with the count for
a wide variety of game rules, taking insurance, etc.. This is almost
as comprehensive as his work in Basic Blackjack, including
such tables as count adjusted strategies for four card hands if the
game pays a six card automatic winner. Some of the information, like
this last example, is probably more detailed than the reader is
likely to need. I can't imagine that anybody has taken the time to
memorize all of these tables. However, the information is here if one
wants it.
Wong also provides information on a count to beat the Over/Under 13
side-game offered at some casinos (although I haven't seen it in years),
as well as a detailed explanation of the very complex three-level Wong
Halves Count. If one is interested in these systems, this book is the
place to look for them.
After this, Wong covers some miscellaneous topics, such as
one's expected win rate, optimal bet sizing, ace side-counts, and a great
deal of research on the effects of shuffles and the search for the
elusive "card clumping" phenomenon. This is good information. Finally,
the book concludes with about 100 pages of charts showing computer
simulations of hands and situations, win rates for various games,
initial hand frequencies, a glossary, and a good, if slightly dated
at the time I write this, bibliography.
This book was originally written long before Don Schlesinger wrote
his "Illustrious 18" article for Blackjack Forum (later
published in his excellent book Blackjack Attack) which
triggered a great deal of interest in quantitatively prioritizing which
strategy variations are worth the time to memorize and which are not.
Therefore, there's a lot of information in this book that's really not
worth the effort to keep in one's head. However, the reader can count
on the information presented in Professional Blackjack to
be correct.
This is a very thorough treatment of the High-Low count, probably more so
than one needs. The book doesn't cover key issues like one's act,
betting structures, etc., but that information is available elsewhere,
including other books by Wong. Therefore, if someone is researching which
counting system they ought to use, I'd recommend reading Wong's
Blackjack Secrets first, and then if one decided to use
the High-Low, (or if information on the Over-Under 13 or Wong's
Halves Count was interesting), then they should definitely pick up
Professional Blackjack. However, even if one doesn't
learn the High-Low, this book would still be an extraordinarily worthwhile
part of the blackjack player's library.
Capsule:
This is Wong's exhaustive description of the High-Low count system. Anyone
who has decided to use this system will definitely want this book, but
if one is searching for which system to use, I'd recommend reading Wong's
Blackjack Secrets to evaluate the High-Low. However, even
if one uses another count, this is a very useful book for any card counter,
and it belongs on the shelf of every serious blackjack player.
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