Review of Sklansky Talks Blackjack
- Title:
- Sklansky Talks Blackjack
- Author:
- David Sklansky
- Publisher:
- Two Plus Two Publishing
- Date:
- 1999
- ISBN:
- 1-880685-21-3
- Pages:
- 140
- Price:
- $19.95
July 4, 1999
There are a lot of very good books that contribute to the wealth of
Blackjack knowledge available today, but few of them are aimed at
the true beginner. In Sklansky Talks Blackjack, noted
gambling authority David Sklansky
attempts to provide a substantive work that meets the needs of the
neophyte card counter.
Sklansky Talks Blackjack starts with an explanation of
why card counting works and a general description of how the game of
Blackjack is played in the modern casino. It's all pretty straightforward
and well written, but nothing we haven't seen before. He also explains
how to count, using the familiar Hi-Low as his system, and makes some
suggestions on how the beginner should go about becoming proficient with
this system.
The second chapter is where the action is. Sklansky devotes a couple
pages to each player hand total
explaining both basic strategy and variations from basic
strategy as the count changes. The novelty of Sklansky's approach is
that he does this with no charts, only with a conversational explanation,
hence the title of the book. This seems to work fairly well, although
certainly charts are far more compact and, therefore, more efficient.
However, a
not insubstantial number of people will probably find Sklansky's technique
easier to comprehend. Besides presenting the strategy, Sklansky also tries
to motivate the reasons why a particular play is made and why deviations
from it are appropriate at various count levels. Sklansky gives up a
little in precision here, dealing with basic strategy deviations at
small and large positive and negative counts rather than at particular
values. This is easier for the beginner to understand without giving
up a great deal in expectation.
The third chapter covers basic casino comportment here. Not a lot of
new ideas are covered, but there were one or two that were interesting
that I haven't heard before. He then provides an even more
basic presentation of how the mechanics of casino Blackjack work,
including hand and card signals to indicate to the dealer how players
intends to play their hand. Finally, Sklansky gives us a brief set of
other references the reader may wish to consult.
It should come as no surprise to readers familiar with other Sklansky
works that his explanations are clear, concise, and accurate. Sklansky
certainly achieves his goal of providing a high quality introduction
to card counting at Blackjack without the use of charts. Therefore, I
definitely recommend it to its target audience. Even though there are
a couple of tidbits of information that everyone may not
have been completely familiar with, I don't think there's
enough new here to make it worth the investment for the experienced
card counter. Overall, I'd have to rank this as my second favorite
book for the beginning Blackjack card counter after Vancura and Fuchs'
KO Blackjack. Sklansky Talks Blackjack is
certainly a good work of comparable quality, and I'd give it an even
more enthusiastic endorsement for those folks who think they're likely
to have difficulty memorizing Blackjack strategy charts.
Capsule:
A very good introductory book on card counting at Blackjack. I think
it's one of the best books for the rank novice, especially for those
people who have trouble memorizing tables and think more verbally.
Those folks who are already familiar with a card counting system
aren't as likely to find this book worth their while.
Click here to return to the index of reviews.
|