Reading a book on roulette may not seem like a worthwhile usage of your time – after all, the game is largely a matter of luck. Blackjack, though. Now that’s another matter. This is the game that made casinos fashionable amongst a whole new crowd, attracting punters who were convinced that the human brain could outwit the mathematics of card-play. Time has shown that few can really hope to defeat the flip of the cards, but that’s largely a matter of lacking the requisite dedication and nerve. Peruse these tomes, and put in the long hours of study and practice, and you might yet join the blackjack elite.
5. Edward O Thorp – Beat the Dealer
Here’s the book that kicked off blackjack’s golden legend. It might be a bit dated now – it is coming up to its 50th anniversary – but it’s still great to hold this fantastic tome on the palm of your hand, and feel the weight of history. What Thorp did was to take a low-down casino game and underpin it with a strong mathematical foundation. His work would inspire Lawrence Revere to come up with some interesting variations on his own ideas – so much so that Thorp produced a later edition of his original, this time featuring many of Revere’s ideas. Beat the Dealer maybe lacks a little character, and if you want to see brilliant ideas illustrated through interesting anecdotes, you might prefer another early classic, Stanford Wong’s brilliant ‘Professional Blackjack’. Nonetheless, this is the fount of all knowledge, the place where it all began..
4. Frank Scoblete – Best Blackjack
And this is where *you* should probably begin. This book is currently out of print, but you can find plenty of Amazon Marketplace sellers happy to offload copies for a modest price. As an all-round intro to everything blackjack, this is a superb offering. Fun to read, but packed with stores of information on every aspect of blackjack, Scoblete covers the important groundwork with verve and skill, brilliantly explaining basic strategy before going on to provide a neat overview of card counting systems and other in-house tactics. The diary is a great little addition that lets you see into the mind of a hard-nosed gambler. This is the book that you should read first.
3. Lance Humble – The World’s Greatest Blackjack Book
Once you’ve covered the basics, though, you’ll really need to brush up on your card counting techniques. The 0.5% house edge means that even if you’re playing flawless basic strategy, you’re still guaranteed to lose over the long term. Luckily, the whole point of Edward O Thorp’s original work was that you could beat the house, provided you learnt to count cards. And in Humble’s book, you get taken step by step through the watertight Hi-Opt system. It might be a good idea to start this one after the even easier Olaf Vancura’s Knock-Out Blackjack – perhaps the best low-level introduction to high-level card counting – but those who’ve studied and absorbed Humble will already be on the road to greatness.
2. Fred Renzey – Blackjack Bluebook II: The Simplest Winning Strategies Ever Published
This is a grab-bag of brilliant ideas and asides. Renzey covers plenty of topics, dropping in nuggets on almost every page. It’s not one you’ll want to start with, but once you’ve covered basic strategy, and have got your card counting off the ground, this superb selection of hints and tricks will allow you to add extra nuance to your game. You could always check out blackjack bluebook 1 for beginners featuring intermediate and some advanced blackjack strategies.
1. Don Schlesinger – Blackjack Attack
Fittingly, we’ve saved the last – and the biggest – for last. This complex and far-reaching book is the finishing school for blackjack readers. It should definitely be the last of these books that you read, if you’re to get the full value from it, but this is gold dust turned into paper. Schlesinger takes a host of advanced theories and techniques, and shows you how to apply them to table after table, casino after casino – and all without being detected. You’ll need to read it several times, and complement it with regular visits to the casino, but if you want to become a professional blackjack player, this outstanding work is the one to read, digest, and practise, practise, practise.