The Big Book of Blackjack
Cardoza Publishing
$17.95 - 375 pages
By Arnold Snyder
Reviewed by Zengrifter
Recently, on Fathers' Day, I received a surprise in my mailbox - Snyder's new Big Book of Blackjack. I had been anticipating this book for over two years, having first heard of its pending release in '04 when I was the resident gambling expert at the downtown Las Vegas Gambler's General Store - a job I landed as I arrived at the halfway-house after a 14-month stint in the federal prison camp system (see
Zengrifter Interview).
As I began to learn more about Big Book, I was generally increasingly disappointed - after all, Arnold Snyder wrote the best single book on card-counting of all time: Blackbelt in Blackjack. Blackbelt, I tell everyone and anyone, is the veritable Bible of card-counting, and now in its third revision since its first release nearly a quarter century ago, Blackbelt has remained entirely relevant and up to date - something that no other single advantage-play gambling author has accomplished.
But, alas, as I heard more information about the coming Big Book I was informed that it would not contain the cutting-edge counting information. And after all, how could it? As I said, Blackbelt already covers all things counting.
Well, the Father's Day surprise was fitting. Am I a father? You bet - I have two children: me and my stepdaughter, 'NPK', who first learned basic strategy at age 13 and first provided her services as a BP when she was 18, using a novelty ID I gave her for her birthday.
Well to my surprise, the first thing that struck me is the size of Big Book - its a BIG book, and at just shy of 400 pages it is THE BIGGEST damn book ever devoted entirely to blackjack!
But, of course, bigger isn't always better.
So, I began to initially speed read this tome but then I immediately decelerated at page 19 - A 'Mystery History' of Blackjack - page after page of the most amazing and untold story about the rather murky origins of our beloved game. The history section, was riveting! A tour 'de force romp through the ages filled with gamesters, gangsters, scientists, philosophers and cons. With 80 pages devoted to a history of the game, alone, Big Book has secured its place as a scholarly work, revealing for the first time a definitive and well researched plot curve and time-line of the game's evolution, from the 1500s to present. At once both the most entertaining and thorough work ever spun on the subject.
So, for my money the History section alone is worth the price of Big Book, but it has much more to offer, still.
I have often been hard-pressed to recommend a good beginner's book on blackjack when queried by friends or acquaintances . So-called beginner books often are so overly simplistic that I simply recommend a basic strategy card. Or I've been known to suggest Snyder's Blackbelt, but I really feel that newcomers can get lost and fail to understand that all I wanted them to start with was the basic chart. Last year Eliot Jacobson's Blackjack Zone was an understandable work for the beginner and recreational player, and I felt that I finally had the book for all the other "civilians" who might occasionally want to know what to read.
But The Big Book, likely Snyder's final blackjack book, is now uniquely the one single book that most players of casual interest will ever need - covering the subject from the most elementary rules and procedures, to the application of the Red 7 counting system to, not only, regular blackjack in its varied forms, but also the correct basic and count strategies for beating Double Exposure, Super Fun, Spanish, BJ Switch and other variants. And it doesn't stop there. Snyder covers most all of the beatable and increasingly popular side bets like Royal Match, Lucky Ladies, Over/Under, etc.
Imagine, a beginner's book with a wealth of information that cannot be found even in the experts' books!
And more even - philosophy of gambling, casino mentality, cheating and how to recognize it, controversies, and a rogues' gallery of virtually everyone who has made an impact on the game and stories which, before now, have never been told!
In summation, this is a book that not only should be in every counter's library, but also is THE book for dad, uncle Jim, your sister in law, and just about anyone who you might consider making a gift to within this genre.
And at the jacket price of $17.95 The Big Book of Blackjack is without doubt the best information and entertainment value ever published on the subject of casino twenty one.
"Two big thumbs up", as Roger Ebert would say!
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The Big Book of Blackjack by Arnold Snyder
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