Don Schlesinger
Author of Blackjack Attack, Blackjack Hall of Fame member and longtime BlackjackInfo forum member, who reviewed our blackjack trainers.
By Tum
Last reviewed
Don Schlesinger is a blackjack author and gaming mathematician, and a member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame. He wrote Blackjack Attack: Playing the Pros’ Way, one of the standard references for serious card counters, and he named the Illustrious 18 and the Fab 4. He is also a longtime member of the BlackjackInfo forum and a reviewer of our blackjack trainers.
His Work in Blackjack
- Blackjack Attack: Playing the Pros’ Way. First published in 1997 and now in its third edition, it covers optimal betting, risk, team play, camouflage and how to compare counting systems and games.
- The Illustrious 18 and the Fab 4. His 1986 article “Attacking the Shoe,” published in Blackjack Forum, ranked the index plays by how much they gain over basic strategy. That work gave counters the Illustrious 18, the 18 index plays worth the most to a card counter, and the Fab 4, the four most valuable surrender plays.
- Blackjack Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 2015.
- Background. He holds a B.S. in mathematics from the City College of New York. He taught mathematics and French in New York City schools, and from 1984 to 1998 he was a principal at a Wall Street investment bank.
Don at BlackjackInfo
Don is one of the most experienced voices on the BlackjackInfo forum, where he regularly joins discussions on basic strategy, card counting and the math behind the game.
He has also helped shape our practice tools. He reviewed our Blackjack Strategy Trainer and Card Counting Trainer as they were built, playing them the way a serious player would and checking the strategy, the index plays and the dealing against a real casino game. His feedback is a big part of why both trainers play the way they do.
His review covers these two trainers.
Books by Don Schlesinger
Blackjack Attack: Playing the Pros’ Way
Don’s best known book, now in its third edition. It is where many card counters first meet the Illustrious 18, and it goes deep on betting, risk and choosing the best games.
The Hi-Lo Card Counting System: A Complete Guide to Index Play
Written with Dave Brolley and published in 2023, this is a complete reference to Hi-Lo index plays, ranking each play by how much it adds to a counter’s game.
More About Don
Tum
BlackjackInfo.com administrator
Tum administers BlackjackInfo.com and moderates its forum, and has worked across the LCB network of casino, poker and sports affiliate sites for more than ten years.