BLACKJACK PLAYING THE PROS' WAY BY DON SCHLESINGER Blackjack Attack Playing the Pros' Way Copyright © 1997 by Donald Schlesinger All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated, reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts for purposes of review. Portions of this book have previously appeared in different fonn in Blackjack Forum magazine, 1984-96. Published by: RGE Publishing 414 Santa Clara Avenue Oakland CA 94610 (510) 465-6452 FAX: (510) 652-4330 Web site: www.rge21.com a-mail:
[email protected] Cover design by Judy Robertson First Edition 12345678910 ISBN: 0-910575-04-5 Blackjack Attack "Errata": P. vii: In the l'able of Contents~ hSuggested References" should be ""Selected References" ~ P 35: 'rhe last nUfllber on the next-to-Iastline of the first paragraph should be .000 I704 ~ P. II.J: There is an equal sign nlissing after the tirsl expression for the value ofw~ to the right of the fractional expression; I>. I.JO: The second equation, on the bottonl, to the right, is nlissing a . . p ~ " in front of the expression for bankroll requirement; P. 167: The coluflln headings for the Table 9.7 HExponential Functions" are x missing. '("hey should be: x, e'" and e- • The same headings are repeated, to the right; 1).177: The last expression at the end of the third paragraph should rcad: "W/L SEO/o"; P. 264: ·rhe dates for the laSI entry in II (JYoIIg 's JJlll('~illCk Ne,vsletter) should be 1979-84. DEDICATION This book is dedicated to all of my family 'members, past and present, whose love and support have encouraged me to pursue my studies ofthe game of casino twenty-one. Their patience and understanding, throughout my career of playing, teaching, and writing about blackjack, have certainly contributed, in large measure, to any success I may have achieved in these fields. The book is also dedicated to the memory of three dear blackjack-playing friends: Lester White, Joel Waller, and Paul Keen, whom I miss very much. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This list of acknowledgments is quite long, simply because, over the course of these past twenty years, so many people have been instrumental in contributing to my knowledge of blackjack. And so, I would like to thank: The one and only Stanford Wong. He, perhaps more than any other individual, has furthered our knowledge ofthe game of blackjack and its subtleties. I'm proud to call him my friend. His help, throughout the years, has been invaluable to me. In particular, Professional Blackjack and the Blackjack Count Analyzer will forever stand, in my opinion, as two ofthe most important resource tools to have ever been created for our study of the game. I thank him, as well, for his Foreword to this book. Arnold Snyder, who gave me a