best blackjack book

Best Blackjack Book That You Should Read

Casino Guide

If you love blackjack but just can’t win, then you need to rely on blackjack books. All the Blackjack books are written by famous authors and expert players. The book mentions the history of blackjack, its rules, and regulations, and tips and tricks. So, if you want to learn about blackjack, then you need to read this guide till the end.

Here’s our guide for the best blackjack book and you can start to play like an expert.

History of Blackjack in Books

The first ever blackjack game was first written about in books in the first 1613. It was published by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes published a story collection named Novelas Ejemplares. 
This suggests that Blackjack was played all throughout the 16th century. This makes it one of the oldest card games in the world.

Best Blackjack Book to Read

There are some of the best black books that covers rules, tips, and how to become an expert in Blackjack. Let’s talk about the best blackjack books.

1. Playing Blackjack to Win

This is the first ever Blackjack book that became incredibly famous. Playing to Win by the Four Horseman was originally printed with 5,000 copies. If you can get your hands on the original publication then you can own something incredibly valuable. 

The type of Blackjack Baldwin and his team played included only a single deck. But, the game has changed today, and the single deck version is basically extinct. This makes the book basically like a learning guide, instead of a book that can help you win at Blackjack. 

2. Beat the Dealer

Written by Edward O. Thorp, beat the dealer takes a completely different take on Blackjack. Beat the Dealer is considered the best Blackjack book. Thorp had a different point of view when it came to Blackjack. Thorp wanted players to be capable enough to revise the house advantage completely. Basically, making sure that the casino has no advantage in the game. 

Edward O. Thorp is also the father of the “10 Count System” which every blackjack player knows about. This came about based on his research and using an IBM 740 computer. 

When players use the 10-count  system, the players start counting with the numbers 36 and 16 in their heads. This makes the tracking of every exposed card easier. 

The book became so famous that casinos all over the world had to come up with strategies to counteract Edward’s measures. This resulted in single-deck games being replaced by double-deck and four-deck shoe games. 

3. Playing Blackjack as a Business

Lawrence Revere (born Griffith K.Owens) started dealing with Blackjack when he was just 13 years old. He started playing blackjack in a barber shop in Iowa. Later on, he got a degree in Mathematics from the University of Nebraska. 

Revere came to Nevada in the 1940s to work as a Casino pit boss while moonlighting as a professional blackjack player. He used multiple aliases while playing blackjack and some of the names became incredibly famous. 

Over time, we looked forward to improving Thorp’s card counting technique. To do so, he collaborated with a computer science engineer to update Thorp’s ten-count system. 

Their work was published in the Blackjack book “Playing Blackjack as a Business,” and it included the advanced point count, the Five Count Strategy, and the Reverse Plus-Minus Strategy. While Edward Thorp’s book is written like a scholar dictating a paper, Revere wrote a book that was easy to understand.

4. Professional Blackjack

All the professional Blackjack players know about Stanford Wong as he’s one of the most famous gambling authors of all time. Plus, Stanford Wong is a pseudonym used by professor John Ferguson to write the books. 

Wong wrote the book as he found Thorp’s books to be inspiring. Also, he wanted to test his own calculations against Thorp’s works.

Wong learned how to count cards after reading the book, but changing rules in Nevada Blackjack games made it complicated to win.

He decided to pursue gambling as a profession and accepted a $1 per month professor salary on the condition that he could skip faculty meetings. After some research and trying out endless counting techniques, he came up with the book “Professional Blackjack.”

One of the techniques he came up with was known as back counting at that time, today, it’s simply known as Wong. Over time, Stanford Wong developed the “Blackjack Analyzer” computer software that helps players to do the counting with ease. After he launched his company, they wrote a range of strategies and blackjack books on multiple casino games.

5. Blackjack Bluebook II

Blackjack Bluebook is probably one of the best blackjack rule books in the world. The book was written especially for novices as an introduction to the game. But the book is split into four sections:

  • Unique Nature of Blackjack 
  • What Makes Blackjack Tick
  • Proper Blackjack Strategy
  • Gaining the Edge

The book basically contains analysis in casual language and simple-to-understand lessons.  In Blackjack Bluebook II, the phrase “Rule of 9” was coined. 

According to the Rule of 9, players that have any ace-2 through ace-7 soft hands just need to add their non-ace card to the dealer’s up card. If you get totals more than 9, it should be doubled down on, totals less than 9 should only hit.

Renzy’s books also contain other rules or blackjack and other tricks. All of them help in making complex lessons easier which casual players can use to their advantage. The Blackjack book is so famous among users as it contains advanced blackjack theory in simple languages that everyone can follow.

Basic Fundamentals of Blackjack

Almost everyone is familiar with the basic fundamentals of Blackjack. If you’re not, then hey there are tons of blackjack book rules that you can read.  The game of blackjack contains a 52-card deck or a shoe containing four or eight decks. All the numbered cards have the same value as the number, cards with faces (Jack, Queen, and King) have a value of 10, while the aces are valued at  1  or 11.

The aim of the game is that you have to beat the dealer. You must try to reach to a total of 21, or as close to 21, without going over the total. The common hands in  blackjack include:

  • Hit – Means drawing an additional card.
  • Stand – Declining to draw a new card and standing pat.
  • Double Down – Adding an extra bet, similar to the original ante, before you receive an additional card.
  • Split – Separating a paired two-card hand into two individual hands, at the cost of another bet. Players can only do this before they receive another card for each new hand.
  • Surrender – Backing out of the hand immediately in exchange for half your bet being returned. 

Conclusion – Blackjack Book & Rules

Blackjack is being played in the same way for hundreds of years. Even if you go across the whole world, Blackjack has the same rules and the same blackjack book chart. 

When the first legal casinos started working in Nevada in 1931, several rooms started offering a generous promotion to draw new 21 players to the tables. Blackjack is still as famous as it was in its early years. So, if you want to learn how to play blackjack at a casino then you should use the best blackjack book.