Deborah Madison's Blog, page 2

Book Review: Win at Blackjack by Arnold Snyder

The title says it all. Arnold Snyder’s “Win at Blackjack” is a blackjack strategy book for players who want to win, and the reviews on Amazon.com confirm that. The reviews are nearly unanimous in their praise for this book: It doesn’t matter if you’re an expert or a beginner; buys this book! Please buy it before you go to Vegas, or buy it after your first visit. Still not convinced? Then read on, dear reader.

The introduction begins with a dedication: “To the people who make it possible for me to sit in my office and write these books instead of being outside running around like a maniac.” I found it interesting that Mr Snyder would include this dedication towards the start of the book since most authors seem to save it for close to the end. This suggests he has an intimate relationship with his readers or, maybe, just an ego on par with mine (only bigger).

Getting past that, you are then presented with an honest statement concerning the purpose of this book: “I am not going to promise you that I will tell you how to win every time. What I will do is give you, in a clear and accurate a manner as possible, the odds on various bets.”

Any gambler who does his own research knows that finding the correct information can often be more difficult than doing the research. Or, as Snyder puts it: “The purpose of this book is to give you a shortcut through all those thousands of words and numbers.” This book will help you cut through the bad information (and misinformation) and discover which bets are worth your time, money, brain cells or whatever else you might be losing.

One of the reasons Snyder can accomplish this goal is because he spent a great deal of time and effort developing his theories, not just math equations: “I often had several charts open at once so I could plot them all together and get an overall picture.” Snyder’s dedication to research is a welcome relief for anyone who has ever tried to make sense out of the complete nonsense that surrounds blackjack strategy.

One of my favourite notes in this section was about counting cards: “There are those who claim they can control the game with card counting.” Whether you’re an expert or just starting, I bet you’ve run into someone like this. Even though the number of actual card counters is minuscule compared to the total blackjack players, you can still find them all over the Internet and Las Vegas.

“I have had numerous people offer me lucrative positions as their personal card counter or dealer… For those who wonder what I am talking about, a professional card counter (also known as a “dinosaur” in some circles) is someone who sits at the blackjack table and actually counts cards. If you play enough hands, this will enable you to know what is coming… I personally never counted cards.”

So there it is. No matter how much someone might insist that they can control a game or beat the casino using card counting, this book will prove otherwise. Unfortunately, a few bad apples have to spoil the whole blackjack barrel but, then again, most people enjoy watching the occasional train wreck.

If you want a good alternative to this book, we recommend checking out “Playing 21” by Karl Jensen. Karl Jensen wrote this book after he had won countless pounds over many years at English casinos. If you’d rather test your skills at poker, we have found the well-hidden “Winning At No-Limit Hold’em” by Lee Nelson and Anthony Curtis for you to consider.

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Book Review: Playing 21 by Karl Jensen

Karl Jensen is a professional Blackjack player and winner of the World Series of Poker. He wrote this strategy book for blackjack to educate other players on how to become successful at ‘blackjack’. This book includes sections on card counting (including multiple types), Shuffle tracking, and casino countermeasures. The book also goes into detail on betting strategies with basic strategy for a given initial two-card hand.

The first part of the book is entitled “Blackjack: Guaranteed Profits at Blackjack” and includes instructions on counting cards. Karl Jensen explains in detail that blackjack can be made into a profitable game using card counting techniques (to estimate an even money advantage) by providing an example. He then explains how to use the count and bets to maintain an edge over the casino with a favourable expectation of +0.57% per hand.

This section also includes an explanation of the basic strategy for multi-deck games. Karl Jensen explains that the initial two cards are much easier to make decisions with card counting since their probability is the same as hitting or standing. He gives an excellent example of how to construct an essential strategy for an eight card deck.

Another section in this book is “Shuffle Tracking”. In this section, Karl Jensen instructs that you can use Shuffle Tracking techniques to estimate which cards have already been dealt and used them to improve your blackjack game.

In the next section, Karl Jensen talks about “Countermeasures” used to detect players trying to gain advantages. Like most other books, he says many countermeasures are just techniques designed to discourage card counters and give the casino a psychological gift.

He explains that casinos use shuffling machines (and sometimes humans) to shuffle the cards correctly. He also admits it is nearly impossible to track decks of cards in a 14+ deck game but explains that since the dealer will always use the same shuffling techniques and order, there are methods to predict cards with high probability using Shuffle Tracking.

In summary, Karl Jensen writes a straightforward guide on how to play blackjack. He explains in detail the most crucial card counting techniques used to gain an advantage in the game and goes into great depth about Shuffle Tracking (which is very hard for casinos to prevent).

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in blackjack or learning how to beat the casinos at their own game.

If the life of a blackjack player interests you, you can consider adding “The Blackjack Life” by Don Schlesinger and Roger Rapoport to your reading list as well. However, for most of us, it’s sufficient to learn how you can win more often in blackjack. A book that goes well with this one is “Win at Blackjack” by Arnold Snyder if winning is your goal.

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Book Review: The Blackjack Life by Don Schlesinger and Roger Rapoport

Sometimes in life, the door opens just enough to let you peek through and see what is on the other side. For me, that door opened at a blackjack table in Las Vegas, and I stepped into The Blackjack Life.

From reading this blackjack strategy book, I learned about an exciting way to earn a living (professional gambling) and about an equally interesting human being, Don Schlesinger.

Every profession has its share of bad apples. But for a gambler, cards can be a loaded gun that can get you killed or in trouble; it is not a life for the weak-willed. If the pros are any indication, a lot of people can’t hack it.

Of the original forty-six card counters that MIT author Thorp recruited for his first book, only three were still playing blackjack when this sequel was published in 1989.

Thorpe estimated a fifty percent “dropout” rate from playing blackjack due to many factors: money losses, burnout from lack of challenge, low social status, fear of getting caught by casinos, or just plain losing interest.

The Blackjack Life captures the spirit of blackjack with the stories of several high roller pros and their ilk: George “The King” Walsh, a bookie turned gambler who is now in prison; Leo Vincent Brothers (who was shot to death in his home in 1986 for reasons unknown), the author of Blackjack Attack; Don Schlesinger, who was the former president of Caesars Palace and its casino company before he went on to start his blackjack consulting firm; and other professional gamblers such as Ron Harris, Howard “The Blade” Berkowitz, and Al Francesco.

Very few people will ever see inside a professional gambler’s life, but this book does an excellent job of showing you why that is such a challenging way to make a living. The world of the pro gambler is one where money rules everything; friendships are secondary and often short-lived; they live a transient lifestyle moving from city to city, and they are always looking for the next sucker.

A pro gambler lives by a set of rules that others can interpret as amoral or immoral. But then most people wouldn’t want to live a gambling life either, since it is also one where you work hard for your money and sometimes don’t succeed, constantly have to be on your guard and fight to hang onto what you earn (and sometimes lose it all), and are generally looked at as outcasts by society.

It is a life where you can make a lot of money but also lose it very quickly.

The Blackjack Life does an excellent job of showing the human side of professional gambling through the lives of its three main protagonists: Schlesinger, Berkowitz, and Harris. While Don Schlesinger played blackjack in Las Vegas, he almost had a nervous breakdown from the pressure and lack of sleep.

At one point, he walked away from his job at Caesars Palace when he thought that it wasn’t worth the stress and chance of getting fired, but when several patrons approached him to offer kind words, he got back on track.

Years later, while working as a consultant for the Royal Casino in London, Schlesinger heard that mobsters had eliminated his friend and mentor from Las Vegas. Shortly afterwards, his wife left him with two small children; he remarried but had more problems when his new wife left him (for a time, he dated Ginger Hollingsworth, the model who posed for Playboy and Penthouse). Then in his book, he wrote that at one point, he was on thirteen different medications.

After reading this book, you may want to start playing blackjack yourself. A great place to start learning the game is reading “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Blackjack” by Mark Piersol. If you are an experienced player already, other books are more suitable to learn advanced strategies. One of these is “Playing 21” by Karl Jensen, where he shares his insight into how blackjack is played and lets the reader in on some of the secrets he learned during his many years of play.

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Book Review: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Blackjack by Mark Piersol

You want to master the game of blackjack, but you don’t know where to start. You’ve heard that there are many different strategies out there and that it all depends on your style of play.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Blackjack is a blackjack strategy book that begins by introducing you to twenty-one, the game’s history, basic strategy, card counting and more. There are many strategies to blackjack, but the book teaches you the best ones for your style of gameplay.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Blackjack is written by Mark Piersol and published by Three Rivers Press, Penguin Group (USA) Inc. The book contains 247 pages in paperback form for $12.00.

The publication begins by teaching you how to deal and the basic rules of blackjack with a chart that breaks down the gameplay to make it easier for beginners. Learning everything from betting, shuffling, and splitting to the “what’s expected” reputation in casinos will help you know what is going on at all times.

Piersol takes the reader beyond the basic blackjack game by teaching card counting, playing strategies, and more that can help you better your odds and add to your strategy in the long run. There are many different scenarios that players deal with, so learning these situations will make all the difference in the world. The author teaches you how to be the best blackjack player by looking at the positive and negative hands that can be dealt. By following the basic rule found in most books: “21 don’t bust,” you stay out of a bad situation.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Blackjack explains how to play regardless of whether you play against one dealer or multiple dealers, which is especially helpful if you are playing online.

The book teaches beginners how to play blackjack and offers many betting strategies that can change the way you play your hand in the long run. Who wouldn’t want their bets to pay more? The author helps the player by teaching when it’s best to split or double down against the dealer with charts that guide you when it’s a good time to bet.

Piersol breaks down his method of learning in three ways: the introduction, rules and procedures, and gameplay, which can be found in the front matter of the book. The author also inserts pictures into his chapters to help readers better understand what they are reading about.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Blackjack is an excellent book for beginners that explains the basic strategy and helps the player learn how to bet like a pro in no time. Learning everything from card counting, betting systems, and more, this well-written publication can help you win big in any casino game setting. All you have to do is follow the rules and win.

If you are looking for more sophisticated strategies, you can consider “The World’s Greatest Blackjack Book” by Ken Smith and Anthony Curtis. These authors are considered by many to be the world experts on card counting strategies for multiple decks, which are used in most casinos today. Do the life of a gambler interest you? Then have a look at “The Blackjack Life” by Don Schlesinger and Roger Rapoport, a book dedicated to showing you what’s happing outside the tables.

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Book Review: The World’s Greatest Blackjack Book by Ken Smith and Anthony Curtis

The World’s Greatest Blackjack Book by Ken Smith and Anthony Curtis has 738 pages of content that are a perfect guide for the blackjack player. This book teaches you what strategy to use for card counting and how to implement it into your game to win more money. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced player, this blackjack strategy book will increase your knowledge and allow for successful betting. The content is very well organised throughout sixteen chapters. The first chapter outlines the history of blackjack, from its origins in France and Italy to modern-day casinos worldwide.

The second chapter goes into great detail about card counting and its relation to the player and the casino. For example, it explains how casinos use two different decks of cards easily discernible between the ten-valued cards and ace valued cards. The World’s Greatest Blackjack Book also describes the fault theory about card counting. It is stated in this chapter that card counters have a mathematical advantage over casinos when they play blackjack.

In addition, this book highlights the basic strategy of blackjack, a list of hands created by experts over time and includes every possible combination to beat the house. However, the best way to win at blackjack is not only to memorise the basic strategy hand combinations but to learn how the deck is being shuffled and to time your bets accordingly.

Chapter 3 of The World’s Greatest Blackjack Book discusses how the shuffling of cards can be used against gamblers. This chapter goes into depth about the order in which cards are drawn from a deck, i.e., whether or not one card is placed on top of another card or if the deck is mixed correctly. The chapter concludes with an explanation of how to count cards in the blackjack hand game.

Chapters 4, 5, and 6 focus on card counting methods such as Hi-Lo, Forward/Reverse, and Ace Counting systems. It also discusses the concept of using a “hard 16” to increase your chances of winning, how the casino will try to catch you counting cards, and techniques to keep them from doing so.

Chapters 7 and 8 go into detail about card deck strategies used in blackjack hand gamblers. This book comes in handy because it includes six different strategies on how to count cards. It emphasises that there are many ways to count cards and that players should not rely on only one method.

Chapters 9 through 12 discuss the most common mistakes made by card counters, how to counter the hole carding techniques, win using basic strategy hand combinations, and the ten steps of playing a winning game against the dealer. The last chapter is an appendix that explains how the authors came up with all of their card counting techniques and strategies.

Overall, The World’s Greatest Blackjack Book is an excellent read if you want to learn how to count cards and improve your blackjack game or already know everything there is to know about blackjack hand gamblers. Furthermore, it is organised well and is spread out over seven hundred pages of content that cover everything from the history of blackjack to card counting methods. This book has become one of my favourites because it has a lot of great information on playing better at the casino.

If you want to take it a step further, you can read “Playing Blackjack as a Business” by Stanford Wong, a book written for good players that want to become the best. However, if you don’t know the first thing about blackjack, you have a great alternative in “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Blackjack” by Mark Piersol, a fun read for anyone that wants to learn blackjack

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Book Review: “Playing Blackjack as a Business” by Stanford Wong

Before I start, let me thank Stanford Wong on behalf of the entire blackjack community. It is thanks to his positive attitude and inspirational passion that kept him writing and publishing blackjack strategy books even with the advent of internet technology.

With his recent passing, it is sad but true that we can no longer expect any new publications from the Wizard. I do hope that his legacy will live on through the life of his older books, which are still relevant for those who love blackjack and want to make it as a living.

In my opinion, Playing Blackjack As A Business is one of the most comprehensive blackjack texts out there. It has everything you need to know all in a single package.

I was particularly impressed with the details and descriptions of the various bets that could be placed in a casino. Wong is not afraid to write about all betting types, even those deemed “unethical” by many practitioners today.

Any blackjack enthusiast who seriously wants to know every aspect of this game must read this book [it has the complete section on combinatorial analysis]. I found the charts and graphs to be handy.

The chapters on card counting and count-based strategy were also valuable in their respective areas of expertise.

Wong’s use of extensive examples throughout is a fantastic means for comprehension and his writing style – clear and concise with no “fluff” that some writers tend to include.

In short, Playing Blackjack As A Business is an essential blackjack manual and should be in the library of every serious player. I should probably buy another copy for myself as a backup.

As the only person who has read my current copy over and over again – many times actually – it has become quite dog-eared, and the spine is cracking from use.

The book would be an excellent reference for anyone who wishes to learn more about the finer details of blackjack, without all the extra fluff that sometimes accompanies less essential books.

Playing Blackjack as a Business is written for blackjack players already skilled in blackjack. If you are not there yet, we can recommend checking out “Step up to Blackjack” by Arnold Snyder, the number 1 rated book on our website.

Another great book, especially for online blackjack players, is “The World’s Greatest Blackjack Book” by Ken Smith and Anthony Curtis. These authors are considered by many to be the world experts on card counting strategies for multiple decks, which is highly applicable in online blackjack.

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Book Review: “Step up to Blackjack” by Arnold Snyder

What makes this book unique is it assumes readers know absolutely nothing. The text starts with a discussion of basic strategy, using a high-school geometry exercise to reveal how well the basic strategy works.

Before discussing more advanced strategies and systems, Snyder admits that such things are not necessary for most players. The Blackjack Strategy book sticks to basics with chapters on Basic Strategy, Hitting and Standing, Double Down, Doubling after splitting (including a discussion of Deuces Wild and Deuces and Joker Wild), Splitting, Insurance (including a discussion of the Basic Strategy to take or not take insurance), Surrender, and Progressive betting systems.

See the Top 25 list of the best blackjack strategy books.

What Snyder does best is explain things in everyday English instead of gambling jargon. He never tries to “sugarcoat” things by saying that the player will win back his losses at a future time.

He uses his bankroll to show the ups and downs of playing blackjack. It is not necessarily as much fun reading what happened to him on May 7, 1993, when he “blew out” by losing $800 (because blackjacks were dealt with the house five times in a row), but it is an excellent example of what can happen to even the best players.

The book is filled with many other examples of Snyder’s blackjack adventures, and they are almost always exciting and fun to read. He also includes stories about his experiences playing in Vegas, Atlantic City, Reno, Lake Tahoe, Los Angeles, and New Orleans.

For anyone who has never played blackjack or wants to learn more about the game, this is an excellent place to start.

Step up to Blackjack might very well be the best blackjack strategy book for beginners. That is why we have rated it as our number one blackjack strategy book, in front of “Playing Blackjack as a Business” by Stanford Wong.

If you are a beginner or intermediate in blackjack, this is the perfect book for you. If you have already read this book or are looking for an alternative, How to Play Blackjack by Don Schlesinger and Roger Rapoport comes highly recommended by us.

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I’m teaching a workshop on how to write a successful cookbook in Santa Fe, Sept. l7-21!

 

Lots of people want to write cookbooks for different reasons, and this is the workshop to address what makes for a successful cookbook.

You can bring a manuscript, an idea, a thought and we’ll work together on crafting it into a book. We will also meet with authors who have approached writing a cookbook in different ways—through mainstream publishers, a university press, and self-publishing. These are very different approaches and it will be helpful to hear from these different authors. We will also talk about working with photographers and stylists.

I hope you’ll join me!  Here is more information:  https://santafeworkshops.com/workshop/secret-ingredients-for-cookbook-success/.

This is a beautiful time of year in Santa Fe.

 

 

Cooking with Confidence!

I recently did an on-line interview with Lisa King who has a blog called Cook with Confidence. It was great fun to do and if you’re at all unsure of yourself in the kitchen, I hope you’ll take a look.  The link to my piece is   https://cookwithconfidence.me/DeborahMadison, and Lisa’s site is cookwithconfidence.me.  It’s a worthwhile site and good work that she’s doing.

 

Cooking with Dante

 

I have a very loyal kitchen hound. His sensitive little ears perk up the minute I enter the kitchen to cook and within moments he is sitting at my feet, looking up inquisitively at my motions, listening to the sounds of chopping and slicing, rustling papers, the unwrapping things, all sounds that have to do with food and cooking. Food is very important for dogs, I have learned, even though my dog does not wolf things down. He is endlessly interested in something to eat, however.

Food is important yes, but he doesn’t go for just any old bite. He is quite selective. We’ve been going through this routine for nearly six years, and I know that he doesn’t like onions. Still he makes a lot of little squeaking noises until I offer him a piece. He sniffs carefully and ever so slowly until he’s finally satisfied he doesn’t want the bit of onion. He turns his head to the side, his elegant poodle nose rejecting what I knew he would reject. We go though this with every vegetable, including those that are cooking. I offer him the skillet to preview, knowing he wont’ be interested. But he thinks he might be.

There are some things he likes. They are beet skins. Sweet potatoes. Cooked carrots, and what I call broccoli bones, (the coarse lower ends of broccoli stems, which he’s carries away and works over just as if they were bones). He will accept a kale stem, but then he just walks around the island and drops it on the floor. When I finally emerge from the stove the floor can be littered with bits of stems and leaves. And when I sweep them up, he doesn’t linger at the dustbin wondering if there might be a treat. After all, that’s usually about the time he gets his own dinner, which he far prefers.

You might have met my pup on the page after 231 In My Kitchen. He shows up a few times. But my favorite picture is of him sitting on the kitchen steps looking very robust indeed. In case you’re wondering, his fur is not colored and he is a small Labradoodle – actually mostly poodle. He weighs only 32 pounds, but he’s pretty convinced he weights at least seventy. Must be all those brococli bones! Whatever it is, he’s a good kitchen friend.