Cutting Edge Blackjack

by Richard A. Harvey and Richard Harvey

Book Overview

THE most state-of-the-art blackjack best-seller on the market today. Based upon history-making card and computer studies. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0967218241
• ISBN13: 9780967218243
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Mystic Ridge Books
• Length: 317 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

This book is fantastic!

Imagine you have a goal. Imagine that goal is to walk into a casino, play blackjack, and leave with more money than you had when you entered. How do you achieve this goal? By utilizing the correct tools. Richard Harvey's Cutting Edge Blackjack is a toolbox crammed full of new and exciting tools that help you achieve your goal. Richard has developed and refined these tools with the loving care of a true craftsman. Some of the tools are difficult to handle, some of the tools may not make sense to you right away, some of the tools may require years of practice to utilize properly, but the tools are there. The tools themselves were crafted by hand. Instead of relying on and rehashing computer simulation, Richard used real cards to discover trends and card behavior patterns that computer simulations ignore. These patterns tend to repeat and offer insight never before realized at the tables. As an attendee to one of Richards's seminars, I witnessed the power of some of these tools. I was especially impressed by his ability to predict the value of the hole card at a pitch (face down) game. Impossible you say? Not when you use the tools in Cutting Edge Blackjack. I didn't say it was easy, I didn't say I could do it, but knowing it can be done is inspiring. Cutting Edge Blackjack debunks some popular myths, makes some bold assertions, but mainly shows advanced blackjack players ways to have profitable outings. Study and practice are required to attain most of the skills taught in the book, even advanced players may struggle with some of the methodology, but the tools are sound. I highly recommend this book for blackjack aficionados.

Refreshing

Having already read his first book, Blackjack the Smart Way, I knew what to expect with Richard Harvey. Much like his first book, I love the fact that he doesnt portray the game to be a lesson in quantum physics and understands that the things he teaches have to be practical. He understands that the game is everchanging at the table and being able to quickly employ a quick but educated decision with a strong foundation in basic strategy is vital. Rather than inundate the reader with twenty charts to memorize knowing full well the average player is going to draw a blank in the casino environment if this is the extent of their knowledge, he concerns himself more with helping the player think on his feet but keeping a strong foundation in basic strategy. The bottom line for me is how comfortable the system makes me at the table and results. I feel much more comfortable at the table than I did a few years ago and the results paid for the book a hundred times over in five short visits. The book is a refreshing mix of Revere and Thorpe with modern day innovations for todays game. I'd recommend this book whole heartedly.

The Best And The Brightest

This book is, hands down, the best thing to come out in many, many years. Cutting Edge Blackjack will earn Richard Harvey a place in blackjack history as one of its greatest innovators, and, with this book, it is clear that he is undoubtedly the world's pre-eminent authority on blackjack. He's certainly the first in many decades to do original research that not only corrects the mistaken premises behind the old research of the past, but that has resulted in startling new discoveries and concepts that turn the old truths on their heads.Believe me, once you read this book, you'll realize how outdated the others are. I read this book initially because of a recommendation I'd read by Howard Schwartz, one of Las Vegas' bright lights, and he's right: Harvey is alone in charting new territory. I never realized before how the number of betting spots being played affects your likelihood of winning; no one before Harvey had tested this out. I hadn't been happy with the results I'd gotten from recent books written by the likes of Frank Scoblete, Bryce Carlson, et. al., which I felt were really just rewrites of what I'd read in Thorp, Revere, Uston, Griffin, et. al., decades ago. In contrast, the material, the concepts, the methods in this book are fresh and powerful. The math in Cutting Edge Blackjack, as well as the research discoveries (explained in detail for anyone to understand), the logic, the new methods, not only make sense, but they work at the blackjack table. No one else has ever come up with a way to identify the facedown cards at the 1 and 2 deck tables; Harvey's methods give you a huge advantage, as Howard Schwartz had pointed out, I might add. I didn't even realize there were different catagories of facedown cards before I read this book. No one had ever made that discovery. Anyone who's had a taste of shuffle tracking is aware that the cards don't change much with the dealer's shuffle. In this book, Harvey has laid down the reasons for this, for the first time ever. Every player has noticed repeating patterns, but Harvey has come up with the mechanism for these, as well as how to profit from what he calls repeating phenomenon.His statistical analyses of how far is up (in other words, how to detect a peak and get out before throwing back your winings)and how far is down (in other words, how low you have to go before it's statistically improbable you'll ever come back up to even) are monumental achievements, which remove the uncertainty when it comes to knowing when to leave. Just the sections on card analysis vis a vis how to detect when the dealer is strong or weak will make you a lot stronger player. This book is loaded with math (which won't overwhelm you, like some other books), charts and illustrations, and it's got so much in the way of material that's new to the world of blackjack that you'll be going back to this as a reference book for many, many, years to come, and, if you're like me, each read will make another lightbulb, so to spe