I went shopping last week and got "Cutting Edge Blackjack" by Richard Harvey, among some other books, (KO, ACG, etc). I haven't seen any reference to this book on this board, and wondered what the general consensus is. The reviewers on Amazon.com either love it or hate it. Any advice?
I went shopping last week and got "Cutting Edge Blackjack" by Richard Harvey ...
Avoiud anything by Richard Harvey, John Patrick, and Donald Dahl. A waste of paper and ink.
I turn them sideways and use them as Bookends so that the rest of my books on BJ, VP, and Poker do not fall over.
phantom007.
First a warning. 98% of the info, even though most of it is wrong anyway, is for single deck only.
I bought this book in my early days. This is a horrible book. It is full of mistakes and erroneous assumptions. One particularly troubling advice Harvey gives in this book is to always play at full tables in order to make the proper play. Even though it is true you get deeper true pen by doing it, it ranks among the dumbest advice ever given to a blackjack audience. Harvey has a "decent" understanding of SD blackjack as it is played in someone's basement. He lacks even the most basic understanding of the statistics and math of the game. People simply should not be allowed to write a BJ book if they have not taken some decent college math or statistics courses. Post grad studies would be preferred. But we do live in the good USA and any knucklehead can write anything he wants.
If you can't take the book back, burn it.
Hey, everybody, thanks for the advice. I wondered about this guy because he spends so much time trashing conventional wisdom about advantage play, I wondered if he was trying to convince the reader or himself! Methinks he doth protest too much!
Also, one of the 5-star reviews for his book on Amazon.com was by someone who attended his seminars. That's a big red flag, right there!
Anyway, I picked up Knock Out blackjack and started reading it. This is more like it!
Thanks again!
