Blackjack the Smart Way - Richard Harvey

I've been reading this book, after seeing some of the reviews at Amazon.com, and find it surprising that it has been so well received by many reviewers. Is it my imagination that some of the things in this book are just plain incorrect?

Whilst I find that the bet management system appears to be sensible, responsible, (though conservative), and relatively good for cover, I find it amazing that card counting has been so casually dismissed as somewhat ineffective and not worth the effort, in favour of card observation and the personality of the cards (including what appears to be card clumping). Whilst basic strategy often varies slightly from book to book, here it varies considerably from much that is widely generally accepted. I have read a number of other books, by Thorpe, Revere, Carlson, Schlessinger and they all seem to concur on the important points.

I do find the chapters on what to look for to avoid being cheated extremely helpful.

The personality of the cards, or factor X, seems like black magic to me. I would have thought that this, in the absence of cheating, is merely standard deviation.

Is it possible that the premises that this book makes have not been thoroughly tested on a simulator?

I am relatively new to blackjack, but my reading has so far been fairly balanced. I have been studying the Advanced Omega II system (Bryce Carlson) for some months, running extensive comparative simulations (300 million at a time), and have found that card counting is the most logical long term solution to beating the game.

I'd like to hear from others who have read Harvey's book, including those have may have run extensive simulations based on it, so that I can arrive at a balanced and objective conclusion. Otherwise I'm likely to dismiss most of it and miss some (or many) of the good things it has to offer.

I look forward to hearing from you guys, and thanks.

but if you find a large part of it to be voodoo claptrap, how do you know the parts about what to look for to avoid being cheated isn't more of the same? Maybe it is all crap, and you might find yourself being lulled into a false sense of security following the cheating detection tips in the book and still get skinned in a crooked game.

Good point. However, some of the cheating tips are substantiated by other authors I've read (see original posting). That's why I have given some creedence to this section of the book.

You read from various sources and have used your own analytical skills to determine what is substantiated and what is bunk.

"running extensive comparative simulations (300 million at a time), and have found that card counting is the most logical long term solution to beating the game". Great job. you have run your own sims which is alot more than most. You get to the point where you can usually easily recognize what is trash and what is real. You have clearly already reached that point. So learn the useful info from the book and ignore the trash. Even books with alot of wrong info may have some good info in them. And keep the bad info in your head so you can act like you believe it so you can fake out the pit bosses.

"I've been reading this book, after seeing some of the reviews at Amazon.com, and find it surprising that it has been so well received by many reviewers" One thing to remember, to quote Don S. "the masses are asses". You know what i mean. That's why casinos make so much. Speaking of Don S., i hope you have BJA. I am a pro BJ player and i must say that BJA is the one most valuable one stop resource i have come across. Literally worth it's weight in gold.

AOII is a great system, but i recommend you tweak the betting a bit.

The basic strategy in the books by Thorp, Revere, Braun, Uston, Snyder, and all the other credible blackjack authorities is what you should follow, ignore any others who deviate from it. This strategy has been mathematically proven since the first computer studies of blackjack were done in the mid-1950's. You never should never vary from it, unless of course you are counting cards and then you may change your hitting and standing strategies according to the composition of the deck. This has also been proven correct by computer studies done decades ago.

But if this book you are referring to says something like this for example, "I disagree with the experts about splitting always splitting eights, don't do it if the dealer has a 10 or ace up", etc, then forget about it, it's worthless. Blackjack isn't like poker where you should vary your playing strategy when playing against tight or loose players, because in blackjack the dealer might as well be a robot, he never changes his hitting and standing stategy. That's why you can compute the perfect playing stategy in blackjack while you can never do that in poker, the two are very different games.

This book you are talking about sounds similar to the ones written by Scarne, John Patrick, and a few others. Scarne was a legitimate expert in some areas of the game such as dealer cheating techniques but he simply didn't understand the mathematics of blackjack, ignore his playing strategy. John Patrick is even worse, he has no area of expertise that I'm aware of but if he does have some strong suit I can guarantee you it's not blackjack, Patrick's playing strategy rivals Scarne's in worthlessness. Have nothing to do with these authors and stick with the good ones I mentioned in the first paragraph and you should do just fine.

Thanks for your input. Interesting that you say I should tweak the betting a bit. I have! I've found the Gamemaster betting schedule to be the most effective over all the trials I've run in terms of return vs risk, namely minimum bet on TC of 1 or less, then 2 units if TC is 2, then continuing to use a basic formula of Bet in units = 2 x TC - 2 to achieve a smooth progression of a bet spread of up to 12 units. It works great. Coupled with the Ace side count for betting purposes - it's really powerful. I think it can also help with cover betting because sometimes, when the TC is positive and the Ace count is really negative it would appear that the betting is not following the count.

The point you made about keeping the garbage in your head as if you believe it to use as a smokescreen is a fantastic idea. I wish I'd thought of that. I'm going to remember that! Thanks heaps.

The point you also make about the "masses are asses" is great for the serious player. While ever the casino is continuing to make money out of poor players (and even poor counters or poorly educated ones) there's hope for the good players, (and eventually me) to play for longer. If every card counter was good, I think there'd be something to worry about.

By the way I use CVsim for Casino Verite and am also pleased with it's power and flexibility but thanks for the tip on BJA.

Got to go. Out of time. Catch up with other responses tomorrow.

Thanks for the tips.

Thanks for confirming my suspicions. Much appreciated.

common. 2 x tc - 2 is pretty much what i do. I actually do tc - 1 for many games. Similar thing just depends on how you define your unit, bank, etc. Usually i do a unit for each .25% advantage.
To simplify things for you just double your unit size and bet tc - 1 maxing out at 6 and instead of 2*(tc-1). Don't forget to make adjustments for different off the top advantage and rules like surrender when you can safely bet higher than tc-1 at high counts with the same risk as tc-1 in non surrender games.
And for six deckers, I believe you can raise your max when the count warrants since it doesn't happen to much. I other words, when the count goes way up, just keep raising that bet looking like you are a guy who gets a little inspired every so often.

". I think it can also help with cover betting because sometimes, when the TC is positive and the Ace count is really negative it would appear that the betting is not following the count" If they are counting down with HiLo, they will estimate the about the same advantage as you. It is playing that will give you the cover once in a while. Example, Stand 14 v 10 with a very small bet because unadjusted tc is high but ace adjustment makes betting count low.
Or have a huge bet out and hit stiffies vs small cards because unadjusted tc negative but adjusted betting count large. Well for six deckers will only happen way at the end of shoe and not too often.

One more tip. SBA is great for RA indices or other indices not in BJ for Blood.

"One more tip. SBA is great for RA indices or other indices not in BJ for Blood. "

I had posted a question on GC card-counting along these lines, but seems like there aren't that many AO-2'ers to look up to for advice. I mostly play DD games, is it worth getting SBA to adjust my playing indices?

I'm a pretty new player, I've only got about 170 hrs counting and have just started doing an ace side count. Am I getting ahead of myself adjusting indices before getting good with the side count?

getting a bit ahead of your self. Definitely master the ace side count first.

Besides, BJ for Blood has a ton of indices for use with any number of decks. Since DD is in the middle, these are usually most accurate for DD. But if you ever want more indices or slightly more accurate RA indices, you should get SBA.

BTW, SBA doesn't just do indices. For example, you Can sim a game for winrate and a ton of other statistics or generate optimal bets on SBA Calc.

in today's casinos - although I'm sure it makes great, interesting text in a book about Blackjack.

I haven't read the book to which you refer either, but be wary of any book that discounts Counting as a viable base strategy. Unlike most on this board, I DO think there is more to playing good BJ than just reading the Counting books. BUT - any method that discounts Counting altogether is sheer nonsense.

The basics of good BJ are found in books like Stanford Wong's Professional Blackjack. After that everything is elitist academic mathematics - and it's Practice, Practice, Practice. If you pay attention to what happens as you're "turning the cards", you'll become a player.

Good Fortune.