Blackjack Toolbox
Essential Blackjack Resources
by Max Drayman, WINNERonline.com
23 July 2002
Max's Favorite Blackjack Sites
http://www.winneronline.com/articles/july2002/blackjacktoolbox.htm
The best Blackjack sites on the Web come to us from some of the
finest webmasters and gaming professionals in the business. Here's
our latest look at Internet gaming's Essential Blackjack Resources.
For the Experts
Things have changed a little, but not a lot, since we did our last
round-up of top BJ sites. Top of the list then and now is the expert-
level BJ21. BJ21 operates under the banner of Stanford Wong, noted
gaming expert and author of the essential text "Basic Blackjack".
Noted for its message board forums but offering a healthy serving of
just about everything Blackjack related, the site's attractions
include extensive no-pay player message boards, membership-only
forums for the dedicated BJ player and professional, a free
newsletter, an extensive catalog of Blackjack books and software
endorsed by Stanford Wong and other essentials such as a BJ Glossary,
a BJ Reference list and so on.
Also returning in the Experts line-up is the numbers-oriented site
BJMath . Foremost here is the "Featured Articles" section offering
professional and technical contributions on the mathematics of risk
evaluation methods, game prediction algorithms, statistical analysis
procedures and many others. In case you find yourself in the
difficult position of being both curious about and intimidated by the
math of the game BJMath offers its "Novice Corner". Here the novice
is introduced to the number methodologies behind Counting, Money
Management and all the other favourite BJ sharper topics.
And last but not least BJMath also offers message boards organized
into "Beginner", "BJ Math", and "Counting" forums and several others.
For the Beginner
Unique to the beginner-oriented site BlackjackInfo is their "Basic
Strategy Engine". Working from the well-stablished practice of basic
strategy charts this tool prompts the player to enter their game's
criterion (number of decks, Soft 17 rule, Doubling opportunities, and
so on) and then press the "Make" button to produce a chart tailored
to that specific game. Or one can choose from the standardized charts
such as "Vegas Strip, 6-deck". Either way the strategy chart is the
novice players most powerful tool.
Also available at BlackjackInfo is the Flash-based "Blackjack
Trainer" where the player first select the games rules (Doubling,
Soft 17, etc) and then begins a play-for-free game tailored
accordingly. The game's Strategy Coach remains silent until you make
a move that violates the basic strategy for that game. Very smooth
and a pleasure to use. Also in the top-flight rank of strategy
teachers is the simple but powerful Hit-Or-Stand Flash-based trainer.
Select the difficulty of your game, your screen size and rules and
you're off! This one even offers explainations when you make a move
outside the basic strategy rules.
Also worth a visit by the education seeking player is the Blackjack
School at Game-Master-Online. Working through the 20-step lesson
offered gives the player a solid footing in basic strategy, tricks of
the trade, an introduction to the mathematics of the game and a
number of strategy guides. If you're really sold on these lessons
they're also available on DVD directly from the site. Also check out
the Game-Master's "Blackjack Page" for other useful resources.
Honorable Mentions
To round out the roster here are a couple other resources that are
worth checking out.
Looking for a directory of other BJ sites out there? Check out Online
Blackjack's detailed list of links in the "Strategy" section. There
are good descriptions of each. Many include user comments to give you
a better idea what they offer.
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Also worth a visit are the Blackjack Groups at Yahoo. There are many
active groups listed here and the total number of visiting
contributors numbers in the thousands. Be aware though that many of
these groups are not moderated so the content --and language-- can
vary dramatically.
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