The Blackjack "Bible"
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For every sport, game, or hobby, there is one written work that almost always stands out from the rest. It may be because of it's entertainment value, technical expertice, or any number of characteristics that can make a person chose that particular book above any other. Although it can be said there is a matter of taste involved, and I will not disagree with this, in my opinion the "Bible" on the subject of Blackjack has to be "Million Dollar Blackjack" by the late great Ken Uston. I know I am not the only person to have said this, and I am not saying this because everyone else says this. I am saying it because I have read it, possibly one hundred times! Not sitting down reading it front to back one hundred times. One hundred times a bit at a time, the way anyone that uses their "Bible" reads it. Piece by piece.
Ken's book is by no means the first book on the subject. "Beat the Dealer" is the first book to really do justice to counting cards and playing Blackjack. I know he had read this book and other works before he has put "Million Dollar Blackjack" together, but in no way did he just copy these other works in his own way. It is Ken's experiences with the knowledge he accumulated as he put the principles of the earlier works together that make this book the "Bible".
In this book, Ken presents two counts that he calls his own. He deserves full credit for them, no doubt. One is his Simple Plus/Minus count that has 3 to 7 cards valued at +1 and the 10 and Ace cards valued -1. This is only slightly different than the Braun Hi/Low count in that the 7 and not the 2 is included in the count. I always wonder why that was done since the value of a 2 is .37 and the 7 is .30 percent. In any event, the difference is too small to worry about and overcome by the fact the Simple Plus/Minus has three strategies of play. One for a neutral deck, one for a negative deck, and one for a positive deck. Take the number of decks being used and multiply that by 1.5 and you have the positive or negative count you need to use the proper strategy. A 6 deck game is +9 or -9. Simple and effective.
The other count Ken uses and proclaims to be the "Count of all Counts" is his Advanced Point Count, or APC. This count gives the cards values from -3 to +3 and counts the Aces separately only to determine the final bet strategy with these Aces. He does admit however that this APC count is just ever so slightly better than the Hi Opt II, which gives the cards values of between -2 and +2. Ken's count is a little harder than the Hi Opt II, and the difference it makes in total profit is probably so small it doesn't make the effort worth the added work.
Now don't get me wrong here. I am not saying Ken has done something wrong in any way. Both of his counts are solid. Both work like a charm. What is the important part of his book is more his experience than any of the counts he used. Any good counting system tells you when you should be betting more, and when you should be altering the way you play some of your hands. What these counts don't tell you is what Ken does.
One of the impressing things about the APC is that it works like magic. When you get to the last card in the deck, sometimes the last two cards to be honest, you will be able to tell yourself what those two last cards are before you flip them up. Some private games deal to the last cards, and this little trick can make you a lot of money.
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