Stanford Wong's Professional Blackjack

Background

The book Professional Blackjack is written by one of the most well known members of the MIT Team, Stanford Wong. The book is 350 pages and is based on card counting for beginners as well as experts. It presents several different card counting methods like the halves and the high low methods:

• The high low method of card counting is known today as one of the most popular methods and is very widely used by players in casinos today.
• The halves are a system which is quite advanced and yields the perfect estimates for the advantage of the player.

The edition which had been published in the year 1994 had 100 tables apart from the appendixes. The tables gave strategy index for several different rules of the game. Also, the book has the results of various simulations for different set of rules so that the players can understand how one rule is better than another.

Professional Blackjack

The most commonly used card counting systems today is the high low count. Though Stanford Wong was not the first one to come up with the technique, he has done considerable research on the topic and therefore the book is considered to be a very valuable resource on this card counting system.

The book starts right at the beginning with a detailed description of some of the common terms used in the game and the basic strategy used. He then talks about the high low system in great detail and how it works, how the strategy changes with the change in count for different game rules, insurance, what is the systems edge etc. Also, this is one of the most comprehensive books on the topic of all times and includes many tables and details for the better understanding of the players. Some of the information which is presented in the book is more detailed than would be needed by players.

Wong also gives information on a particular count which can beat the Over Under 13 game which is offered at many casinos also with detailed explanation about the three level Halves Count strategy. This card counting strategy is extremely complicated but is also very effective.

This book had been written and published long before Illustrious 18 article had been published by Don Schlesinger for the Blackjack Forum and later in the book Blackjack Attack which had generated a lot of interest in the quantitatively prioritizing. For this reason, there is a lot of information in this book which might be really useful for all the players. Nevertheless, it is all in the book for anyone who might need it.

Professional Blackjack is an interesting book for anyone who wants to learn about the High Low counting technique and wants to use it in real life. The book would be really helpful to professional counters and others who are interested in considering blackjack as a profession. The book covers this topic in great detail and so it would give any information that one is looking for on this topic.