Arnold Snyder is one of the initial seven members inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame. His book, Radical Blackjack, published by Huntington Press, has been in the works for years. I’ve heard many of the stories in it from Arnold himself, but I finally got to read it and there were lot of new things.
I’m not going to give all of Snyder’s arguments as spoiler alerts. But I will touch on what he discusses. If this is something you are interested in, get the book. My goal is to give you enough information for you to decide whether the book has value for you.
- When is it smart to double on a hard 12?
- When is it smart to insure for less than half your bet?
- What are the main features of loss rebates and how do you figure out how much you should win or lose before you stop?
Those are probably the main theories advanced in the book that are not discussed at length in other blackjack books.
And then there are the stories. Arnold is a gifted storyteller and writer. I’m a reasonably competent hack in those areas, and I appreciate listening to or reading a master at work. Arnold is a master. Arnold has been playing and writing for decades. He knows many of the other strong players who’ve played during that time period and has stories about many of them. He tells about court cases involving players where he was either a defendant or an expert witness. He tells about his wife, Radar, and how she helped him on many of his plays. He tells about the time he was invited, while seated next to his wife, to a promotion where he would be “entitled” to a Penthouse Pet for a weekend. And his wife encouraged him to go!
There are a number of stories about his shuffle tracking exploits, along with those where he hole carded, ace sequenced, and used various advanced plays. This is not a “how to” book on executing those plays, but it probably gives a better overall picture than many gamblers know.
Finally, he lists short biographies of everybody in the Blackjack Hall of Fame and how he knows them. (He’s met them all except Ian Anderson who is a recluse reportedly living in Australia.) And, thank you Arnold, he lists several links to Gambling with an Edge podcasts where these Hall of Famers have appeared, along with the titles of his favorite books and articles by each of these authors. And he talks of people who he thinks should be in the Blackjack Hall of Fame and are not for one reason or another.
Arnold Snyder will be a guest on Gambling with an Edge, discussing this book, on the episode that will be posted Thursday July 15. It is expected he will return for a follow-up visit on July 29.
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I found it interesting and odd that his wife’s name was “Radar”. How did that happen? And did she have some ability for detecting anti-player casino devices?
And about some casino offering him a Penthouse Pet, did they say or did he ask what kind of pet it was? A dog or a cat, or something else? Myself, I would ask before accepting it.
Al, it had more of the features of a cat than a dog.
Question:
After much work i finally found my edge on a particular game. The only problem is I now find myself going off the deep end. Besides meditation and taking a long break – are there any other techniques that the pros use to keep that fine line between professional gambler and degenerate gambler in check?
The game of Black Jack, the way it was played in the 70s and 80s and profits were harvested by counters and super pro teams, will soon be something of the past , just like videopoker it has seen its golden days long time ago and the casinos keep pulling the screw on the payout-structure. That’s the gold fact of the situation in which we find ourselves. Let’s not fool ourselves, but the times have changed.
I remember, back in the days when there were places such as the Desert Inn or “The New Frontier” where you could find full pay deuces wild videopoker with denominations up to 5 dollars per token and some machines up to 25 dollar tokens (!), and now not even Station Casinos allows to gamblers to play quarter denom FPDW because the casinos refuse to give the customer any chance to win.
It seems to me that the only way to make money on black jack is to sell the books about the game within. It may have some entertainment value reading such books and see how it could be done. Once you decide to practice and step your foot into a a casino somewhere in the wild wild west you will soon find out that the heat will be coming around the corner and the pit boss eventually might show you the red flag.
From Switzerland
Boris
LOL !
Your lack of imagination to get the money out of the tables is obvious.
In the Fourth Ring Of Hell there is a blackjack table, my suggestion if you ever find yourself there is to not split 6’s, they get freaky when you do that…
An entire weekend with a “Penthouse Pet”? What would we talk about, I’m afraid there would be hours of uncomfortable silence interrupted only by some short bursts… On the plus side I would finally get some use out of that HazMat suit I got in the closet…
When it comes to blackjack, there are a few different ways to skin that cat that do not involve card counting.
I have great respect for Bishop Snyder, but it sounds like this book is mostly of theoretical and historical interest, like –dare I say it?–some of Lance Humble’s or Ian Anderson’s anecdotal adventures.
Blackjack is a dying game, a casualty of the corporate bottom line. At least for me.