Schlesinger's "Blackjack Attack' Revised, Updated, Better Than Ever

26 May 2004

By Howard Schwartz

If the game of blackjack is to survive, and at least help encourage beginners to mid-level experienced players to move up a notch in skill and confidence, then there will be more books like the newest edition (3rd) of Blackjack Attack (505 pages, hardbound, $39.95) by the respected player-author Don Schlesinger. The book offers everything a serious player needs to tackle the game as it has evolved.

With more than 100 new pages (the last edition was published in 2000), Schlesinger's work moves to the top of the "best-bet/must-read" list for serious players.

What's been added? New material on optimal betting ramps; unit sizes; SCORESA; four new risk of ruin equations; new computer simulations by Norm Wattenberger; new material on precise expectations tables; the most accurate basic strategy charts now available; and the effects of rules variations on basic strategy expectations.

There are 14 chapters in this marvelous work, including Back-Counting the Shoe Game; Betting Techniques and Win Rates; Evaluating the New Rules and Bonuses; Camouflage; Risk of Ruin; Team Play. In three appendices, the author has Complete Basic Strategy EVs for the 1-2-4-6-8; Basic Strategy Charts for the 1-2 and Multi-Deck Games and the Effects of Rules Variations on Basic Strategy Expectations.

Edited with skill, patience and precision by Viktor Nacht and Bettie Page of RGE, the book had input from John Auston, James Grosjean, Olaf Vancura and Stanford Wong among others. For those who enjoyed the now out-of-print super publication Blackjack Forum, founded by Arnold Snyder, there's a plethora of pertinent, still timely material excerpted from past issues.

Feedback from some of the greats in the business have given this book a great pat on the back--and that includes Ed Thorp, Ian Andersen and Bryce Carlson.

The hardbound editions at Gamblers Book Shop are all autographed. Later this year, for those frugal buyers who have the patience to wait, there will be a paperbound version. But for those, hardbound copies only exist.

Schlesinger, who over the years has advised, provided input, edited and analyzed some of the best material out there for advanced blackjack players, understands and comments on how the game has changed in the past five years, including the seemingly punitive 6-to-5 bonuses for naturals instead of the expected 3-to-2. He has great admiration for "those who continue to play their trade successfully in this never-ending cat-and-mouse game."

He hopes times will get better and that conditions become more favorable. Whether they do or not, this popular and respected author has supplied those disciplined enough to continue the battle, with an arsenal of new ideas and weaponry. This work is clearly designed for upper-echelon players.