Over the years, hundreds of books have been published on Blackjack and strategies to help players win Blackjack. From the first books in the 1960s to more recent books, people are always trying to discover ways to increase their odds of winning this game of chance.

Beat the Dealer

Beat the Dealer by E.O. Thorp was the first major book expressing the opinion that there was statistical evidence that players could increase their chances of winning Blackjack. It was published in 1963. By completing computer simulations and statistical analyses, Thorp was able to create strategies to help players increase their odds up to 0.13%. His two primary strategies were counting 5’s and counting 10’s. He later went on to write other books giving more in-depth information on winning Blackjack.

Playing Blackjack as a Business

In 1969, Lawrence Revere published the second major book about winning Blackjack. Using Thorp’s original strategy, Revere improved upon the strategies and created some of his own, including the popular Revere Point Count as well as the Plus-Minus, Ten Count, and Revere Five Count.

The Revere Point Count was the most advanced strategy available at this time. Revere used this technique consistently and proved its reliability by winning consistently as well. Eventually, he was banned from every casino in Nevada.

The Theory of Blackjack

Professor Peter A. Griffin wrote The Theory of Blackjack in 1979, and it remains to this day the most advanced and important book about Blackjack ever written. The work is mathematically complex, but those advanced players who have worked through it and learned the techniques praise this book as the reason for their successes. This book is not light reading so only pick it up if you are really serious about the game.

Million Dollar Blackjack

Ken Uston wrote Million Dollar Blackjack in 1981. He suggested that teams of players should work together to beat the casinos. Since blackjack is a table game, having players in league with one another can help each to become successful.

Uston gave methods for trying to hide the identity of the team players and showed, through exact numbers, how each player’s winnings would be greater when playing with a team than when playing alone. He also created an Advanced Point Count strategy that remains one of the most powerful Blackjack strategies in the world.