Blackbelt in Blackjack: Playing Blackjack as a Martial Art

Arnold "Church of Blackjack" Snyder is one of the best blackjack writers I've seen. His book takes you from beginning counting strategies up until the advanced ones that will bring you in for the win! This book helped me big time in the casinos, even after I could already play the game. He even gives good camoflauge advice so the casino won't be able to tell you're counting the cards. I have two editions of this book, the newest one is of course the better but the first was what helped me. I recommend this to anyone who wants to learn a more advanced counting strategy for casino play. It will definitely help you.

This is the best card counting guide I have come across! I'm a newer person in the card counting arena and own over 20 books on the subject. The book takes you from the "White Belt" to "Black Belt" level of card counting. The author, Arnold Snyder, is a member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame and his knowledge and expertise on the subject is matched by very few. I highly reccommend this book and wish it was the first book I purchased on the subject of card counting!

I have read over thirty books on the subject of blackjack. The third edition of Blackbelt ranks right up there as one of the best. It is the most comprehensive, well rounded text that I have read. The beginning blackjack player will learn everything they need in this one source to become a proficient advantage player. The expert player will learn advanced techniques that are only mentioned in other books.

As a former Financial Analyst/Games Analyst for the Tropicana in Las Vegas, I used to spend a huge number of hours reading and studying blackjack. I did a lot of research work for the casino whenever they wanted to offer special promotions or make rule changes to table games, so I had to be familiar with a broad range of gambling theory. While gambling books range wildly in quality, "Blackbelt in Blackjack" was one that stood out in my mind. It offered simple - yet powerful - card counting systems such as the Red Seven Count. While other blackjack books touted more complex higher level multi-parameter systems, Snyder was one of the first to advocate simpler systems. He reasoned that while the more complex systems could theoretically make more money per hour, the higher error rate due to mental fatigue and complexity often more than wiped out the gains over simpler systems which resulted in fewer errors. Snyder is also refreshingly honest in terms of expected win rates and the chances of a beginning card counter succeeding. He understands that most players are not looking to turn professional - they have full time jobs and thus cannot be expected to devote all of their waking hours to blackjack. They want to improve their game, enjoy the intellectual challenge of taking on the casinos, and hopefully make a few bucks and earn some comps in the process. If this is you, "Blackbelt in Blackjack" is a great book. If you are a full-time professional and don't mind spending a huge amount of time learning more complex systems and want to extract the absolute maximum win per hour from a blackjack game, then this book may not be for you. My experience is that the former outnumber the latter by a significant margin. The book covers topics from the rudiments of basic blackjack play (including a set of 10 rules that will cut the casino's edge to about 1%) to basic strategy to card counting (including the Red Seven Count and Zen Count). He also discusses bankroll requirements, how to evaluate table conditions, and camouflage. Please note that even a relatively simple system such as the Red Seven can't be learned in a day - it will take many days of hard work to become accurate and comfortable enough to play in a casino.If you want to learn card counting there are a lot of classic works that you should read, and this book is a great place to start.

Arnold Snyder, well-known blackjack author and expert, updated his 93 classic. An excellent book for those wanting info on balanced and un-balanced counts. His hi-lo lite is a model of simplicity, showing better results than more complicated strategy tables. A great book for anyone just getting into blackjack and in need of some expert advice.