"What Norm fails to tell you is that this monumental work is one of the most important, comprehensive, pieces of research ever done on the game of blackjack, and were it in normal print-book form, would be destined to become one of the all-time classics in the field. It was my pleasure to read the entire manuscript a month or two ago, and I have rarely, if ever, been so impressed with the scholarship and depth of knowledge displayed by a blackjack author."

Donald Schlesinger (Author: Blackjack Attack)


"If there is a more proficient 'sim' master in the U.S., that person has yet to surface."

Richard Epstein (Author: The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic)
   

Modern Blackjack - Free Version

by Norm Wattenberger

Modern Blackjack, the Book

Modern Blackjack is a free 540-page web-book covering Blackjack from the basic rules to advanced topics like shuffle tracking, hole-card play, and team play. The rules of Blackjack are very simple. Nonetheless, an amazing amount can be said about this seemingly trivial game. To keep the book to a reasonable number of pages, many pages have been removed and are kept separately. Otherwise, it would contain over 1,000 pages and you would get carpal tunnel syndrome trying to read it online. You can find links on this page and in the book to the extra material. There is also a bit of free software supplied in conjunction with the advanced topics. Forums are also provided to allow discussions, suggestions, and questions related to the book. The forums are not meant to compete with other forums, and I will continue to respond to questions posted elsewhere. A post on the principles behind this book and the unique features of the book can be found in the forums at:

www.qfit.com/blackjackforum/showthread.php?p=6#post6

The book can be navigated using next and previous buttons, or via the index, table of contents, page and chapter jump controls. Published Versions are also available if you don't want to get carpal tunnel syndrome paging through 540 pages online. The published version is newer and expanded. Click on Published Versions in the menu at the left for the second edition. Click below to enter Modern Blackjack.

Enter the book

 

Additional Info

Chapter One — Sample REKO Charts

Following are the do-it-yourself charts discussed on page 76 of the book. One of the interesting aspects of REKO is that you can create a set of strategy charts that look just like Basic Strategy charts and take them into a casino. Casinos have no problems with Basic Strategy charts. Since the REKO indexes are all +2, you don't need to include numeric indexes. Simply create a Basic Strategy chart with a mark wherever there should be an index of +2. I have created a set of charts like this, which you can modify and print. You can add your own title like "Horoscope Weekly." Feel free to change colors or anything else to further disguise the charts. Three formats are included. Microsoft Word, RTF (supported by nearly all word processors), and HTML. Click on an HTML table to see an example. (Note: The table format and colors are a blatant rip-off of Ken Smith's BS engine.)

Chapter Eight — SuperSCOREs

You can find tables of the SuperSCOREs mentioned in the Strategy Comparisons Chapter at www.qfit.com/book/SuperSCORE.htm.

Chapter Thirteen— Tables of Tables

To save space in the book, 70 additional pages of tables and charts for rule combinations that are rare have been placed online. Note: These files may take a while to load.

Chapter Eighteen — 800 Pages of Data

To obtain information about the inner workings of Blackjack, we simulate billions of hands. I have placed the output of simulations of REKO, FELT and Hi-Lo on the web. These are partial outputs of CVData 20-billion-round simulations and contain a great deal of information not supplied elsewhere in the book. At first, I thought of including the data in the book. Then I realized there are 800 pages of data. Much as it would be nice to have the thickest book on Blackjack, I decided instead to point to the data online. Explanations can be found in the book. Note: These files may take a while to load. The sims can be found at:

Chapters Fourteen and Fifteen — Free Blackjack Software

The Shuffle Tracking chapter and the Team chapter refer to free Windows software for NRS calculation and Blcakjack team player analysis. Click the link below to install this software. The software is described in the free book.

Free Software

To see the Casino Verite software, go to Casino Verite Blackjack Software.

All Chapters — Charts and Illustrations

Large versions of the 300 charts in the book also exist on this site. Use the addresses in the book supplied below each chart to locate them.

Modern Blackjack — The free Blackjack book

 © 2009 QFIT, All rights reserved