The author Stanley Roberts calls himself the Blackjack Guru of the 80's. gu·ru ( A teacher and guide in spiritual and philosophical matters. A trusted counselor and adviser; a mentor. A recognized leader in a field: the guru of high finance. An acknowledged and influential advocate, as of a movement or idea: This description is totally accurate. A contemporary and a contributor to the founding fathers of Blackjack. Stanley Roberts writes to the beginning Blackjack Player and shows them how to advance through the levels of play needed to become an expert Player. Stanley does this with a minimum of "hype" for any particular system which is so evident in many other Blackjack books. Stanley starts with the development of Blackjack theory and methodology for beating the game. He expalains about the affect of casino rules on the house advantage over the player using noted author Lance Humble as his expert. Stanley explains the use of Basic Strategy as well as any other author. He even goes on with the help of Julian Braun to give the extremely rare and vital information on Double Exposure and Home Game basic strategy. Arnold "the Bishop" Snyder contributes a chapter on the casino conditions and other topics. Jerry Patterson contributes a chapter on a topic that became the next area of attack against the casino, the order of the cards and how it is affected by the shuffle procedure. After all the mathematics of the strategy and count systems had been developed then teams came into play. Ken Uston writes two of the most interesting chapters on team play and getting Barred. All areas of play are discussed including cheating, bankroll management and a plan for progressing up the ranks to an advanced player. This is a terrific for a beginner. There is no advanced strategy for Sale. But, it is written by a true visionary in the gaming world at a time when Blackjack was a Main course on the casino platter.

This book gives a quick overview of making money, or losing money more slowly, at various games of chance. Thorpe was best known for "inventing" a system of card counting for blackjack and basic strategy. He wrote the 1962 book "Beat the Dealer" which spawned a whole genre of win-at-gambling books that continue to this day.

"The Mathematics of Gambling" is quite different from those other books. For instance, it does not focus on just one game like most of the others. In fact, it barely explains a game at all. Instead, it describes the mathematical methods that might be used to win at the game more consistently. Think of this book as a starting point to understanding gambling theories.

The book starts with Blackjack, of course, and gives a very brief overview the game and betting strategies. This is mathematically heavy and many details are left out. It is followed by a counter-point of Baccarat which Thorpe concludes mathematically has much less room for winning strategies.

At this point, the book is just getting started. Although most gambling books focus on card games, or just casino games; Thorpe also gives mathematical insight into Horse betting and Backgammon. There are no clear-cut strategies forced upon the reader, just a general pointing in a direction that might prove helpful.

And that is the whole issue with this book. If you are looking for the one-true-path to gambling winnings, look elsewhere. If you want, instead, to read about mathematics applied to betting games this is the book to start reading. The writing is precise and clear and the math is not too horrid. Especially helpful is the time Thorpe spends setting up the underlaying math to working out a potentially successful strategy. Also, the final section on money management is excellent even if your game of chance is the stock market. A game Thorpe also wrote about in "Beat the Market".

This book was originally published in the mid-1960's. At the time, it was revolutionary. Today, it is nearly useless in practical terms. If you already know the basics of card-counting and want to learn some of the history, this is the book that started it all. If you want to read some "war stories" about casino cheating or winning thousands in a matter of hours, this is a good choice. If you want to learn how to count cards, look elsewhere.

If you are looking to learn blackjack for the first time or even if you are an intermediate player, I would not recommend this as the book to read. You should read Frank Scoblete's BEST BLACKJACK which teaches a much simpler and easier to learn card counting system. Also, Scoblete's book is a lot more fun. But Thorp is the genius who invented card counting and his book is a must as background.

I totally disagree with the other reviewers who say this book is "no longer relevant". It is the definitive guide to Blackjack's "Basic Strategy" plus provides a fascinating historical perspective on how Thorp ran the computer simulations to develop the Basic Strategy and test it in Nevada casinos back in the early '60's. What the other reviewers say is true, that the methods Thorp used (card counting) to make a lot of money back in the '60's no longer work today, but that doesn't diminish the value of the book. The casinos were changing the rules and "shutting down" the big opportunities before Thorp even finished the book. But that isn't the measure of the value of the book (although it is testimony to how powerful Thorps's insights were when first developed).

Everyone playing Blackjack (one deck or out of a shoe) should be playing "Basic Strategy" at a minimum. If you want to implement some other strategy on top of that (changing bet size, card counting, etc. etc.) have at it. But the starting point should be Basic Strategy.

Furthermore, the average recreational Blackjack player should be playing Basic Strategy, but many (most? -- at the cheaper tables anyway) don't as you can observe by sitting down at any Blackjack table.

This book should be read by anyone who wants to play Blackjack.

The basic premise of this book is to long stock and delta hedge w/ out of the money warrants. This was great when the tax incentives encouraged corporations to sell bonds w/ detachable warrants rather than selling convertible bonds. In addition, valuing the warrants was tricky prior to the use of the Black-Scholes model. This strategy - delta neutral covered calls - is profitable when the market has peaked out but you can get your handed to you if you employ it in a scenario such as '99-'00. Further their reocmmendations that you short more as your warrants fall is very dangerous - shorting a lot of gamma. The warrant game played itself out and the authors made a a lot of money. This is a very interesting book written by a very profitable hedge fund manager, but I would not recommend attempting to replicate this strategy w/ LEAPS. Pricing is much tighter now so your margin of error has dramatically decreased

Agree with much of the prior review. That said, if you can find thinly traded warrants (i.e., where there is less pricing efficiency due to the low trading volume), this book presents a very workable strategy for the individual investor. In addition, the book does outline an approach for hedging the "warrant component" of convertible bonds. In my opinion, the key is to stay in the low-volume (and, therefore, more market in-efficient) securities, so that an individual investor can use one's small size as an advantage by trading where the larger funds cannot.