The Top 10 Card Counting Books

Blackjack Book Reviews

There are hundreds if not thousands of books in print about the game of blackjack. While I haven't read even close to all of them, I have read many of the highly rated ones. Here is a top 10 list of the best blackjack books, with a little bit of information about each of them. As I develop full pages for each book I will link to it from this page.

If you know of good card counting books or blackjack books that I've missed, then please contact me so I can expand the list.

The Top 10 List

Here are our picks for the top 10 card counting books, along with mini reviews of each of them. Where possible, we've linked to longer reviews.

Beat the Dealer - Edward O Thorp - Beat the Dealer was the first book that gave a card counting system that was backed up by solid mathematical facts. It was first published in 1962 and is still in print, with over 1,000,000 copies sold.

Better card counting systems have been developed since Beat the Dealer, but it's still worth reading. Beat the Dealer single-handedly convinced the casinos to change how blackjack is dealt.

The casinos made the game so bad that no one played any more, so they ended up changing the games back to the way they were before. Of course the casinos do everything they can to discourage professional card counters now, but they also know that most players who count cards end up losing more than they win because they aren't very good counters.

Bringing Down the House - Ben Mezrich - Bringing Down the House is a book about the now famous MIT blackjack teams who supposedly won millions of dollars from the casinos in Las Vegas and around the world. This is the book that the movie 21 was based on.

While it's based on true events, Bringing Down the House has quite a bit of fiction mixed in also. The movie went even further into the realm of fiction. I've read the book and seen the movie. Neither of them will teach you much about how to beat blackjack, but they're both interesting and entertaining.

Blackjack Attack - Don Schlesinger - Blackjack Attack, Playing the Pro's Way is one of the most advanced textbooks about blackjack ever printed. It's not for the beginning or even intermediate blackjack player. Blackjack Attack is the book you want to read after you have learned and mastered a card counting system and are already a winning blackjack player. If you read it before, you will probably do your game more harm than good. Blackjack Attack is one of the best books on advanced blackjack play ever written.

Million Dollar Blackjack - Ken Uston - Million Dollar Blackjack was one of the first books that explained team play and how the top players used teams to gain a huge advantage over the casinos and the blackjack games. It was written in 1981, and most of the team play concepts in it aren't very effective any more. But like Beat the Dealer, it's still worth reading.

Playing Blackjack as a Business - Lawrence Revere - This book has details of the Revere Point Count Strategy, which is still used by some of the top blackjack card counting professionals today. Depending on what system you end up learning and using, Playing Blackjack as a Business may become the most valuable blackjack book in your library.

Golden Touch Blackjack Revolution - Frank Scoblete - Frank Scoblete is one of the world's most well known gambling authors. The Golden Touch Blackjack Revolution card counting system is probably the easiest system to learn and use. This book is a fast read and an excellent introduction to card counting.

It's not the most accurate system available, but almost anyone can learn to use it. I recommend Golden Touch Blackjack to anyone who wants to learn a quick and easy system to see if they have a future as a card counter.

Blackbelt in Blackjack - Arnold Snyder - I saved the best blackjack book for last. I learned more and got more out of Blackbelt in Blackjack than any other blackjack book I have ever read.

It contains information about Snyder's Red 7 card counting system as well as a wealth of information about beating the game of blackjack. This is the only book on this list that I feel that every single blackjack player in the world should read. It's that good.

More Books?

I'm looking for more good blackjack books to add to this page, so please contact me if you know of any that I should include.