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Kevin Blackwood and Larry Barker are the co-authors of the new book, 'Legends of Blackjack – True Stories of Players Who Crushed the Casinos'. For more details about the book, click here.
Shortly after I (Kevin Blackwood) finished writing Play Blackjack Like the Pros (HarperCollins, 2005), I became intrigued with compiling some true stories about the legends of the game.
The impetus for this new project was Ben Mezrich’s runaway bestseller Bringing Down the House. While I found that book well written and the exploits of the MIT team captivating, I was disappointed in how the author strained the boundaries of the non-fiction genre. Consequently, I decided to put together a book that did not embellish the accounts of the greatest blackjack players, but instead presented them in a truthful and factual manner.
My original plan was to write the entire book about just one group—the infamous Czech blackjack team who pounded casinos all over the world. I was fortunate enough to have known these innovative players well, and I felt they had an incredible story to tell.
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However, initially they weren’t crazy about my idea. They remembered the ill will caused by Ken Uston shamelessly promoting himself back in the 1980s; and the Czechs did not want to alienate other blackjack players by tooting their own horn. Finally we reached a compromise and decided to make it a book consisting of short stories about many different people that have greatly influenced the history of blackjack.
This shift actually provided a great new dynamic for the book as I was amazed by how many intriguing stories were out there, such as Frank Salerno ingeniously coming up with the Big Player concept, and a colorful account about Stanford Wong’s first trip to Reno to test his card counting skills (he won so many silver dollars that he almost needed a wheel barrow to take them to the cashiers cage).
The criteria I used for determining the 'Legends' to be included in the book was admittedly very subjective. I gravitated to the people who either influenced the game greatly (innovators like Dr. Ed Thorp), or who were big winners at the tables (such as Tommy Hyland or the MIT team). However, I am sure there are many other deserving people who could have been included in the book. Some stayed under the radar and their exploits were never known. A few 'Legends' declined to be interviewed, while others did not play in the 'Golden' early era of blackjack that is the primary time frame of the book.
Although I started on this project several years ago, severe back problems prevented me from finishing the book. Fortunately, I was able to talk Dr. Larry Barker (an accomplished author and highly successful tournament blackjack player) to help me complete the Legends of Blackjack. Larry interviewed some of blackjack’s most important players and pioneers and I will let him talk about the interview process in writing the book.
'When Kevin approached me about helping him complete his Legends project, I was both honored and excited. I had worked as technical editor on Kevin’s Casino Gambling for Dummies book (Wiley, 2006), and we developed a good working relationship. In addition, we had the opportunity to get to know each other on a personal level at several major blackjack tournaments.
When I entered the project, Kevin had already completed over half of the book, and had secured agreements for interviews with a number of blackjack 'Legends.' He introduced me via phone or email to a number of the famous blackjack icons and I developed relationships by phone or face-to-face with them. My procedure was to use a set of standardized questions, sent to the Legends in advance; and to record their responses via telephone on tape.
In some cases, I met with them in person, and took additional notes during and after these meetings. In one case, I flew from my home in Florida to California to meet with Keith Taft and his family. That meeting was a memorable one, and one that I’ll never forget. Other face-to-face meetings, including ones with Stanford Wong and Steve Einbinder, took place in Las Vegas, when I was there playing blackjack tournaments.
Each interview by phone lasted from one to two hours. Tammie Brown (2008 million dollar winner of the Winstar Blackjack Tournament) agreed to transcribe the tapes. After she provided the transcriptions, I crafted the chapters from those notes.
The final stage of the project involved integrating my segments and chapters with those that Kevin had already completed. Lots of editing and emails between us followed, and the book took final shape. Henry Tamburin and his staff transposed the manuscript into an e-book, and the Legend was born.'
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About Blackjack Tournaments
In the last decade, poker has gone through a tremendous boom thanks to the rising popularity of poker tournaments. In fact, for many people, high stakes tournaments might be the first thing they think of when they think of poker. On the other hand, blackjack is mostly known as a table game played in the casino, not a competitive endeavor where you compete against fellow players.
But blackjack has a tournament scene too, and it’s one that’s just as exciting and competitive as the world of tournament poker. In a blackjack tournament, the goal isn’t just to beat the dealer – though you probably will have to do that more than a few times to win. Instead, you’re competing against the other players at your table to see who can amass the most chips in a certain number of hands.
Typically, a blackjack tournament will consist of elimination rounds (though single table blackjack tournaments do exist), in which the top one or two finishers out of a table of about five to six players will advance to the next round. At the beginning of each round, each player starts with the same number of chips. Typically, a round will last somewhere between 20-30 hands, after which the players are ranked by the number of chips they hold.
Immediately when sitting down and playing in a blackjack tournament, you’ll notice that some things are different from your typical blackjack game. For instance, the dealer doesn’t always start dealing from the “first base” position (the player to the dealer’s left). Instead, the first position changes from hand to hand, with a button moving around the table, much like the dealer button in poker. This helps keep the competition on a more equal footing; players who act last are at a significant advantage, since they can see how much their opponents have bet, and see how their hands are doing before they need to make any decisions of their own. This is an especially critical advantage on the final hand.
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Blackjack Tournament Strategy
Not surprisingly, blackjack tournaments require very different strategies than when you’re just playing blackjack against the casino. Since your goal is to accumulate more chips than your opponents, it is sometimes wise to do things which you would never do when simply playing blackjack at a regular table.
One of the key strategic concepts in blackjack tournaments is that players will tend to have very similar results in terms of winning or losing hands. While it is far from a guarantee, hands where a few of the players win against the dealer and a few lose are less common than hands where the whole table beats a busted dealer, or the dealer defeats all (or nearly all) of the players. This means that when you gain chips, you can expect the other players to be generally gaining chips as well; and when the dealer is running over you, chances are that the other players at your table won’t be faring much better.
This concept led to the discovery that one very effective strategy in blackjack tournaments was simply to do the opposite of what the rest of the table was doing. For instance, if the rest of the table is making small, conservative wagers, this strategy suggests that you should make large wagers instead. This works because, in general, the players making bets of similar sizes will end up with a similar number of chips. Meanwhile, you – as the only player at the table trying something different – will likely find yourself with a very different amount of chips. This might put you in first place, or it might put you in last, depending on how the dealer treats you. But having a 50/50 shot at first at a table of five or six players is a pretty good deal.
These days, blackjack tournament strategy has evolved to the point where these easily exploitable tables are less common, which means more advanced strategy is required. Most good players will generally bet small, but look for some good spots to make larger bets, especially when they can act last and see what their opponents are doing first. When in the lead, players often switch to bets of moderate size (especially when acting early), so that their opponents can’t get the full benefit of playing in an “opposite” manner. As round progresses, it also becomes important to calculate just how much you’ll need to bet to get yourself into a position to advance, without risking so much that you won’t have later opportunities should you lose a given hand.
Blackjack tournament strategy eventually comes down to a balancing act: you must take enough risks to win, but only when the rewards are big enough to justify taking those risks. Advanced blackjack tournament strategy goes even further, taking steps to optimize bet sizing, pointing out when to ignore basic strategy because you need to take bigger risks (or need to play extra conservatively), and much more.
Major Blackjack Tournaments
In recent years, several blackjack events have gained considerable notoriety. Perhaps the most well-known to television audiences was the World Series of Blackjack, a competition televised on the Game Show Network. This mostly closed tournament does allow players to enter through satellites, and the top prize – which started at $100,000 in the show’s first season – rose to $500,000 over subsequent seasons, the last of which was aired in 2007. GSN also briefly aired a series known as the World Blackjack Tour, and UltimateBet ran the Ultimate Blackjack Tour for two seasons.
However, unlike with poker, most major blackjack tournaments are not televised. Still, blackjack tournaments are commonly held in major casinos around the world, often with large prize pools that can range into the hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. Blackjack tournaments are also spread regularly at many online casinos, meaning you can play in an exciting tournament from the convenience of your own home!
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