SOTSOG: BJA Ed. III - Suggestions for Don S.

[SOTSOG]

Put the Chapter 10 charts in some type of order. I often use these as a reference, and I calculate I will waste 1.414 days of my life paging back and forth looking for the chart I want. If I flip the book open to the 2 deck charts, do I need to page forward or backward to find the 6 deck games? If the charts were arranged in 1D--2D--6D--8D order, then finding the particular game set of charts you wish to look at would be much simpler. I use several bookmarks, but I haven't yet resorted to tabbing the individual sections.
(I know, I know, buy BJRM2002!)

I think many people would be interested in seeing the profit implications and changes in standard deviation from different betting spread techniques. How about some Chapter 10 type charts and your analysis for some sample games, using a bet spread that ramps late (don't increase until +2), or a "two-stage" bet spread (min bet until +3, then max bet), etc. I am sure you could come up with some interesting twists.

Let somebody give your book a comprehensive and exhaustive index. I might want to review your analysis of your betting spread technique and the comparison to similar betting methods bending one or two of the "rules". What page do I turn to? You give a good layman's explanation of portfolio risk management and how it relates to blackjack. Where was that again? Given the wealth of information in your book, the number of entries in the index should be 2X to 3X the number of pages of text.

Just some minor suggestions for an excellent book.

[Don Schlesinger]

I very much appreciate the input. A few comments on your comments:

> Put the Chapter 10 charts in some type of
> order. I often use these as a reference, and
> I calculate I will waste 1.414 days of my
> life paging back and forth looking for the
> chart I want. If I flip the book open to the
> 2 deck charts, do I need to page forward or
> backward to find the 6 deck games? If the
> charts were arranged in 1D--2D--6D--8D
> order, then finding the particular game set
> of charts you wish to look at would be much
> simpler. I use several bookmarks, but I
> haven't yet resorted to tabbing the
> individual sections.
> (I know, I know, buy BJRM2002!)

A fair remark. Here's what happened. In the first edition, I arranged the charts in descending order of number of decks played. Call it my built-in prejudice against wasting one's time with single-deck. So, for me, the 6-deck games were paramount, followed by double-deck. (I suppose I included SD just to humor people! :-))

Now, along came the second edition, and John and I added the 8-deck studies. Only all the charts were already numbered, and the layout of the pages was such that it was much easier to simply add the new charts to the end, as "additional" material. Hence, the seemingly strange 6, 2, 1, 8 order.

The above is not an excuse; rather it is an explanation of how this came to be. I agree that, for BJA3, the order should be changed. I suppose you won't mind if, in the process, we also add optimal bet spreads for all the games, will you? :-)

> I think many people would be interested in
> seeing the profit implications and changes
> in standard deviation from different betting
> spread techniques. How about some Chapter 10
> type charts and your analysis for some
> sample games, using a bet spread that ramps
> late (don't increase until +2), or a
> "two-stage" bet spread (min bet
> until +3, then max bet), etc. I am sure you
> could come up with some interesting twists.

I thought we did a little of that in the SCORE article (see, especially, pp. 281-5). In any event, I have to leave something for BJRM fans, no?

> Let somebody give your book a comprehensive
> and exhaustive index. I might want to review
> your analysis of your betting spread
> technique and the comparison to similar
> betting methods bending one or two of the
> "rules". What page do I turn to?

The minute you wrote that, I thought "camouflage" (of course, it helps that I'm the author! :-)). Bingo! The index tells us that the main study is pp. 117-37.

> You give a good layman's explanation of
> portfolio risk management and how it relates
> to blackjack. Where was that again?

Here, you needed to think "Sharpe Ratio" (pp. 185-6). I know; it's not intuitive!

> Given the wealth of information in your book, > the number of entries in the index should be 2X
> to 3X the number of pages of text.

Probably right. But, if you knew how that index was created (Snyder spreading index cards all over the floor!), you'd marvel that it got done at all. We'll strive to make the next one better.

> Just some minor suggestions for an excellent
> book.

Very much appreciated, and all good ones.

Thank you.

Don

[Sun Runner]

It really is an excellent book .. however I am SO far behind the knowledge curve, most every page is a painfully slow read -my problem, not yours.

[I made a promise to myself to read and absorb BJ books and not start another until I fully (ok, mostly) understood the last. Then I ran into BJA. Crap, I may not get to buy another book again ]

My suggestion; maybe SOTSOG is your pigeon [I mean volunteer ] to help you get this thing to CD ROM.

Seriously, the CD ROM idea was a flash of brilliance. Couldn't Viktor shed some light on that? I would guess manufacturing/distribution cost would be miniscual to the printed version.

SR