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Thread: New Book: First Base Blackjack

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    New Book: First Base Blackjack

    Has anybody read the new book, First Base Blackjack? Just saw it on Amazon. It's pricey at $62 and like some others in the past, advocates that card clumping vastly alters random hand probabilities. I read the inside preview pages of this short, 80 page book and it clearly misuses some basic probability equations to prove its point. Nevertheless, whenever I witness extremely rare events at the table, I again become curious about this claim.

  2. #2
    Random number herder Norm's Avatar
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    Looked at their site. Pure fraud.

    Don't think we'll invite them for a chat.
    Last edited by Norm; 02-12-2012 at 01:23 PM.
    "I don't think outside the box; I think of what I can do with the box." - Henri Matisse

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    Senior Member bigplayer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Renzey View Post
    Has anybody read the new book, First Base Blackjack? Just saw it on Amazon. It's pricey at $62 and like some others in the past, advocates that card clumping vastly alters random hand probabilities. I read the inside preview pages of this short, 80 page book and it clearly misuses some basic probability equations to prove its point. Nevertheless, whenever I witness extremely rare events at the table, I again become curious about this claim.
    Clumping does alter random hand probabilities if it is done intentionally though false shuffles and such. Player losses due to normal random clumping as part of normal shuffles is already figured into the EV of the game. Clumping is inevitable in any 312 or 416 or 104 card deck. Random shuffles does not mean evenly distributed....in fact an unshuffled pack of cards is when the distribution of individual cards is most even. Of course you know that. Now a false shuffle can group bigs with bigs and Aces with smalls and this gives the casino a huge advantage. I've heard that some casinos in Eastern Europe have used this method to cheat players. I think this book is just some moron trying to blame the normal clumping that happens in a random shuffle as being part of some overall casino conspiracy.
    Last edited by bigplayer; 02-12-2012 at 03:15 PM.

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    Random number herder Norm's Avatar
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    Unfortunately, the authors don’t say anything about going to select casinos in Eastern Europe. Their claim is that Basic Strategy is a fraud perpetrated by casinos, card counting doesn’t work and the counting books are frauds, all casino have shuffles that are designed to clump cards and cheat the players, etc. We’ve heard all this before.
    "I don't think outside the box; I think of what I can do with the box." - Henri Matisse

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    Quote Originally Posted by bigplayer View Post
    Clumping does alter random hand probabilities if it is done intentionally though false shuffles and such. Player losses due to normal random clumping as part of normal shuffles is already figured into the EV of the game. Clumping is inevitable in any 312 or 416 or 104 card deck. Random shuffles does not mean evenly distributed....in fact an unshuffled pack of cards is when the distribution of individual cards is most even. Of course you know that. Now a false shuffle can group bigs with bigs and Aces with smalls and this gives the casino a huge advantage. I've heard that some casinos in Eastern Europe have used this method to cheat players. I think this book is just some moron trying to blame the normal clumping that happens in a random shuffle as being part of some overall casino conspiracy.
    Funny you mention this, I ran a while ago a silly sim: The following image has two sims of the same game except that the first one uses the RNG of CVData to generate random shuffles and the second is very non-random shuffle where two 156 card grabs are riffled once. 6D S17 DAS
    The sim using CVData RNG yields an IBA of -0.398%, while the sim using the "bad" real shuffle gives -0.560%.
    If we calculate the EV using composition dependent CA we get -0.402%, note how close the ev (IBA) of the first sim (-0.398%) to the value obtained from CA, and how off is the ev obtained from the second sim (-0.560%).



    Poor shuffles have a pronounced effect even for a basic strategy player
    Chance favors the prepared mind

  6. #6
    Random number herder Norm's Avatar
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    Thanks for pointing this out. Of course the silly part of the claim that all casinos use such shuffles is that they would be extremely trackable.

    BTW, ever try to riffle two 156-card grabs?
    "I don't think outside the box; I think of what I can do with the box." - Henri Matisse

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    Quote Originally Posted by Norm View Post
    Looked at their site. Pure fraud.

    Don't think we'll invite them for a chat.
    Oh no, please please please DO invite them for a chat!!!

    Then, we can bring out the knives.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Norm View Post
    Their claim is that Basic Strategy is a fraud perpetrated by casinos, card counting doesn’t work and the counting books are frauds.
    Did JStat write a book??

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    Junior Member Nick Matteo's Avatar
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    I concur - you absolutely should invite them to a guest chat, so they can "enlighten" everyone. My suspicion is that they'll decline the invitation, however.

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    Senior Member jaygruden's Avatar
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    Just perused their site....What a freakin' scam. It should be criminal to publish such a fraud.

  11. #11


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    We should all agree that this book is spot on. Therefore, counters are GOOD for casinos
    and should be embraced by casinos and allowed to play with full comps to boot! Leave
    counters alone! They help the casino and here is yet another book that 'proves' it.
    We are NOT cheats, thieves, or criminals. We are just misguided gamblers.

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    All copies of this First Base Blackjack belong here:

    4176198303_a314d48e07_o.jpg

  13. #13


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    Quote Originally Posted by Norm View Post
    Unfortunately, the authors don’t say anything about going to select casinos in Eastern Europe. Their claim is that Basic Strategy is a fraud perpetrated by casinos, card counting doesn’t work and the counting books are frauds, all casino have shuffles that are designed to clump cards and cheat the players, etc. We’ve heard all this before.
    damn! i should have been more intelligent and not left my 9-5 job for blackjack.
    i guess most of our winnings come from positive variance.

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