See the top rated post in this thread. Click here

Results 1 to 10 of 10

Thread: Don and Gronbog's new book

  1. #1


    Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No

    Don and Gronbog's new book

    Hi everyone,

    I just finished reading Don and Dave's new book. I liked it a lot, especially in everything related to the value that surrender occupies in the ranking of the best plays.
    This is a very interesting topic and it is the first time it has appeared in print. What can I say? For those who use Hi-Lo and even other systems, the ranking is really impressive and very eloquent.
    Congratulations to both of you for this masterpiece!

    Sincerely,
    Cac

  2. #2


    Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    Be careful, you might find the above as a blurb on the back cover of the reprint!

    Thank you, of course, for the kind words. Much appreciated.

    Don

  3. #3


    Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    I couldn't say it any better. Coming from you, this means a lot!

  4. #4


    Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    Just a quick comment or two, for those who have been asking or PMing me. The original (somewhat limited) printing of the book has now been exhausted. Going forward, the book will be available from HP as Print on Demand (POD). This will also allow us to continue to make any corrections, should there be errors pointed out to us. Recently, you saw that there were some issues with the DD Play-All spreads in the List of Tables, and they have been rectified. Earlier, we pointed out a slight omission in the legend for Table 51.1 on page 314.

    Finally, just as the acronym for the third edition of Blackjack Attack (BJA3), has become widely known to the blackjack community, I would like to start referring to The Hi-Lo Card Counting System: A Complete Guide to Index Play simply as HLCCS. I hope that, one day, as word spreads about the exceptional usefulness of the new content, players will begin to recognize HLCCS as readily as they do BJA3.

    Don

  5. #5


    Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    Quote Originally Posted by DSchles View Post
    Be careful, you might find the above as a blurb on the back cover of the reprint!

    Thank you, of course, for the kind words. Much appreciated.

    Don


    You're welcome!

    Sincerely,
    Cac

  6. #6


    Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    Quote Originally Posted by Gronbog View Post
    I couldn't say it any better. Coming from you, this means a lot!
    You deserve it. You put a lot of work into it and I know it.

    Sincerely,
    Cac

  7. #7


    Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    Quote Originally Posted by Cacarulo View Post
    Hi everyone,

    I just finished reading Don and Dave's new book. I liked it a lot, especially in everything related to the value that surrender occupies in the ranking of the best plays.
    This is a very interesting topic
    It gets even more interesting the more you flip through the pages. (And if you know me, I can't flip; I scour the pages.)
    So, a lot of what you'll find in the book will make logical sense. For example, as the rules change from S17 to H17 or 6D to 2D, you will see certain plays become more important than others.
    Some things may seem obvious, like when there's DAS or nodas. When there is Surrender, the FAB 4 of course jumps high into the list, but many other unusual surrender plays also appear and push much of the Illustrious 18 far down in rank. Any wonger knows that Back-Counting instead of Play-All suppresses most of the plays with negative index numbers, but guess what, not all of them!

    And the authors go into great detail on all these nifty interactions in the narrative.

    But exactly which particular plays we're talking about will surprise you!

    Beyond that, I wanted to look into more subtle things, like how penetration affects the value of some plays, or differences in bet spread.

    Comparing the most conservative to the most aggressive bet spreads, it is interesting to see that plays using higher index numbers climb in value, and push away plays with lower index thresholds. Many plays with low indices had gotten higher SCOREs in the past because they were encountered at a higher frequency, and thereby more often affected your money. But with a larger bet spread, there is so much more money on the table, especially at higher true counts, then certain more rare plays rise in importance. Also, more doubles and splits appear higher on the chart than before, even ones with unimpressive indices, because again they involve you risking more money and will more greatly affect the SCORE.

    Plays come onto the radar that you've never considered before, like splitting 9s to an Ace: invisible at one bet spread, clearly on the map for another.

    Fascinating stuff!

    And congratulations on selling out the first print run!

    Cheers,
    Ole


    Sent from my LM-K500 using Tapatalk

  8. #8
    Banned or Suspended
    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Posts
    1,154


    Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    Quote Originally Posted by Ole View Post
    Plays come onto the radar that you've never considered before, like splitting 9s to an Ace: invisible at one bet spread, clearly on the map for another.

    Sent from my LM-K500 using Tapatalk
    I’ve never heard of this part. My HiLo deviation indices for the 9,9vs.A hand are stand/split @ TC=+2 for a 6- deck Hit-17 game and @ TC=+3 for a Stand-17 game, respectively. I recall Gronbog explained earlier here that these EV-maximizing indices do not vary with the bet spread, but you are saying the opposite. I’m confused.

  9. #9


    1 out of 1 members found this post helpful. Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    The index numbers have nothing to do with spread but may change due to different rules as you have pointed out. The value of each index in terms of SCORE does vary with spread. This is what Ole is referring to.

  10. #10
    Banned or Suspended
    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Posts
    1,154


    Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    I start to get what you are talking about. Wonderful work!

Similar Threads

  1. New BJ book
    By Jabberwocky in forum General Blackjack Forum
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 11-22-2013, 03:11 PM
  2. A new BJ book
    By ZenMaster_Flash in forum General Blackjack Forum
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 10-13-2013, 04:45 PM
  3. New Book?
    By AussiePlayer in forum General Blackjack Forum
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 09-08-2012, 02:47 PM
  4. Little Ben: New book
    By Little Ben in forum Blackjack Beginners
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: 10-26-2005, 05:46 PM
  5. Replies: 5
    Last Post: 05-10-2004, 01:34 PM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  

About Blackjack: The Forum

BJTF is an advantage player site based on the principles of comity. That is, civil and considerate behavior for the mutual benefit of all involved. The goal of advantage play is the legal extraction of funds from gaming establishments by gaining a mathematic advantage and developing the skills required to use that advantage. To maximize our success, it is important to understand that we are all on the same side. Personal conflicts simply get in the way of our goals.