Wilson, Robert. Advanced Card Counting Techniques: Amplifying Your Advantage in Blackjack. Independently published (July 18, 2024).
I have never seen anything like this book before. It is AI-generated garbage. Most of the book was apparently written by giving an AI bot a chapter or section title and letting it run, then publishing it without the intervention of any human understanding. Tellingly, the name of the “author” appears nowhere on or inside the book. Just a few of many examples:
- pp 14ff, The Concept of Card Advantage; five pages about “the ability to draw more cards than your opponent, effectively increasing the size of your hand relative to theirs,” applied to games like Magic: the Gathering.
- pp 41ff, Basic Strategy Revisited; six pages about strategy as strategic decision-making for organizations. “Strategy is not simply a plan or a set of objectives; rather, it encompasses a holistic approach to decision-making that considers the organization’s internal capabilities, external environment, and desired future state.”
- pp 77ff, Chosing the Right System for You, ostensibly referring to blackjack systems, is six pages about software development systems. “Is it a web application, a mobile app, a desktop application, or something else entirely.” And which JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and server-side frameworks will you need?
- pp 101ff, Advanced Bet Sizing Techniques, starts with four pages about the advantage of splitting bets among different horses or races. The chapter later advises using stop-loss orders, diversifying the investments in a portfolio, and monitoring market conditions.
- pp 133ff, Developing a System for Tracking Cards, is 11 pages about database applications for collections of gaming cards.
- pp 144ff, Optimizing Insurance Bets, helps you optimize life, health, and property insurance bets.
- pp 151ff, Doubling: Exploring Growth and Change. “Imagine a population of bacteria that doubles every hour. By repeatedly doubling the population, we can accurately predict its size at any given time.”
- pp 184ff, Identifying Table Characteristics: “Tables are fundamental to data organization and analysis.” Five pages about rows, columns, headers, and data types and values.
- pp 189ff, Analyzing Dealer Behavior. “Dealers play a pivotal role in facilitating the smooth functioning of financial markets.”
My favorite:
- pp 167ff, Strategies for Identifying Deck Penetration: “Deck penetration, a phenomenon where the water level inside a ship’s deck rises above the normal level, poses a significant threat to maritime safety.” Nine pages about this.
Many other passages, while not so absurd, display an absence of real understanding of what is being talked about:
- p 51: “Some card counters incorporate side bets, such as Insurance or Lucky Lucky, into their strategy.”
- p 54: “. . . the running count sits at +7. With 6 decks remaining, the true count is a hefty 1.17. This positive count, signaling a surplus of high cards, gives you a significant advantage.”
- p 62: “Uston’s system is a balanced count system, a departure from traditional high-low counting systems like Hi-Lo.”
- p 73: “The Zen Count System, as its name suggests, embodies the principles of Zen philosophy: simplicity, mindfulness, and focus. This counting method, unlike many others, does not rely on complex calculations or intricate memorization. Instead, it encourages a state of mental clarity and tranquility, allowing the player to make decisions based on intuition and a deep understanding of the game.”
Wong Halves has several interesting definitions:
- p 51, reducing your bet to half the initial amount during unfavorable counts.
- pp 69-70, “. . . the system divides the deck into two halves, with the count being applied separately to each half.” “The deck is mentally divided into two halves. This division doesn’t necessarily have to be literal; it’s more about keeping track of the cards dealt in relation to the original deck size.” “Separate running counts are maintained for each half of the deck. These counts are updated as cards are dealt.” “The combined count is calculated by adding the two half-deck counts. This represents the overall count of the entire deck.”
And there is plenty more stuff that is just plain wrong, too much to list. For example: Uston, Wong Halves, and Zen are all said to use the same tags as Hi-Lo.
The abstract on Amazon looks like it was AI-generated from the descriptions of other books; it does not describe this one. Even the cover illustration, with its odd card-like shapes and distorted pips, appears to have been generated by someone or something that does not really know what cards are.
I did a little research into AI-generated text. The book uses a number of well-known AI words over and over, including tapestry, leverage, and delve. There are many naive and repetitive summaries of previously-discussed concepts like hi-lo, running count vs true count, and bet sizing. Descriptions of ordinary topics are often overly grand and picturesque. Items often appear out of context, such as sections on casino countermeasures, the psychological aspect of card counting, and continuing education, randomly inserted into the explanation of the Uston system. And there are virtually no real-life blackjack examples or any evidence of personal experience; it reads like an encyclopedia.
You needn’t take my word for it. Here are the last two paragraphs on p 26. I pasted them into three online AI detectors.
In the grand tapestry of card games, one thread stands out as crucial for their very existence: the concept of value. This seemingly simple notion, assigning numerical or abstract significance to cards, underpins the entire fabric of strategy, decision-making, and, ultimately, the thrill of victory. In this one, we delve into the fascinating world of card values, exploring the diverse ways they are assigned and how these assignments shape the very nature of the game itself.
Imagine a world without card values, a realm where every card holds equal weight. The game would be devoid of strategic depth, reduced to a mere exercise in chance, a random shuffling of the deck. This is precisely where the concept of value steps in, injecting life into the game, transforming a mere shuffle into a battle of wits, a tapestry of calculated decisions and strategic maneuverings.
quillbot.com: 100% of text is likely AI-generated
zerogpt.com: Your Text is AI/GPT Generated; 85.31% AI
gptzero.me: 100% Probability AI generated
The cherry on top: the last three pages are about practical and ethical considerations for AI in blackjack!
Advanced Card Counting Techniques: Amplifying Your Advantage in Blackjack
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