Beat the Dealer landed in 1962 and settled the big question: the odds in blackjack move as cards leave the deck, and a player who tracks what has been dealt can, at certain moments, hold an edge over the house. Our piece on Ed Thorp and Beat the Dealer tells that story. Its Ten Count, though, was demanding to run at a live table, and later systems made the job lighter.
In the decades that followed, other authors added the pieces counters study now: computer analysis, simpler point counts, a ranked list of index plays, and methods such as team play and back counting. Many of those authors were later inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame, launched in 2002 with seven original inductees, among them Thorp, Griffin, Snyder, Uston and Wong.
This article walks that shelf author by author, with what each name and book is known for.
Computers and theory: Braun, Revere, Griffin
Julian Braun was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005 as a pioneering author who used computers to analyze blackjack statistics. His name also runs through the next book on the shelf.
Lawrence Revere, born Griffith K. Owens, lived from 1915 to 1977 and worked as an author, casino pit boss and professional player. His best known book, Playing Blackjack as a Business, details counting strategies that were developed with Julian Braun. Revere was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005, the same year as Braun.
Peter Griffin, a mathematician, wrote The Theory of Blackjack, first published in 1979. The Hall of Fame lists him as a theoretical pioneer, and he was one of its seven original inductees in 2002.
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Wong and Uston: back counting and team play
Stanford Wong is the pen name of John Ferguson, born in 1943. Professional Blackjack, first published in 1975, is the book he is best known for, and he began publishing blackjack newsletters in 1979. The Hall of Fame, which inducted him in 2002, describes him as the author and popularizer of the strategy known as wonging.
Wonging is the common name for back counting. As our article on back counting explains, the player follows a shoe and keeps the count without placing a bet, then joins the game only once the count is high enough to be worth playing. The technique carries his name, and the Hall of Fame credits him with popularizing it.
Ken Uston, who lived from 1935 to 1987, is credited with popularizing team play. His blackjack books include The Big Player, written with Roger Rapoport and published in 1977, and Million Dollar Blackjack in 1981. He was inducted in 2002, in the original class alongside Wong.
Uston's name also attaches to a legal landmark. In 1982 the New Jersey Supreme Court decided his case against an Atlantic City casino, holding that the state's Casino Control Act gives the Casino Control Commission exclusive authority over the rules and methods of play for licensed games, so the casino could not exclude Kenneth Uston on its own for counting. The court did not rule that excluding counters would be unlawful if the Commission chose to allow it. Our article on whether card counting is illegal covers the case and its limits.
Snyder and Schlesinger: a journal and a short list
Arnold Snyder, who lived from 1948 to 2023, edited the quarterly Blackjack Forum from 1981, and the publication moved online in 2004. He wrote Blackbelt in Blackjack: Playing 21 as a Martial Art, which appeared in a revised edition in 2005 and is the book where, as our articles note, the Zen count was published. In 1987 he also published a set of five short guides, Beat the 1-Deck Game through Beat the 8-Deck Game, each on counting at a different number of decks. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002.
Don Schlesinger's book is Blackjack Attack: Playing the Pros' Way, which reached a third edition in 2005. He is best known for creating the Illustrious 18, a ranked list of the most valuable index plays, the spots where the count changes the correct decision away from basic strategy. As our guide to the Illustrious 18 explains, those eighteen deliver the large majority of the available playing gain, so a student can learn them in order of value, starting with insurance. Schlesinger joined the Hall of Fame in 2015.
Vancura and Fuchs: the simplicity turn
The last stop on the shelf is Knock-Out Blackjack, published in 1998 by Olaf Vancura and Ken Fuchs, the book behind the KO count. KO assigns plus one to the cards 2 through 7, zero to 8 and 9, and minus one to tens and aces. Counting the 7 as a low card makes the system unbalanced by design, since a complete deck adds up to +4 instead of zero, and that built-in drift is what lets a player act on the running count with no true count division. The starting value of the running count depends on the number of decks in the game.
The design goes after the arithmetic load our history article describes. Thorp's Ten Count tracked a ratio, which is heavy work at table speed; point counts such as the Hi-Lo count, the system most counters learn first, gave each card a small whole-number tag but kept a division by the decks remaining and the deck estimate that feeds it. KO gave up a little precision to remove both, a trade our piece on balanced versus unbalanced counts examines in detail.
The shelf at a glance
| Author | Book | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Lawrence Revere | Playing Blackjack as a Business | Counting strategies developed with Julian Braun |
| Stanford Wong | Professional Blackjack (1975) | Author and popularizer of wonging |
| Ken Uston | The Big Player (1977), Million Dollar Blackjack (1981) | Popularizing team play |
| Peter Griffin | The Theory of Blackjack (1979) | Mathematician and theoretical pioneer |
| Arnold Snyder | Blackbelt in Blackjack | The Zen count; editing Blackjack Forum |
| Don Schlesinger | Blackjack Attack | The Illustrious 18 |
| Olaf Vancura and Ken Fuchs | Knock-Out Blackjack (1998) | The KO count |
Years appear only where the record this article draws on states them.
Reading them today
Taken together, the shelf shows the work getting lighter in some places and deeper in others. Thorp's ratio gave way to point counts with small tags, the Illustrious 18 cut index tables of well over a hundred spots down to the eighteen worth the most, and KO offered a way to skip the true count division for those who want it. Underneath every one of these systems sits the idea Thorp published: the cards already dealt shift the odds on the cards that remain.
How to actually learn from all this is its own question. As our comparison of a trainer app versus strategy books argues, books are still where the reasoning lives, while drills turn recognition into recall at table speed. The two do different jobs, and that article's advice is to alternate them in small loops.
The Pro upgrade in 21 Trainer covers the drill side for counting. It teaches four counting systems, Hi-Lo, KO, Omega II and Zen, with index deviation training covering the Illustrious 18, the Fab 4 and extended indices, all with virtual chips and no real money anywhere.
The limits have not changed either. Counting with your head is legal in the United States. Casinos are private businesses that may refuse service, with jurisdictional differences in how far that power reaches, as the New Jersey case above shows. No technique removes risk: counting offers at best a small edge under favorable conditions, with large swings around it.
Frequently asked questions
What books came after Beat the Dealer?
The books covered here are Playing Blackjack as a Business by Lawrence Revere, Professional Blackjack by Stanford Wong from 1975, Ken Uston's The Big Player from 1977, written with Roger Rapoport, and his Million Dollar Blackjack from 1981, The Theory of Blackjack by Peter Griffin from 1979, Blackbelt in Blackjack by Arnold Snyder, Blackjack Attack by Don Schlesinger, and Knock-Out Blackjack by Olaf Vancura and Ken Fuchs from 1998. Each is known for something different, from team play to the KO count.
Who is Stanford Wong?
The pen name of John Ferguson, born 1943, best known for Professional Blackjack, first published in 1975. The Blackjack Hall of Fame describes him as the author and popularizer of wonging, the practice of watching a shoe without betting and sitting down only when the count is favorable. He began publishing blackjack newsletters in 1979 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002.
What is Ken Uston famous for?
Uston, who lived from 1935 to 1987, is credited with popularizing team play in blackjack. He wrote The Big Player in 1977 with Roger Rapoport and Million Dollar Blackjack in 1981. In his 1982 case, the New Jersey Supreme Court held that the state's Casino Control Commission has exclusive authority over the rules of licensed games, so the casino could not exclude him on its own for counting. He was inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame in 2002.
What is the Illustrious 18 and who created it?
Don Schlesinger created it and published it in his book Blackjack Attack. It ranks the eighteen departures from basic strategy that are worth the most to a counter. Each one gives a hand, a dealer upcard and a true count, the index, at which the right play changes. Insurance at about +3 sits at the top of his published list. Schlesinger was inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame in 2015.
Is card counting legal after all these books?
Counting with your head is legal in the United States; it means paying attention to cards dealt face up and doing arithmetic. But casinos are private businesses that may refuse service to players they suspect of counting, with jurisdictional differences. And no technique removes risk: counting offers at best a small edge under favorable conditions, with large short-term swings. It is a demanding skill, not a sure thing.