The Complete Blackjack Survival Kit

Ronald J. Plachno

Jan 2014 · Ronald J. Plachno

About this ebook

 "The Complete Blackjack Survival Kit" uses more than 16 billion of computer simulated hands of Blackjack (the Game of "21") to find best play complete with tables.  And those tables and odds not only include one deck and six deck examples, but also some newer casino games such as 6:5 Blackjack, Super Fun Blackjack, Spanish 21 and more.  The book and its math go further and use math and high speed computer simulation to examine betting and staking strategies. But perhaps the most unique part of this book, that we say makes it "complete", is that it then uses statistics to see what all this means. Can you get rich even if you put the odds in your favor?

The author has simulated the game of Blackjack twice using computers.  The first time in 1984 using Commodore computers, that actually did the job, but of course were slower.  The author then programmed a new far faster simulator for use on multiple high speed Windows computers and ran many more simulations that have become the basis for this book.  All work in this book was done independently.  Some of the basics you will likely already know or have read, since "math is math".  However, I find no one with the exact same tables.  And I certainly find no book I have read that reached the same conclusions about the real chances of winning.  That might be because in this case, we simulated not only the game - but also the odds of winning in short periods of play.

This book of course does not guarantee that you can be a winner in Blackjack and make money.  It might though give you perspective and explain why your neighbor has not yet quit his job and moved to Las Vegas.  But of course in the middle of all of this, it gives help that some of us can used to improve and also have fun. I also found a few things from the simulations that surprised me as well. 

- Ron Plachno (author)

About the author

 The author of this book, Ronald J. Plachno, was born in Chicago, Illinois.  He graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT in Chicago, and took 6 graduate courses at the University of Illinois. Beginning as the lowest level engineer, Ron worked his way up in leadership and became a VP at the Fortune 500 Motorola Corporation and later a Sr. VP at Novatel Wireless, a technology startup company in California. Ron was also listed at one time in the "Who's Who of America".

The math demands of engineering combined with being part of Division leadership financials combined with Motorola's drive into six sigma quality made for an excellent math background that Ron was able to directly apply to this book.  Also the growth of computers in technical Manufacturing led Ron to want to learn how they worked and he began writing software about 1982 as a hobby and has done it often since then - including the start of his own small software company.  With enjoyment at Blackjack on vacations, it perhaps was not odd that a math background, software background and blackjack background joined together to interest Ron to software simulate the game both in about 1984 and then more recently with Windows PC computers.

I believe it is not that common that the same person who writes the software Blackjack simulator also is at times a Blackjack player and also is the one writing the book.  But that gives the person some insight into what in the math is important, and what is not.  As for the motive in writing this book, the motive is simply to tell the truth as best as can be determined from the math and simulations.  Yes, promising one that they can be a winner may sell more books, but is that the real truth?