Rating: 
Summary: It makes you think..
Review: Reading this book has made me question the commonly used blackjack srategy.
I have been playing blackjack for longer than I care to mention.
The author makes several good points for the use of this "new" srategy.
As a consequence I have done just what the author suggests in this book, that is taking two decks of cards shuffling them together and playing at home using the Gregorian Strategy.
At home it seems to work, I do not know about the casino as I have not tried it there. There is a counting system also in this book which also performs well at home.
All in all this system again at home, performs well. I will try it in the casino and write a follow up review then.
Rating: 
Summary: Beware, I'd caution you against this "Gregorian Strategy"
Review: I'm what you call a Blackjack hobbyist -- not a pro by any means, but I'm pretty good. I know my basic strategy, and I'm a half-@%%ed card counter. In my lifetime I've lost more than I've won, but not by much. I've had my moments of glory counting cards, enough to whet my appetite and keep me coming back for more. I know this game pretty well. If you know anything about the mathematics of the game you know this book is garbage. If you're a beginner, please listen -- don't buy this book. The thing about Blackjack is that the house has an edge even if you play perfect basic strategy. Mannarino would have you deviate from the optimal strategy and give the house an even larger advantage. I can't explain why he's pushing this strategy: one can only guess. Is he a shill for the casinos? Does he simply not know any better? Or is he just trying to sell books? Don't spend your money on bad advice. The only way to beat the house in the long run is to master a counting system. There are a number of highly regarded books that will teach you basic strategy and introduce card counting methods. I suggest you check out the various books by Uston, Wong, Vancura, Snyder, and others. If you simply learn basic strategy you'll know enough to play and have a good time without losing your shirt. You'll still lose a little in the long run, but you can look at it as cheap entertainment. If you really want to win more than you lose, you'll have to learn to count, and to count under real casino conditions. Not that it's easy. As they say, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Do your homework.
Rating: 
Summary: No doubt! This strategy runs circles around old basic.
Review: Several things are going on with this book.
The first is. This is a winning strategy no doubt about it, as not only is this new strategy making me money, but also every one of my blackjack circle of friends who are using it.
Two, those that are putting it down probably work for, or are the casinos themselves.
In my opinion, and not only am I an avid player who also plays in blackjack tournaments all over the country, this new strategy performs atleast as well as the writer states it will under fire in the casino.
The old basic is a losing strategy and there is no doubt about that.. If it were a winning strategy, the casinos would all now be out of business.
Rating:
Summary: The Book Casinos Love!
Review: Gregory Mannarino is a hero to casinos worldwide. He has come out with a strategy that actually gives the casino a better edge than they had before, and apparently people are buying it! This book is completely bogus. The so called "old Basic Strategy" has been figured out by mathemeticians to give you the best possible chance for success in any situation. Gregorian strategy will lose more money than basic strategy. For example, he says to hit 13 against five. Following basic strategy and standing, you will win roughly 42% of the time and lose 58% of the time, excluding pushes. Using Gregorian strategy and hitting, you will win only 37% of the time and lose 63% of the time, excluding pushes. 13 verse five is a loser either way, it's just a bigger loser with Gregorian strategy. If you're still not convinced, go to a blackjack forum (bjmath.com or bj21.com) and ask people who play blackjack for a living what they think of Gregorian Strategy. They'll say the same thing, it's a waste of money.
Rating:
Summary: It's working for me!
Review: This is one of many Blackjack books I own and I love the game. Before I bought this book I read most of the reviews and the controversy got to me. I had to buy the book. I enjoyed the Diary even though I have never been to Las Vegas but was really skeptical with respect to the strategy I am used to. Although my wins are smaller I win much more consistently. I have used this strategy under fire at the Borgata and Harrah's casinos in Atlantic City and it does seem to work. Good reading, good strategy!
Rating:
Summary: I am winning with this
Review: Going to this site to read the reviews is getting exciting! Obviously this book is causing some controversy, and truthfully that very thing is what I believe is helping to sell this book, as it is in the top 10 books being sold according to several best selling sites that I checked on this morning.
I am very into this game, and I have been playing for over 10 years now.
I bought this book at a local book store probably when it first came out at the beginning of October.
After I read it, I thought that the writer did make some good points with advocating this new strategy so I learned it.
I have used this strategy several times and call it luck maybe, but I have made a few dollars with it.
Two of my blackjack buddies also got this book and are applying it in the casino with reasonably good results.
What ever the case maybe to me personally, this strategy is working better than old basic strategy.
Again, call it luck or something else.
I am now learning the counting system in this book and I will write a followup review on that when I try it out.
In honesty the counting system also makes sense to me and the betting system is like no other I have seen in another blackjack book. I have read all the classic blackjack books.
I can see how some people who are used to the old strategy would have a hard time accepting this, but I also thought the old strategy was not winning me any money anyway, so I would try something new.
Personally, every blackjack book on the market claims that it will make you money, and we all know that is not the case. Even with the old basic strategy which we all also know will only make you lose money and every other book advocates, except this one.
With all the controversey with this book, and the fact that it seems to me and a few others to perform better than the old basic strategy in the casino, I would say to simply try it for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Fraud - other real players please speak up
Review: ...this book is not worth any attention. Beginners are _strongly cautioned_ not to read this book. (Experienced players are encouraged to leaf through this at a bookstore for a good chuckle, though.) The logic - without resorting to math - is very simple. Casinos take more money from us, the gambling public, than we take from them. That is how and why they exist. A blackjack system that does not involve:
1) keeping some track of the cards that have been dealt; and,
2) varying your bets or strategy or both based on that information will lose money consistently over the long run. If there was such a strategy, it would have been found, played, and the casinos would have changed the rules. (This is in fact what happened - how many single-deck games with a 3 to 2 blackjack payoff do you see in AC/Vegas nowadays?) Mr Mannarino's system does not meet these criteria. It is simply a different "basic strategy" which - if used - will put you at more of a statistical disadvantage than accepted basic strategy for the particular game you play. The author claims basic strategy is obsolete because it was derived for single-deck games. This is misleading and irrelevant. While the original basic strategies - devised in the 50s/60s - were for single-deck games, there are current basic strategies that account for different rules and number of decks, including ones for six and eight deck games. He is correct on a related point, however: application of correct basic strategy will NOT win you money. It will LOSE you money - just slower than any other system, including his. Another claims is that his strategy works is because 'the probabilities in blackjack are not constant.' This is entirely true. If you ever hope to win, you must know when the expected value of a bet is in your favor, and raise your bet. He does not tell you how to do this (by counting cards and varying bets or strategy or both). You cannot do this by flat-betting (betting the same amount) and using his strategy, nor by progressive betting (which is a fallacy.) The author's assertions in the review below ("... run off one hundred trillion hands on any blackjack simulator ... and you will not get a [sic] accurate indication of how a particular strategy will perform under fire...") are laughable. Simulators can take any 'system' you devise, and play it against any blackjack game with any rules. If his system took advantage of the changing probabilities - as he claims in the book - it would beat the simulation. One cannot possibly believe that after playing 5,000 hands Mr Mannarino is more accurate than a computer simulation. I am quite certain the author is aware that this system is totally useless and will cost you money. This egregious book is a sham and its author shameless - but do not take my word for it. Take a look around, learn about the game, decide for yourself. [Various websites]...will teach you what you need, for free. If you want a book, better readings are:
- Blackjack Bluebook II. Fred Renzey. Good basics for the beginner, and readable. (Hand interaction sections can be ignored, clever but useless. The counting sections are optional as well for the newbie.)
- Basic Blackjack, Professional Blackjack. Stanford Wong. Table heavy, not something you 'read' per se but Mr Wong is a master and these are standards.
- Beat the Dealer, Ed Thorp. The quintessential classic; not very practical for today's game but the foundation on which everything else has been built.
- Theory of Blackjack, Peter Griffin. Extremely difficult and technical manual, but really fascinating if you want to work through the math...
Rating:
Summary: Over all a winning strategy.
Review: Over the past month I have been analyzing this new strategy in depth in real time using a six deck shoe 70%pennetration with Las Vegas strip rules. After five thousand hands, played out just as the writer states in the book, my win rate is .6 percent. This is lower than the author claims, but suprisingly enough I am showing an overall win. However, there is a question with the play recommended with the 2 in two instances. In the text it says to stand with soft 18 against the 2, on the strategy chart it says hit, (some confusion here), for my play I stood on soft 18 as it stetes in the text. Also, the author says to hit hard 15 against the 2, in my analysis, it may be better to stand although hitting the hard 14 seems to work as the author states. All things considered, and although at this point, (at 5000 hands), I am below the suggested win rate of the writer, I am winning at just over 1/2 of one percent. Overall, this strategy seems to me to work.
Rating: 
Summary: Controversial Strategy
Review: I spent 45 minutes reading through this book at the local book store. It recommends an eyebrow raising 28 revisions to the standard basic strategy for multiple decks. Among them is to "hit 13 against a 5". So I went home and shuffled six decks together, then took out a 10/3 and a 5. Standing on my 13, I played out the dealer's 5 up-card 1000 times, while just running straight through the shoe, hand after hand, shuffling only when the cards ran out. Doing this, I won 409 hands and lost 591, putting me 182 bets down by standing. Then I started over taking one hit to my 13, and if I didn't bust I played out the dealer's 5 up following the same procedure as before. After 1000 of these, I won 350, lost 598 and pushed 52, putting me 248 bets down by hitting. If my methodology was valid, it appears that the old basic strategy using real live cards is still the better way to go, at least for this hand. I don't know about the others.
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: No doubt about it, this system works all the way! Not too much to say here, except this crazy strategy actually does work in the casino. Thanks from John.
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