Professional Blackjack and other books explain how to count cards. But being proficient in counting cards is no guarantee that you will win money in casinos. What good does it do you to be able to count a deck down in 30 seconds and be able to reproduce a table of strategy numbers from memory if you are sending out signals that identify you as a card counter? Blackjack Secrets teaches you how to look like a gambler, how to play a winning game of blackjack without sending up red flags that alert casino management to your skill at the game.

So why is Blackjack Secrets also a good book (birthday present for a friend --hint, hint) for someone not interested in counting cards to get an edge? Because it is mostly text -- its 250 pages contain only 19 tables. Blackjack Secrets contains many interesting stories written by blackjack pros. Read what Daniel Forbes has to say about extracting money from the casinos, and Peter Giles, and Donald Schlesinger, Marvin French, etc. Here’s one from Peter Giles: In a casinos that offered surrender, Giles asked, “Can I wait until the dealer checks for a natural before I surrender, or do I have to surrender now?” Sometimes he got an answer, “Sorry sir, you must surrender before the dealer checks the hole card.” Thus Giles got early surrender at casinos where the owners did not even know they were offering early surrender.