Blackjack Ace Prediction
Copyright © 2004  ISBN: 1-879712-10-5 ( ISBN: 1879712105 )   MSRP: $19.95

A book by David McDowell
Foreword by Michael Dalton
Cover art by Abigail Kamelhair

Critical Review

Five months after publication of this book a degree of controversy surrounding the book had become apparent.  Readers should specifically be aware of the critique by Arnold Snyder and a few others that claim the book's math is flawed in some areas.  You can read the critique on Snyder's web site at blackjackforumonline.com.   I have great respect for Arnold Snyder, who has published outstanding information on blackjack in the past several decades.  I believe I owe it to my customers and members to inform them of this information.  David McDowell's book received outstanding initial reviews by many of the top blackjack experts and authorities.  Since Snyder's review some of these experts and authorities have retracted their praise for the book with one of caution.  Summaries of these reviews can be found here.

There is an errata sheet for McDowell's book which has been available for free since October 2004 -- almost 3 months before Snyder's review.  It is now apparent that Snyder ignored this additional information for his initial review, however, I agree with Snyder regarding some of the math.  For example, one of Snyder's key arguments was a win-rate percentage figure on page 114.  McDowell had already corrected this error months before and made the information available to everyone.  The book specifically states on page 4 to visit the BJRnet.com website for possible updates and errata. Every book shipped from us, after October 2004, included this errata sheet. 

Although some of the mathematical theory in the book appears to be faulty I believe the general discussion of ace prediction and tracking is outstanding.  This is information not found elsewhere.  Any sharp individual can take the information found in this book and make a viable ace prediction strategy, although not one as simple as McDowell was attempting to create.

David McDowell sent Snyder an early manuscript of this book back in 1998. Then, on October 31, 1998, Snyder posted: "...it is by far the most comprehensive text on the subject I have seen.  I stated that I would not be publishing this book, despite the fact that it is well written and an excellent description of how to use these strategies.  The reason I gave for this decision is that many pros would probably want to kill me."  It took McDowell several years to publish this book and I must say that the final book is several hundred percent better then the original manuscript that was sent to Snyder. I only wish I had sent Snyder a copy of the book for review before it was published.

Any book that breaks new ground is bound to have its critics (and yes,some flaws and errors) and McDowell's book is no exception.    Blackjack Ace Prediction is an advanced blackjack strategy.  There is no doubt that, McDowell's contribution has forced this field of blackjack 'out of the closet'.  McDowell should be applauded for his effort for authoring the "first" and "only" book on the subject!

Don Schlesinger said it best when he said, "I have a feeling that the relatively small group of players already aware of the techniques that McDowell describes are not going to be happy that he has gone 'mainstream' with the information."

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