Professor Thorpe published his book in the 1960s. I read it in the 1970s long before there was an Amazon.com.
When I read it, the casinos had already gone from single-deck Blackjack to a six deck shoe. This change was solely because of Professor Thorpe's book. To this day, I still hear people say that you can't count cards with a 6 deck shoe. They say this because they labor under the mistaken belief that counting cards involves memorizing the cards that are out of the deck. In fact, counting cards has absolutely nothing to do with memorizing the cards. When you're counting, all you're doing is keeping track of how many big cards are out of the deck versus how many small cards. When there is a disproportionate number of small cards out of the deck, the advantage shifts to the player. When this happens the player makes a larger bet. When the house has the advantage, the player makes a small bet. Therefore, it doesn't matter weather it is one deck, six decks, or 100 decks.
The difference between counting with a single deck, and counting with a 6 deck shoe, is that the advantage gained from counting cards is dramatically reduced. After I originally read Professor Thorpe's book, I crunched the numbers to determine the profitability of counting when playing with a six deck shoe. What I discovered was that if someone played blackjack 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and had a bankroll of half a million dollars, they can make $50,000 a year by playing Blackjack. However, if someone has $500,000 in cash, they can probably find better ways to make a living.
Nevertheless, this is a very interesting book and well worth reading to learn about professors Thorpe's experiences when he took his system on the road to test it. And, if you play a little Blackjack every once in awhile, counting will make it a little more fun.
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