Arnold Snyder Knows BlackjackAlthough Arnold Snyder has been playing professional blackjack for more than 30 years, it is the written word that was his ticket to the Blackjack Hall of Fame as one of the original seven inductees. Snyder's first book, "The Blackjack Formula," was published in 1980 and, along with a few other important tomes on the subject, changed the face of professional blackjack.
Blackjack Card Counting and PenetrationSnyder's calling card was his introduction to and explanation of the concept of "penetration" as it relates to card counting. For Snyder, penetrating the deck was more important than specific card-counting systems or strategy. His theory is that for a card counter, the deeper into the deck(s) the game has gone, the better it is; the more cards that have been dealt out, the more cards the counter sees, and it follows that the more cards the counter sees, the more accurate the count. This is one of the tenets of blackjack card counting today, but in 1980, when "The Blackjack Formula" was published, penetration was a revolutionary and groundbreaking concept.
Snyder's "Blackjack Forum" and Blackjack Books
Since 1981, Snyder has been the editor of the "Blackjack Forum," a gambling journal, which is now published online. In 2006, Snyder, whose talents and knowledge haven't been restricted to blackjack, published "The Poker Tournament Formula," applying a similar mathematical analysis to poker that he did to blackjack in 1980.
| But blackjack has always been his first love; his book "Blackbelt in Blackjack" is considered a seminal work on the subject of card counting and other useful techniques for the professional blackjack player. "The Blackjack Shuffle Tracker's Cookbook" explains the advanced blackjack strategy of shuffle tracking. He further "penetrates" the subject of blackjack in the comprehensive and fascinating "The Big Book of Blackjack," which delves into the history of blackjack and not just the tactics and strategies. |
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A Supporter of Professional Blackjack Players
Like many professional blackjack players, Snyder has tangled with the law although not on a personal level. He is a strong supporter of the rights of professional gamblers in general and the professional blackjack gamblers in particular. He has come to bat for a number of players who went head to head in court with casinos, arguing for the right of the card-counting teams to practice their talents at the blackjack tables. He has become something of an expert witness on the subject because the bottom line is that nobody knows blackjack better than Arnold Snyder.
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