The Blackjack Life

Author Nathaniel Tilton was just a regular guy with a regular job when he read Bringing Down the House and decided he wanted to do what the players in that book did. A journey through the inner world of card counting, the lessons of teamwork, and the clandestine pursuit of beating the odds, in The Blackjack Life Tilton relates the story of his personal journey through the smoke-filled casinos in which he and his playing partner gambled, to the seedy backrooms that he hoped he would never see. More than just wins and losses, The Blackjack Life is about the growth of a man who discovered himself through the unlikeliest of places – the world of professional blackjack -- and who now shares his informed view of the opportunities that still exist for skilled players and what it’s really like to travel that road today.

The #1 national bestseller, now a major motion picture, 21—the amazing inside story about a gambling ring of M.I.T. students who beat the system in Vegas—and lived to tell how. Robin Hood meets the Rat Pack when the best and the brightest of M.I.T.’s math students and engineers take up blackjack under the guidance of an eccentric mastermind. Their small blackjack club develops from an experiment in counting cards on M.I.T.’s campus into a ring of card savants with a system for playing large and winning big. In less than two years they take some of the world’s most sophisticated casinos for more than three million dollars. But their success also brings with it the formidable ire of casino owners and launches them into the seedy underworld of corporate Vegas with its private investigators and other violent heavies.

When Barry Meadow decided to take two months off from his everyday life to play blackjack in every Nevada casino, he had no idea what he would find. Leaving behind his business, his fiancee, and his son, he set out on the road with a suitcase, a tape recorder, and $8,000 on the trip of a lifetime.He ran into cowboys and Indians, suffered the Stardust curse, split 10s in Winnemucca, and learned more about real-world gambling than anyone should have to know.With wit and wisdom, Meadow takes you on an incredible journeyliterally, figuratively, even spirituallyall within the context of a professional blackjack player's remarkable way of life.Gambling lessons, life's lessons, Nevada geography lessonsthis one's got it all. One of the most highly acclaimed gambling books in the past half-decade.

From the author of The Ice Master comes the remarkable true story of a young Inuit woman who survived six months alone on a desolate, uninhabited Arctic island In September 1921, four young men and Ada Blackjack, a diminutive 25-year-old Eskimo woman, ventured deep into the Arctic in a secret attempt to colonize desolate Wrangel Island for Great Britain. Two years later, Ada Blackjack emerged as the sole survivor of this ambitious polar expedition. This young, unskilled woman--who had headed to the Arctic in search of money and a husband--conquered the seemingly unconquerable north and survived all alone after her male companions had perished. Following her triumphant return to civilization, the international press proclaimed her the female Robinson Crusoe. But whatever stories the press turned out came from the imaginations of reporters: Ada Blackjack refused to speak to anyone about her horrific two years in the Arctic. Only on one occasion--after charges were published falsely accusing her of causing the death of one her companions--did she speak up for herself. Jennifer Niven has created an absorbing, compelling history of this remarkable woman, taking full advantage of the wealth of first-hand resources about Ada that exist, including her never-before-seen diaries, the unpublished diaries from other primary characters, and interviews with Ada's surviving son. Ada Blackjack is more than a rugged tale of a woman battling the elements to survive in the frozen north--it is the story of a hero.

In Burning the Tables in Las Vegas, Ian Andersen, author of the classic Turning the Tables on Las Vegas and one of the most successful high-stakes blackjack players of all time, shares his personal program for success at blackjack, poker, and life. This second edition contains three important new chapters: one on the use of the surrender option at blackjack as a camouflage technique, one on green-chip play for medium rollers; and one on understanding casino psychology. The "Crazy Surrender" chapter expands Andersen's Ultimate Gambit and adds another dimension to his technique of using elements of mathematics and psychology to remain below the casino radar. This new edition also contains a Foreword by blackjack legend Stanford Wong.

This memoir relates the experiences of two pit bosses who perfected their card-counting skills then used their inside knowledge to win at 21 tables throughout the country.

This state-of-the-art treatment introduces the latest techniques and procedures for blackjack card counters on how to get away with the money today.

I'm Blackjack. A small-time villain. I know I'm not a big leaguer, but more than one wannabe hero has ended up in traction after getting in my way. I mostly stick to easy stuff, though, like popping banks and armored cars, and make a little money where I can. Living good is nice, you know? I thought I had it all figured out, until I found a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: A slot in a big time super villain team. The gig seemed like a dream. Steal bits of dusty old crap from different parts of the world and make serious cash. But little would I know that what would start small would end up sending me halfway across the galaxy (or was it to a different dimension?), and at the end of it all the fate of our planet, and everyone living in it, would be in my hands. Oh, and I met a girl. A girl that changed everything.