<p>Contents Preface Introduction</p> <p>Working with the Interactive Edition</p> <p>Part I</p> <p>1 The Game</p> <p>1.1 History of Casino Blackjack and Its Analysis</p> <p>1.2 Rules, Procedures and Terminology</p> <p>2 Playing the Hand</p> <p>2.1 Basic Strategy</p> <p>2.1.1 Expected Return with Variant Rules and Procedures</p> <p>2.1.2 Expected Return vs. Return on Investment</p> <p>2.2 Composition-Dependent Play</p> <p>3 Tracking the Cards</p> <p>3.1 Linear Counts</p> 3.2 Choosing a Counting Vector<p></p> <p>3.3 Unbalanced Counting Vectors</p> <p>3.4 Relating the True Count to the Expected Return</p> <p>4 Betting</p> <p>4.1 Yield, Risk, and Optimal Bet Strategies</p> <p>4.11 Bet size in relation to true count</p> <p>4.12 Other criteria</p> 4.2 Betting Proportional to Current Capital<p></p> <p>4.3 Multiple Hands</p> <p>4.4 Back-Counting and Table-Hopping</p> <p>5 Playing the Hand When the Count and Bet Vary</p> <p>5.1 Play Strategies that Vary with the Count</p> <p>5.1.1 Reconsidering the Counting Vector</p> <p>5.1.2 Count Dependence of the Play Parameters</p> <p>5.1.3 The Insurance Bet</p> <p>5.2 Counter Basic Strategy for the Variable Bettor</p> <p>6 Synthesis and Observations</p> <p>6.1 A Practical, Nearly Optimal Strategy</p> <p>6.2 Blackjack as a Recreation vs. a Profession</p> <p> </p> Part II<p></p> <p>7 Play Strategies</p> <p>7.1 Basic Strategy, Large Number of Decks</p> <p>7.1.1 Analytical Framework</p> <p>7.1.2 Expected Player Return</p> 7.1.3 Frequency of Tied Hands<p></p> <p>7.1.4 Multiple Simultaneous Hands: Return, Variance, and Covariance</p> <p>7.1.5 Expected Number of Cards Used per Round</p> <p>7.2 Basic Strategy, Small Number of Decks</p> <p>7.2.1 Analytical Framework</p> <p>7.2.2 Expected Return, and Optimal Basic Strategy, vs. Number of Decks</p> <p>7.2.3 Surrender; Insurance</p> <p>7.3 Play Parameters Dependent on Identities of Initial Cards</p> <p>7.3.1 Comparison with Previous Authorities</p> <p>8 Card Counting</p> <p>8.1 Analytical Framework</p> <p>8.1.1 Asymptotic Distribution</p> <p>8.1.2 Expected Return; Invariance Theorem</p> 8.1.3 Hermite Series<p></p> <p>8.2 Expected Return at Nonzero Depth</p> <p>8.3 Optimizing the Counting Vectors</p> <p>8.4 Optimizing the Counting Vectors: Many-Cards Limit</p> <p>8.5 Computation of the Derivatives of the Expected Return</p> <p>8.6 Unbalanced Counts</p> <p>Appendix 8.A Asymptotic Distribution of Card Likelihoods Appendix 8.B Eigenmodes</p> <p>9 Bet Strategies</p> <p>9.1 Risk and Capitalization</p> <p>9.1.1 Risk in a Game with Fixed Return</p> <p>9.1.2 Optimal Betting When Return Fluctuates: Expected Capital and Risk</p> <p>9.1.3 Connections with Finance</p> <p>9.1.4 D|||b/b|||stribution of Capital</p> <p>9.1.5 Properties of the Risk and Expected Capital Expressions</p> <p>9.1.6 Optimal Betting When Return Fluctuates: Bet Strategy</p> <p>9.1.7 Yield When the Bet Size Is Discrete; Wong Benchmark Betting</p> <p>9.2 Betting Proportional to Current Capital</p> <p>9.2.1 Mixed Additive and Multiplicative Betting</p> <p>9.3 Betting When Playing Multiple Simultaneous Hands</p> <p>9.4 Back-Counting and Table-Hopping</p> <p>9.4.1 Entry</p> <p>9.4.2 Entry and Exit</p> <p>9.4.3 Entry and Departure</p> <p>9.4.4 Entry, Exit, and Departure</p> <p>Appendix 9.A Distribution of Player’s Capital, Asymptotically for Large N</p> Appendix 9.B The Chain Rule Convolution<p></p> <p>10 Play Strategies with Card Counting</p> <p>10.1 Count-Dependent Playing Strategy</p> <p>10.1.1 Counting Vector Optimal for Play Variation Alone</p> <p>10.1.2 Single Counting Vector Optimal for Bet and Play Together</p> <p>10.1.3 Two Distinct Counting Vectors</p> 10.1.4 Insurance with Variable Betting<p></p> <p>10.2 Counter Basic Strategy References</p> Index of Terms<p></p>