Play Better Blackjack with Smiley’s BJ CONSENSUS—100

Smiley Smedly is close to the only "real" character in The Sultan. His study of the game is legitimate, and he determined that out of 100 published writings of how-to-win, the disagreements in which play to make amounted to nearly 50%. He calculated that out of the 340 different hands a player can be dealt, the pros disagree on how to play 162 of them. While some were obvious misprints, surely anyone with even limited knowledge of the game would be up the proverbial creek following some of the publications’ advice.

That caught his attention. He had expected some differences. But 162 were way over the top! He concluded that authors had to think of something different in order to sell their wares, so they focused on minuscule changes within the casinos' rules. Changes whose relevance is only seen when literally millions of the same hands are analyzed. The fact that a player could play for days before being dealt a specific hand was ignored. No matter how infrequently dealt, that hand always had to be played one way, and only one way, for a player to achieve an "advantage."

What Consensus?

It did not take Smiley long to realize that the definition of "advantage" was one of the few things they did agree upon. For all concluded that by playing their way all of the time a player will lose less than had he played the hand any other way. "Lose less" were key words, for with their use, there could be no other inference than that the game cannot be consistently beaten. This caused Smiley to come up with a very sarcastic title that indicated a “consensus” of opinion—of which indeed there was far too little evidence.

While working out a realistic method of betting, he assembled the plays into an easy-to-read chart that one could refer to while actually playing. A chart which laid out the 100 combined results of all plays. As such, Smiley's BJ Consensus—100 is the answer for any player's need to determine which play to make. It also answers the obvious question of what is a player to do when the pros are so divided? Such as the advice found with the play of—to pick out but one—your four/four vs. a dealer's six: which 34 pros advise you to split, 54 advise you hit and 12 tell you to double down.

Loosen up? Or tighten up?

The answer is that the player has to take into consideration such things as (horrors upon horrors!) luck (to which hardly anyone attaches any credence). Or upon observations: such as remembering that the dealer has busted four of the last five hands—so maybe it is time to loosen up by increasing his bet and doubling down on that four/four vs. a six. Or pick up on the fact that the player has been losing—so maybe he should tighten up, bet less, play safe and hit that eight.

The only reasonable answer to this, and to the other 161 plays in disagreement, is Smiley's BJ Consensus—100. At the very least you will see the times that you have a realistic, optional play to consider. To have such information at your fingertips, while actually playing, should prove invaluable.

A laminated copy of BJ Consensus—100 is only $25. That's the price of one green casino chip. It should pay for itself many times over. Send $25 in any legal form along with a SSA envelope to Gamblers Analysis, Inc., P.O. Box 1635, Bel Air, MD 21014 and we will rush two (so you can give one to that special friend) copies to you.