Everyone playing Blackjack (one deck or out of a shoe) should be playing "Basic Strategy" at a minimum. If you want to implement some other strategy on top of that (changing bet size, card counting, etc. etc.) have at it. But the starting point should be Basic Strategy.
Furthermore, the average recreational Blackjack player should be playing Basic Strategy, but many (most? -- at the cheaper tables anyway) don't as you can observe by sitting down at any Blackjack table.
This book should be read by anyone who wants to play Blackjack.
I used the basic strategy and the high/low count methods taught in THIS BOOK only, and stuck strictly to the strategy one weekend. I started with $250.00 betting $10 per hand and won over $20,000 in 17 hours. By the end I was playing three hands at a time of $250 minimum on each hand. I was amazed at how well the strategy worked for me.
The book is wonderful and entertaining even if you don't plan to play any. The stories are great. Highly recommend it.
The clarity, depth, and scope of this work surpasses any other on the subject - and it started a revolution! The theory, complete with computer printouts from 1961(!), and the methodology are there, yet this is no dry textbook. Thorp includes fascinating historical and motivational material, as well as a spellbinding account of his first successful tests in Las Vegas.
How anyone could aspire to become a winner at blackjack and not read this book is a mystery to me! And some of the reviewers are simply mistaken. Thorp's systems ARE still relevant, and they absolutely still work. Naturally, they have been improved upon over the course of 34 years, and aspiring card counters will have more than one text, one would HOPE. But Thorp is still:
Relevant, Mesmerising, Indispensable.
John May (Author of "Baccarat for the clueless")