Arnold Snyder passing

Printable View

06-07-2023, 03:39 PM
kewlJ

Arnold Snyder passing

Today, a cooler than usual overcast day in Vegas, I took a bike ride from my home near the lower mid strip area down to South Point Casino (where I am still welcome ;)) for lunch. While eating lunch I read of Arnold Snyder's passing.

I didn't have much, if any interaction with Arnold Snyder. I think he might have been on the first blackjack forum I was on, but if he was, he didn't post much. He would have had his own outlets at that time. Arnold also was not very influential on my career. Just happenstance as I came across work by Wong and Schlesinger, who were much more influential on me, before I came across anything by Snyder and at that point it would have just been redundancy.

If anything my spreading in both directions (not starting each shoe with minimum wager) may have been influenced by Snyder's opposition wagering, but even that was not direct. I learned that through a third party Zengrifter, who did in fact credit Snyder.

I do know of all the flamboyancy for lact of a better word that was Arnold Snyder, and frankly, I always thought that counter productive for a card counter, trying to keep a lower profile. But I just didn't know him or that much about him.

JBJB, or anyone else in the blackjack universe, either now or more likely years ago, what are/were your impressions of Arnold Snyder?
06-07-2023, 04:32 PM
jbjb

Never read any of his books but do know he was well respected in the card counting community.
06-07-2023, 07:22 PM
kewlJ

Come on, I know some of you guys got started with some card counting play, back in the day, even if you are now far removed from it.

Mickeycrimm, Axelwolf, MaxPen, regnis, Midwest player? Any of you guys have any interactions with Arnold Snyder, in person or on forums or even just feel he and many books and math heavy concepts had any influence on you and your play?

While again, he was before my time and didn't have much influence on me, it seems like he was a serious outside-the-box thinker and I admire that.

Are we really this far removed from a gambling forum that no one has anything to say when someone like Arnold Snyder, a blackjack pioneer and member of the BJ HofF passes? :(
06-07-2023, 08:16 PM
JSTAT

Arnold Snyder and myself talked for hours on the phone many times and helped me with card counting and published my articles on “Blackjack Forum”. It was a bonus as he was a mailman as I was
06-07-2023, 08:22 PM
JSTAT

https://youtu.be/goS9Ifabjok
06-07-2023, 08:33 PM
JSTAT

https://youtu.be/sdxZD_oDgTY
06-08-2023, 03:03 AM
Ozzy

Quote:

Originally Posted by kewlJ

Come on, I know some of you guys got started with some card counting play, back in the day, even if you are now far removed from it.

Mickeycrimm, Axelwolf, MaxPen, regnis, Midwest player? Any of you guys have any interactions with Arnold Snyder, in person or on forums or even just feel he and many books and math heavy concepts had any influence on you and your play?

While again, he was before my time and didn't have much influence on me, it seems like he was a serious outside-the-box thinker and I admire that.

Are we really this far removed from a gambling forum that no one has anything to say when someone like Arnold Snyder, a blackjack pioneer and member of the BJ HofF passes? :(

Once again kew, you're showing limited knowledge in regards to forum posters. The first 3 guys you mentioned were worth asking. The last two no chance in hell they knew or had any interactions with Snyder. Come on man!
06-09-2023, 01:17 AM
Midwest Player

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ozzy

Quote:

Originally Posted by kewlJ

Come on, I know some of you guys got started with some card counting play, back in the day, even if you are now far removed from it.

Mickeycrimm, Axelwolf, MaxPen, regnis, Midwest player? Any of you guys have any interactions with Arnold Snyder, in person or on forums or even just feel he and many books and math heavy concepts had any influence on you and your play?

While again, he was before my time and didn't have much influence on me, it seems like he was a serious outside-the-box thinker and I admire that.

Are we really this far removed from a gambling forum that no one has anything to say when someone like Arnold Snyder, a blackjack pioneer and member of the BJ HofF passes? :(

Once again kew, you're showing limited knowledge in regards to forum posters. The first 3 guys you mentioned were worth asking. The last two no chance in hell they knew or had any interactions with Snyder. Come on man!

Ozzy, you know nothing about me. The fact is I did write several articles for Blackjack Forum. I was contacted by Arnold, and he asked me to write for him, and he paid me very well for the articles I wrote. The articles were about blackjack conditions in the U.P. of MI, and back in the day the blackjack conditions were very good here. I played at one time or another all the casinos in the U.P. except for one. Check out the Fall 2003 edition of Blackjack Forum for the best blackjack game in the U.P. at that time, and probably one of the best in the country.
06-09-2023, 01:52 AM
kewlJ

Quote:

Originally Posted by Midwest Player

Ozzy, you know nothing about me. The fact is I did write several articles for Blackjack Forum. I was contacted by Arnold, and he asked me to write for him, and he paid me very well for the articles I wrote. The articles were about blackjack conditions in the U.P. of MI, and back in the day the blackjack conditions were very good here. I played at one time or another all the casinos in the U.P. except for one. Check out the Fall 2003 edition of Blackjack Forum for the best blackjack game in the U.P. at that time, and probably one of the best in the country.

Very nice MWP. Just ignore Ozzy. Everyone else does.

So can I ask you how your results were with these games that looked so good on paper?

I am asking because about the time I wore out my welcome in Atlantic City, 2008-2009, Games in the Midwest, including the U.P. that you mentioned, along with Wisconsin were all the rage. I knew a number of players that were traveling to that area regularly, making those games a regular stop. Why I knew I was going to settle in Las Vegas, I seriously considered, sort of bouncing around the Midwest for a year on the way to Vegas. I decided against that because I just had no or little confidence in the Indian Casinos (still don't).

It didn't take long before I started hearing from some players that had incorporated a lot of travel to the Midwest into their rotation, that their results just weren't up to par (expectation for the good games). Results weren't matching simulated expectations. Not necessarily that they were losing, but just not winning anywhere close to expectation. I am not accusing anybody of cheating, I don't know enough about it. I just knew of a number of players that suspiciously, all seemed to be on the wrong side of the bell curve to varying degrees.

I don't know if you are able or willing to confirm anything suspicious about that time period, but if you are, how are things today in regards to that?
06-09-2023, 04:15 AM
mickeycrimm

Quote:

Originally Posted by kewlJ

Quote:

Originally Posted by Midwest Player

Ozzy, you know nothing about me. The fact is I did write several articles for Blackjack Forum. I was contacted by Arnold, and he asked me to write for him, and he paid me very well for the articles I wrote. The articles were about blackjack conditions in the U.P. of MI, and back in the day the blackjack conditions were very good here. I played at one time or another all the casinos in the U.P. except for one. Check out the Fall 2003 edition of Blackjack Forum for the best blackjack game in the U.P. at that time, and probably one of the best in the country.

Very nice MWP. Just ignore Ozzy. Everyone else does.

So can I ask you how your results were with these games that looked so good on paper?

I am asking because about the time I wore out my welcome in Atlantic City, 2008-2009, Games in the Midwest, including the U.P. that you mentioned, along with Wisconsin were all the rage. I knew a number of players that were traveling to that area regularly, making those games a regular stop. Why I knew I was going to settle in Las Vegas, I seriously considered, sort of bouncing around the Midwest for a year on the way to Vegas. I decided against that because I just had no or little confidence in the Indian Casinos (still don't).

It didn't take long before I started hearing from some players that had incorporated a lot of travel to the Midwest into their rotation, that their results just weren't up to par (expectation for the good games). Results weren't matching simulated expectations. Not necessarily that they were losing, but just not winning anywhere close to expectation. I am not accusing anybody of cheating, I don't know enough about it. I just knew of a number of players that suspiciously, all seemed to be on the wrong side of the bell curve to varying degrees.

I don't know if you are able or willing to confirm anything suspicious about that time period, but if you are, how are things today in regards to that?

I remember Soaring Eagle in Mount Pleasant, Michigan getting busted for having about 10 Aces missing in their 8 deck games. They probably weren't the only ones in Michigan doing it. In a game like that I suppose all card counters are welcome, play as long as you want.