Lawrence Revere's "Playing Blackjack as a Business" was a revelation for serious players of the game. With tested and reliable card counting strategies, Revere's book allowed blackjack game players to develop a competitive edge with techniques that everyone from beginners to professionals could use. One of the mid-level strategies, known as the Revere Plus Minus gives players a long-term advantage, with little effort.

Using Plus-Minus

As with most counting strategies, the Revere Plus Minus requires the player to assign values to the cards, and keep track of the addition and subtraction of those values instead of memorizing all the cards that have passed. In this system the 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 cards are counted as +1, the Aces and ten-value cards, such as the ten, jack, queen, and king are -1, and the 8 and 9 are neutral or zero. The player adds and subtracts the values, requiring him or her to only remember a single number as the game progresses.

Betting Strategy

The value of the deck that has been played determines the betting strategy for the player. When the count is over 1, Revere says the better should not hit at 12 when the dealer shows a 3, 4, 5, or 6. If the player has 13 and the dealer has 2, 3, or 4, Revere recommends hitting here, too. Other strategies for doubling down and splitting are discussed in Revere's book, but all are determined by the value count the player holds. As the count climbs, the likelihood of getting a high card increases, and the converse holds as well.

While new strategies have emerged to help bettors win against the house Revere's Plus Minus strategy allowed for early blackjack players to improve their odds with little effort.