Why is there a twelve on the cover of this blackjack book instead of the usual twenty-one? No blackjack author in their right mind would put a hand of twelve on the cover. Glen Wiggy did--he is full of surprises like that. Part how-to manual, part memoir, 1536 Free Waters and Other Blackjack Endeavors--Finding Profit and Humor in Card-Counting chronicles Wiggy's amusing experiences while playing blackjack during more than eight hundred casino visits from January 2001 until June 2008. It also introduces blackjack card-counting in a fun and easy-to-learn format.

In addition to the everyday casino patrons, starving puppies, angry pit bosses, French doughnuts, talking sea gulls, and 1536 bottled waters make unforgettable appearances in these entertaining stories tailored for casual blackjack gamblers. For players pursuing the game for serious profit, Wiggy also presents practical tips on

- Aspects of blackjack basic strategy- Fundamentals of card-counting- Techniques for managing money- Dangers of greedy gambling behavior

Unlike most blackjack strategy guides, 1536 Free Waters and Other Blackjack Endeavors won't teach you how to "kill" the dealer or make a living playing the game. Instead, you'll learn basic strategy and introductory card-counting skills that give you enough confidence to approach the table with a positive attitude and reasonable expectation of winning. Plus, you'll learn what to expect from the cards and the wonderfully strange people and places you may encounter. Enjoy the ride.

"Undoubtedly, the most enjoyable blackjack book I've read in my twenty years as the editor of a gambling publishing company. It had me laughing out loud."--Deke Castleman, editor for Huntington Press

Read more at www.blackjackstories.com.

The Bridge Movements Encyclopedia. Duplicate Bridge Schedules, History and Mathematics is an essential book for tournament directors as well as bridge players curious about the history of the game of duplicate bridge. This comprehensive volume supplies you with all the movements ever thought of and many hundreds of new ones. Included for each movement are the variations, modifications, origins, authors and history of its development. Each movement is then assessed for its measure of quality, called calibre. The author presents a brand new event type, the Scissor movement - run like any Howell movement. In this type of event the players play as pairs as usual, but also have their teammates as another pair, never meeting each other. This allows the event to be scored both as teams and pairs, producing a winning team and a winning pair. Duplicate bridge players will find the history of their favorite game most intriguing. The book delves into the lives of well-known figures such as John T. Mitchell and Edwin C. Howell. When did they live, what did they contribute to bridge, and what were the politics of their time? In addition, many lesser-known historical figures are examined for their contributions to the development of duplicate movements. For the mathematically inclined there are plenty of interesting oddities. The mathematics of balance of movements, giving the measure of quality, is thoroughly discussed. The controversial debate over movement quality, along with its history, is presented through the ideas and opinions of players and mathematicians. IAN McKINNON is a mathematician, expert bridge player, tournament director, author and computer professional. Through circumstance, around 1970, he started tournament directing at a major bridge club in Sydney which eventually led to him being the senior Tournament Director within the Australian Bridge Federation during the 1970s. He produced his first book, Bridge Directing Complete, in 1979. All those years of experience, and the last ten years of intense research and computer programming, have resulted in this book.

PLAY BINGO AND SWEAR LIKE A SAILOR! WARNING! Contains deeply offensive words, smut and all round bad language THE PERFECT GIFT: ideal for sweary friends and family GLOSSARY INCLUDED: to explain some more unusual terms and generally raise your swearing game FOR 3-12 PLAYERS: the ultimate party game for large and small groups Play bingo with 64 colourful and highly offensive swear words! Each player gets a game card with 16 random expletives: the first to complete their board gets to shout BINGO - or something far worse... BOX CONTAINS: A master board, 12 player boards, 64 tiles, 100 counters, Fold-flat tile box, Sweary Glossary

Discover everything you need to know about how to survive in the Overworld with this brand-new handbook! The Overworld is waiting to be explored – you just need to survive long enough to do it! With dangers lurking around every corner, staying alive can be tricky for even the most experienced player. Whether it’s finding resources, crafting equipment or protecting yourself from hostile mobs, this Survival Handbook will teach you everything you need to know to stay alive in Minecraft. With so much to explore, there’s sure to be something for players of every level. Explore. Thrive. Survive. Try our indispensable handbooks for your Minecraft journey: Minecraft Redstone Handbook 978 0008495992 Minecraft Creative Handbook 978 0755500413 Minecraft Combat Handbook 978 0755500420 Minecraft Explorers Handbook 9780008608507 Minecraft Legends Handbook 978 0008595012 Brilliant books full of inspiration: Minecraft Bite Size Builds: 978 0755500406 Minecraft Amazing Bite Size Builds: 978 0008495954 Minecraft Super Bite Size Builds 978 0008534127 Minecraft Epic Inventions 978 0008496012 Minecraft Epic Bases: 978 1405296472 Perfect Gifts: Minecraft Maps 978 1405294546 Minecraft Blockopedia 978 0755500390 Sticker, humour and activity: Minecraft Survival Sticker Book 978 1405288552 Minecraft Sticker Adventure Treasure Hunt 978 0755503582 Minecraft Sticker Adventure Mobs Attack 978 0008533953 Minecraft Joke Book 978 1405295253 Minecraft How to Draw 978 0008534028 Minecraft Would You Rather 978 0008534028 Minecraft Catch the Creeper 978 0755503575

Originally published in 1897. The author was a famous conjuror who many spent many years perfecting the hundreds of tricks and sleight of hand methods described here. Contents Include: SLEIGHTS: The Double Handed Pass - The Force - The Bridge - The Glide - The Color Change, etc. TRICKS WITH CARDS: Magic versus Mnemonics - The Hypnotised card - Cards Shot Against a Hat - The Demon Envelope - The Obedient Card, etc. PREPARED AND MECHANICAL CARDS: The Changing Card - The Torn Corner Card - The Flap Card - The Conjurer as Marksman - The Envelope Card - The Coin Card - A Mysterious Transformation, etc Contains many explanatory illustrations. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Home Farm Books are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.Envelope Card - The Coin Card - A Mysterious Transformation, etc

After some years using published material to teach newcomers the rudiments of bridge bidding, the author became somewhat disillusioned with the approach advocated in the majority of beginning bridge texts. The matters that particularly concerned him were related to the view espoused by many bridge teachers that it is important to keep all bidding 'natural' so as not to confuse beginners. The author felt that if confusion exists, it is likely to be the teaching approach that causes the confusion, rather than the subject matter itself.The proponents of this 'natural' bidding approach, decline to teach beginning students Jacoby Transfer Bids, Weak Two Opening Bids and, in some cases, Stayman. The reason often given is that teaching 'natural' bidding is difficult enough for beginning bridge students, and we should not confuse them by teaching them conventions or treatments that say something different. These same teachers seem to see no inconsistency in their approach of saying, when the students are doing a second (or third) class with them - "oh, remember when I told you that when your partner makes an opening bid of 1NT and you have 7 points and a five card ♥ suit, that you should bid 2♥? Well, I want you to forget that, because I am going to teach you now that, with that same hand, you should bid 2♦." The author has two problems with that approach. Firstly, it seems to downplay the ability of students to understand these specific bids. The author contends that it is most likely that this is a 'teaching failure' rather than a 'learning failure' The author has found that once students fully understand that it is desirable to have the strong hand as Declarer, most of them have little problem understanding the rationale behind Jacoby Transfer Bids. Putting the bids in context seems to make the task of learning Transfer Bids much easier. Secondly, if teachers are hoping to encourage their students to become duplicate bridge players, it makes sense for them to be using a bidding system that other players are using. As almost all duplicate bridge players use Stayman, Jacoby Transfer Bids and Weak Two Opening Bids, the author's students are introduced to these bids in their first series of lessons. And it is important to note that an understanding of these 3 aspects of bridge bidding will not prove to be a disadvantage in social bridge. The theme throughout the book is one of providing clear, consistent guidelines for a relatively simple modern approach to bidding. The author repeatedly emphasizes that once newcomers have a reasonable understanding of basic bidding, they, and their partner, can 'tweak' the approach taught in this text. The author is an avid duplicate bridge player and encourages all of his students to try that form of the game. However, the reality is that many bridge players enjoy the game in its more social form, and have no real desire to go past that form of the game. This is perfectly understandable, and the bidding style taught in this text is consistent with either form of the game. This book is organized into nine Chapters.CHAPTER 1 - The Basics.This Chapter is really 'Ground Zero'. It recognizes that some people who wish to learn to play bridge have had little, if any, experience of playing card games. The text introduces students to the absolute basics: -the suits -the rank, or hierarchy, of suits-how to count points-what is a 'game' in bridge-dealing-arranging the cards in your hand-the process of bidding-the process of playing-scoring.In this first, very basic, Chapter, students have a hand of bridge to play. At the end of the Chapter there is a brief test to enable students to check their mastery of the material provided in the text. Clearly not all students "need" this Chapter. Nevertheless as the purpose of the book is to provide a text to enable ALL students to be introduced to the wo

Inspired by both Daniel Defoe's 'A Journal of the Plague Year' (1722) and 'The King', an anthology of the witty and provocative chess columns of the Dutch Grandmaster, Jan Hein Donner, Ray Keene here collects his thoughts and writings on the year 2020 - both in chess and the wider world. His reflections include the impact of Covid-19 on the popularity of chess, the remarkable influence of the Netflix series 'The Queen's Gambit', the growing army of teenage Grandmasters, the online pivot of chess competition and the emergence of chess entrepreneurs, such as World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura.. Like Donner, Ray uses chess as a metaphor for observations on art, culture and civilisation.

In Orlandes City, nobles are being systematically murdered by a ruthless assassin no-one seems able to catch. Finding yourself thrust into the middle of a large conspiracy, you must make decisions that may put yourself and another most precious to you in great danger. Can you locate the Assassin in Orlandes before it is too late?

"In the early transition from the long-lived flintlock system, handgun development closely paralleled that of the long arms. With the advent of the revolving pistols, however; came patents that created monopolies in revolver production and the through-bored cylinder necessary for self-contained metallic cartridges. The caplock revolvers took on a separate evolution and remained state of the art long after the widespread appearance of cartridge firing rifles and shotguns. They rode in the holsters of of explorers and adventurers across the world and granted safe conduct in the back-alleys of the Industrial West right up until the last quarter of the 19th Century. Handguns possess a mystique distinctly different from that of other firearms. They are tools of personal empowerment-chosen by their owners to provide independence and freedom of movement. In the ambitious, optimistic early years of western industrial civilization they were the emblem of liberty and equality and the bane of repressive governments and social movements. Largely because of the traditions that emerged in the time of the caplock pistols and revolvers, they remain so in the early years of the 21st Century."