'Lose Your Shirt: Blackjack' by D. A. Cancilla - Book Review

'Lose Your Shirt: Blackjack' by D. A. Cancilla is a totally unconventional look at the casino game of blackjack. The author offers a new view of the game that can only be explained as an irreverent rant or a drug-induced ramble. That's alright. What the reader is presented with is a fun, witty overview of an old casino classic. It's about time somebody admitted that playing (and possibly winning) blackjack isn't rocket science or the most important topic on earth. And, it should be fun!

• This is a funny book
• It does have something to do with blackjack
• If you don't like it, it's only 64 pages

Low Points

• This is not a blackjack strategy book
• Sober, non-experienced blackjack players won't get the jokes

The author states: If you have ever wanted to absolutely, positively guarantee that your will lose all your money, be ejected from the casino, or spend the night in jail the next time you're in Las Vegas, this book is for you.

That pretty much sums it up. The book came out in February 2012 and the Kindle edition is just $2.99

• File Size: 161 KB
• Print Length: 64 pages
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Lose Your Shirt starts right out with, "Before you can lose money at blackjack, you have to know how to play the game." And the author does indeed explain how to play the game, what a blackjack table looks like, and what other equipment is used. He even goes into detail about the little slot on the blackjack table where dealers put cash. The cash is dropped through a slot and into a solid metal box that is retrieved periodically by the casino during the "count". The box holds what is know in the industry as the "drop".

Of course the author explains it differently. As I recall, he said, "your bills and coins will be pushed through this slot and into the mouth of a hidden industrial shredder. Casinos use chips as currency. They have no use for cash."

I've written about losing your shirt in a casino, so perhaps I understand the author's intent better than others, but this is a funny book, nothing more

The author wasn't trying to teach anyone how to win at blackjack, he simply took a topic he knows well, explained all the basics, and had fun with it. If you want to learn how to play blackjack then there might be better sources, but if you've played some cards, found yourself beaten to a pulp and wondering just when that steamroller thundered over your chip stack, you'll get this book.

I don't suggest this book if you have no sense of humor or are likely to believe everything the author says. When he explains how a Lucky Ladies bonus bet wins with, "If your initial hand totals 20, the person next to you has an initial hand that totals 20, and you’re both female, you win this bet," it's important that you know he is kidding.

In a nutshell, this book may tickle your gambling bug and make it laugh. Or, as Rupert Holmes said (I think) in his hit, Escape, "If you like Pina Colada's, getting cash from the bank, if you're not into winning, if you have half a brain," this book may be just what you are looking for.