After taking the time to discuss my favorite gambling writers who know their stuff, along with a few who aren’t worth a dime, I’d like to take things one step further.
The gambling instruction industry is a multimillion dollar affair, with hundreds of books churned out each and every year. These can range from humble self-published volumes to bestselling works of art distributed by major imprints.
And unless you know what to look for, you can easily waste money by purchasing an inferior product.
The trick with assessing gambling literature is deceptively easy to spot. If an author really knew the secrets to sustained success at skill games like blackjack and video poker, why aren’t they hard at work building their fortune at casinos across the country?
After all, a true master who can combine mastery of basic strategy with advantage play techniques like card counting is capable of earning a comfortable living at the casino.
Indeed, the majority of self-proclaimed gambling experts out there are nothing more than failed players. After realizing that they can’t really beat the games, these folks turned to writing about gambling as the next best thing.
You’ve got to remember, before the digital age put encyclopedias in your pocket, access to even the most basic gambling knowledge used to be quite scarce.
And on the same note, without the power of a computer close at hand, readers had no viable way of confirming the mathematical formulas and other calculations involved in creating their strategy.
With readers desperate for gambling wisdom, and a handful of unscrupulous writers more than willing to offer up nonsense for a few bucks, the casino game instruction industry used to be a swamp.
Thankfully, things have changed for the better over the last decade, as a new generation of gambling writers has worked hard to reverse that reputation. Intrepid souls such as Michael “Wizard of Odds” Shackleford and Jonathan Little have realized the old maxim about shearing a sheep many times, but only skinning them once.
In other words, today’s top gambling authors understand that ripping a reader off one time isn’t really worth all that much.
And when those readers recognize that they’re receiving bona fide advice from a genuine expert in their field, they’re far more likely to purchase the sequel or installments in a series.
To help you navigate the murky waters of the gambling instruction industry, I’ve put this page together to serve as your guide. I’ve read hundreds of books about casino games over the years, and combined with my own experience as an advantage play specialist, I’ve learned how to weed out the bad apples.
Generally speaking, the proverb warning against judging a book by its cover is one to live by, but not when it comes to gambling literature.
Take the popular “So You Wanna Be a Gambler?” series, which was released throughout the 1980s by John Patrick. In each volume, on craps, blackjack, roulette, and the rest, Patrick can be seen standing casually, a deck of cards in hand, while he smiles back at the reader.
Frank Scoblete, another popular gambling writer from the era, likes to use action shots of himself shooting dice or spinning the wheel. In his first major work, “Beat the Craps Out of the Casinos” (1991), Scoblete tosses two dice right at the reader, a look of concentration etched on his face.
And in a more modern example, poker pro Phil Hellmuth stares his fictional opponent down on the cover of “Read ‘Em and Reap.”
In each case, the big clue about the book’s preference for style over substance is right there on the cover for the world to see.
These authors know full well that their books won’t hold water upon closer scrutiny, so they attempt to close the deal at first glance.
If a gullible reader sees a well-dressed author standing behind a mountain of chips, or gleefully celebrating a win, their natural impulse is to take a look.
Gambling writers who appear to be more interested in cultivating an image or personal brand are, more often than not, an unreliable source of information.
Conversely, I’ve found that the most useful books in my gambling library were penned by “faceless” authors. When the legendary Wizard of Odds penned his only full-length book, “Gambling 102: The Best Strategies for All Casino Games,” Shackleford opted for a simple classroom image.
The sight of a disembodied hand scribbling complex math formulas on a chalkboard may not jump off the page, but it speaks perfectly to the analytical nature of Shackleford’s work.
For legitimate gambling experts like Shackleford — along with Stanford Wong, James Grosjean, and David Sklansky — becoming a star isn’t the objective. In fact, they seem to prefer keeping their face out of the spotlight entirely, letting their strategies and skills speak for themselves.
Another rule to live by when it comes to gambling books involves the date of publication, as recently released work tends to be more accurate than older versions.
Aside from cold, hard facts such as basic strategy tables and probability calculations, gambling wisdom is constantly evolving. Wong may have been the undisputed king of advantage play blackjack back in his day — and his work certainly endures to this day — but he also forced casinos to change how they approach the classic card game. As a result, much of the advice put forth in Wong’s classic tomes just doesn’t hold up in the modern age.
Fortunately, the best gambling writers out there make an honest attempt to update their work whenever possible. As the landscape changes over time, with new rules, game designs, and other factors altering the foundations of proper strategy, reputable writers will release subsequent editions to keep pace with progress.
In an interview with Blackjack Info, Wong outlined his approach to updating original versions:
Some of that information is new and some will be pulled from the match play section. It is kind of hidden in the part on match play.
Surrender has become an important part of many tournaments these days, so I will make sure that my advice is out there where you can find it and understand it.”
In the world of poker, Doyle Brunson wrote the bible with his “Super/System: A Course in Power Poker.” But the original version hit bookshelves way back in 1978, and by the time of the Poker Boom 25 years later, “Texas Dolly” knew his original approach had been rendered a relic.
For that reason, Brunson decided to update his classic with 2005’s “Super/System 2,” a welcome addition, which added more than two decades of knowledge and experience.
For the most part, I try to stick with the most recent edition of any gambling book I buy. This helps me avoid advice that is no longer relevant, while staying abreast of the latest theories and concepts floating around out there.
But often, when a book’s original publication date is quite old, even a few updates aren’t enough to bring the whole thing up to speed.
When author Avery Cardoza wrote the first “How to Win at Gambling Guide” back in 1991, popular table games like Caribbean Stud Poker hadn’t even been invented yet. Cardoza did manage to update the work with a second edition in 2010, but the book only grew by a few pages.
Knowing this, I can reasonably assume that Cardoza’s second crack at things merely rehashes his old, and outdated, ideas.
The rule about recency applies to all casino games, but it holds especially true for the world of poker. Just twelve years later, Brunson’s sequel to “Super System” is already woefully obsolete, as the pace of poker strategy development accelerates at a seemingly exponential rate.
Computer assisted solvers, game theory optimal (GTO) concepts, push/fold charts to govern short-handed play – none of these ideas even existed in 2005.
If you’re a poker player looking to improve, the best books on the subject were undoubtedly released recently, within the last two or three years, for the most part. And yes, two or three years down the road, even those masterpieces will become antiques, so be prepared to seek out new knowledge whenever possible.
Everyone loves to save a buck, and booksellers like Amazon have turned discounted pricing into an artform.
Even so, I don’t mind paying a premium for the most effective gambling instruction.
If you come across a book purporting to offer a full-fledged strategy guide, advice on different approaches to the game, and other useful resources, it should be worth right around $20 or more.
Anything less than that, and you’re probably looking at a scam-like situation, with the author simply hoping to cash in quickly before getting out of dodge.
You’ll find plenty of gambling books floating around that are priced at $10 or less, and while these may seem like a steal at first glance, that drastically discounted price should serve as a warning sign.
First of all, prices on the secondary bookselling market are dictated by demand. In other words, if an author can only get $7.99 for their work, it’s most likely because the market at large has determined their work to be worth just that.
Secondly, curiously low prices for any book usually signify an off-brand product. I’m talking about loosely bound pages, typographical errors, erroneous facts, and outdated advice.
You’ll often find those first editions, which are no longer relevant, tossed into the bargain bin when updates or sequels are released.
For this reason, whenever I find a gambling book priced lower than $20, I do a bit more digging to see if more recent editions can be found. I don’t mind paying a few extra bucks for the latest version, and neither should you.
Top selling volumes will usually link to reviews by published by respected critics, and these are definitely a great guide as to what you should expect.
A quality book review won’t pull any punches either, so be sure to keep an eye out for critical remarks. No author is perfect, so if a review seems to be trying too hard to convince you otherwise, it’s probably biased in one way or another.
A great example of criticism in action can be found in poker writer Nolan Dalla’s review of “Life’s a Gamble,” the autobiography of his friend and peer Mike Sexton. Best known as the voice of the World Poker Tour (WPT), Sexton is a legendary figure who succeeded as a professional player long before the boom, helped launch PartyPoker.com, and served as an ambassador to WPT audiences for two decades.
Sexton has also been Dalla’s close friend for decades, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see the latter use kid gloves with a spotlessly glowing review.
Thankfully, Dalla does right by his readers, and while the review is mostly positive, he does take time to point out one of Sexton’s authorial flaws:
Knowing Sexton as well as I do, a friendship that which has dated back nearly 25 years to the time we both wrote for Card Player magazine, I would have liked for him to share more of the gut wrenching disgusts that we all have at times when gambling isn’t going well, when there’s that knock on the door and no money on the bank account.
Yes, life is a gamble, as the title says. This means life is filled with wins, and sometimes perhaps just as many losses when we least expect them or can afford them.”
For lesser known works, I recommend taking the title of any gambling book out there and adding “review” in a Google search to find out what fellow readers are saying.
You can also scroll down to the reviews included on a book’s Amazon or eBay page, but the goal is the same either way — to see what people are saying. Word of mouth doesn’t always mean much, but in terms of assessing a book’s potential, somebody who has read the thing from cover to cover is surely a useful asset.
Reader reviews are a great way to filter out the BS and boil things down to the bare facts.
Does the author ramble on and waste time? Do their facts and figures add up? Are they referring to obsolete games and setups? And most importantly, is the strategic advice sound?These are all questions to ponder before picking up a new gambling book, and fellow readers already have the answers. Of course, opinions on literature are highly subjective, so any individual review should be taken with a grain of salt.
But when you consider several reviews for the same book, a general consensus on its merits should eventually emerge.
One thing about reader reviews to remain wary of concerns “rigging” the system, so to speak. Sites like Amazon encourage readers to serve as gatekeepers, posting their reviews right underneath the product page alongside star ratings and other gimmicks.
In most cases, this process works as intended, but every so often you’ll find a review that seems too good to be true.
Check out this review of Frank Scoblete’s craps book “I Am a Dice Controller: Inside the World of Advantage Play Craps!,” which was posted to Amazon on May 18 of 2015:
Throughout, the style is lively, with lots of vernacular and humor. Those familiar with casino and dice will enjoy the book thoroughly, and anyone who reads carefully will learn a great deal.
Yes, there is a lot of ego involved, but then Frank Scoblete has accomplished much in his lifetime.”
The exceedingly positive take was supposedly posted by a user named “Hobart Spalding,” but given the narcissistic tone, it may as well have been written by Scoblete himself. When a reviewer appears to be going out of their way to convince you that a book is worth buying, you should be wary at the very least.
In the same vein, don’t put too much stock in overly negative reviews either – especially when the poster seems to have an axe to grind.
I found myself scrolling through Amazon reviews for Little’s new book “Mastering Small Stakes No Limit Hold’em: Strategies to Consistently Beat Small Stakes Tournaments and Cash Games,” when the following one-star post by “Orlando James” jumped out:
On page 85 and diagram 42 on page 86, he says that if you are in the big blind and one person limps in and the small blind calls, he gives a list of which hands you should raise, which to call, and which to fold.
Why would you ever fold any hand when you can check and see a flop for free? He recommends folding out 50.7% of hands instead of checking, including AJo and KJs.
It’s like he trying to teach terrible poker so he has easier competition. I don’t know. It makes no sense to me!”
At first glance, a scathing review like this would serve as a warning to keep Little’s latest work out of your shopping cart. The reviewer even included page numbers and specifics to let you know they mean business.
I considered moving on to another selection, and maybe even a different author altogether, before I realized that something just didn’t feel right.
Little is one of the most respected poker teachers out there today. I’ve read his previous work before, so I know he’s not one to make basic errors like telling players to fold their big blind in a limped pot. Perhaps this reviewer simply misunderstood what Little put on the page?
Sure enough, after checking beneath the original review, I found a lengthy (and polite) rebuttal posted by Little himself. He addressed the apparent oversight, informing the reviewer that “fold” was simply used as a placeholder to keep the tables concise:
I assumed the reader would read the text (it specifically says to ‘check and see a free flop with the majority of your range’) and not just skim the charts.
Clearly this was an oversight by me as I didn’t realize anyone who plays poker today thinks open folding the big blind when the action is limped around is a viable option.”
By the time I found Mr. James’ bitter reply to Little, it was clear that this negative review was based on a personal grudge, rather than any legitimate gripes about the book’s content:
You seem to be saying that it’s okay to give contradictory advice as long as one of them is correct.
You are a spoiled rich kid that needs some lessons in basic logic.”
Going down a review rabbit hole like that isn’t always the most enjoyable way to kill ten minutes, but it’s the best way to filter out the proverbial noise.
You can find thousands of books related to gambling, and no one has the time to read them all and most don’t have the resources to buy them all.
This guide to how to judge a gambling book before you buy it gives you a step by step way to focus your resources on the ones you need to read.
The post Ways to Judge Gambling Books Before Deciding to Buy Them appeared first on GamblingSites.com.
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