Card Games Books

This is a descent guide to handicapping the NFL. It does seem dated as most of the examples come from the 2002 season and before. However, there are some timeless tips and info for use if you are serious about betting on the NFL.

Easily one of the BEST books I've read on sports handicapping. Dan Gordon is a legitimate pro gambler (unlike JR Miller author of "How pro gamblers beat the football point spread") who understands how to win. The part of the book called the "pro bettors toolkit" provide the reader with genuinely good advice which if followed properly should lead to more winners than losers. I wish he went into detail on how he makes a Letter Rating but that is just something that I am going to have to come up with on my own. For handicapping the NFL this is the only book you'll need but for other useful information I would suggest Donny P's book "win more lose less" and Stanford Wong's "Sharp Sports Betting". I definitely believe this book will help increase my ROI this coming NFL season.

Dan Gordon's updated NFL handicapping book is the kind of book one doesn't so much read as study. Handicapping the NFL over a period of many years is hard work, serious work, and Gordon takes it very seriously. Properly done, it ends up amounting to a part-time job. We are not talking about making easy money betting on football.

The first point, which might be obvious to bettors but bears repeating, is that football odds as set by oddsmakers are not meant to predict the actual outcome of the game - they are meant to attract equal distributions of money bet on each side, and this is not the same thing. They have their customers, the casinos, offshore and (illegal) local books to think of. You are not their customer. There are thus opportunities for discrepancies to exist which the bettor will be able to exploit for profit.

Gordon reviews how oddsmakers come up with the line, the various regular and more exotic bets available (on which he spends very little time until the very end of the season), and the odds both mathematical and psychological/social working against the would-be winning bettor. This is all very clearly explained and well written. Further, he assesses various information sources that amateur bettors use, usually to their financial loss, such as much major media, touts, some sports services and professional commentators, all of which generally talk a good game but when their win/loss records are finally revealed are shown to be highly problematic. Worse, they tend to judge themselves against a 50% win/loss barometer, when of course the winning bettor must clear 53% just to stay even.

Further, not only knowledge and applied research, but also timing of bets proves to be highly important. Gordon is honest enough to show numerous cases where he had early access to better prices or numbers, or where these evaporated so quickly, he could not recommend a game to his service customers as that line no longer existed. In game after game one sees how a point or 1 1/2 point difference in the spread means the difference between a winning and losing bet. The NFL teams are very very close in quality overall. Personal discipline in passing on games where the number is close but not quite good enough to bet is important to long term success as well.

In the heart of the book, Gordon's handicapping system, he examines not only hard statistics, but leans heavily towards psychological motivations and factors. There is no factor one can think of to which he does not assign some value, a half point here and a half point there. He explains his starting points for the season using both letter and numerical power ratings, and how he updates each team after each game, every step of the way. The book holds seemingly nothing back.

The last half of the book follows first the Bills through the entire 2002 season, applying the factors of his system to every game they would play, whether he bet on it (and why) or not (and why not). Then he follows the full 2004 season, for each bet he made or contemplated seriously, doing the same, through the Super Bowl and a couple of proposition bets. If one were serious about learning his system, it would be worth the investment of many hours to 'replay' that system on paper, using his methods, and following how he came up with these ratings. At the end of the season he was indeed winner, though relatively modestly so.

Gordon's book is highly recommended for anyone who wants to get serious about handicapping NFL football, and stop simply throwing his money away on hunches or following the crowd.

Overall, this is a good set of questions. I did find some to be a bit biased and slightly questionable as far as accuracy. Also, it seemed to me that many questions were either really easy or really difficult. I was hoping for more intermediate level questions.

I recommend this for anyone who is learning or teaching Spanish. It's a great classroom resource!

I use these flashcards to create webquests and daily questions for my Spanish I students.
This is also a good resource to use if you are practicing for your Praxis test. It provides quick and easy on-the-go facts to study in addition to any other study aide you use.

I just want beginning bridge players to understand that the ACOL system of bidding that this book teaches so well is NOT the same as the system or systems normally used in the USA.

When scoping out bridge texts, you will want to be sure that the bidding style is called "Standard American" or, more specifically, "five-card majors." The highly regarded "Two over one game force," (abbreviated "2/1") will probably not appear in a text aimed at beginners; but there's a good chance you'll wind up there eventually if you stick with the game.

Bridge is a wonderful game; I just don't want us Yanks boning up on a system that is of little or no use on this side of the pond!

I found this book extremely well written fo beginners. Language and examples were easy to understand.

The best introductory book on ACOL bridge I have yet encountered. Clear and concise explanations of bidding and play strategies and the reasoning behind them, logical sequencing and helpful "Briefing" summaries at the end of key chapters. Thoroughly recommended.

This is my fifth book by the author ... each has been useful and has improved my game ... each chapter is short which makes it easy to pick up and study at any time ...

Here we have a recent (2003) entry in the growing and popular "25" series of fine bridge books. This time co-author David Bird joins the accomplished teacher Barbara Seagram to concentrate on declarer play. The 25 chapters are organized mostly by increasing difficulty, starting off with something as basic as Simple Finesses and progressing to more intermediate topics such as holdup plays and planning NT offenses, to subjects as sophisticated as dummy reversals and counting the opponent's shape/points.

The format of "25 Ways" follows the successful earlier entries in the series. Each topic is introduced, illustrative examples highlight the discussion, and each chapter features about three hands that test the student on his digestion of the preceding material. As usual, an explanatory answers page helps check one's rationale against the "proper" solution. The writing tone is conversational which helps make what is basically a textbook a little more fun to read. With material aimed at beginners through somewhat advanced intermediate players, there's probably something for most everyone in "25 Ways"; and it is a book we highly recommend during our "299-er" sessions at the bridge club!

This book is excellent for players wanting to improve declarer play. Format is easy to follow, and summaries and quizzes at end of each chapter are helpful.

The Major Arcana of 22 cards appear Egyptianized with different meanings from RWS standard. The 56 Minor Arcana appear as a playing card deck such as king, queen,knight, and page with pips' suits as clubs/wands; hearts/cups; spades/swords; diamonds/coins. Keywords appear on face of each card top and bottom as upright/reversed meanings. This deck is for the seasoned pro and recommeded as so.... Blessings...

I love this deck !! I have been doing professional readings for over 20 years with this deck. It is advanced for a beginner but, the cards just open up my channel and I can see the entire picture. I have used a few other decks and I have the greatest accuracy with this deck.

The Cagliostro deck really can be a mysterious deck, mirroring its namesake...I've read, studied and written about and collected the tarot for 13 years now, and it's one of my curious favorites, although not a favored one for divination...The power of this deck is unmistakable, yet it can be confusing and is not recommended for a beginner. The Major Arcana features paintings of an alchemical nature, and the Minor Arcana is represented by flat "playing-card" like drawings and symbols, not unlike very early Tarot decks (the layouts of the staves and coins are reminiscent of the Visconti-Sforza deck). The Cagliostro Tarot uses a combination of numerology, astrology, Qabalah and worded representations on each card, hence the somewhat confusing plethora of symbolism. What I am so drawn to in this deck is the downright curiosity of it - when using it in readings (rarely for others, I use this deck mainly when reading for myself) I find readings becoming much more deliberate and forthright, whereas other readings are more open to interpretation. A curiosity well worth it for collectors, while beginners might find it a bit too overwhelmingly full of symbolism.

Only buy this is you like playing kid card games with your kids!

Buy this and they will want to play all the games in it with you...and that says a lot! Nothing is better than sitting around a table with your kids, talking and playing games -- with the TV and video games OFF! ;^)

This book is so cool. It's got 41 cool card games that you can learn how to play. It's so much fun to go through. You can learn how to play games like Beehive, four-Leaf Clover, Hit or Miss, Wish, Gops, Snap, Le Pouilleux, Old Maid, Go Fish, Wot, Cheat, Rummy, Newmarket, Double Stops, Blackjack, Hearts, Rolling Stones, Jacks, Go Boom, and much much more. So go and get Card Games for Children. READ IT!

With an 8 and a 12 year old...fighting about games is a natural occurance. This book keeps the rules clear, so that there are no more accusations of cheating :) As the Editor of Amazingmoms.com I read an review books of this sort for rule clarity and information content. This book is certainly a five star reccomendation for my site.

This is a book based on playing and learning solitaire card games as learned from the author's grandmother. My own interpretation, based on responses in the book and the book itself, is that his grandmother was quite a mathematician/statistician and card player, who spent most of a lifetime studying solitaire card games. It is apparent they were/are both enthusiasts of solitaires and cards. The book is accurate, readable and possesses more solitaires than you would ever try to learn. It is beautifully illustrated, in color, with easily understood tableaus. It is a must for those who enjoy solitaires with real cards. (I play with real cards. I sometimes question the accuracy and randomness of computer programs/seeds/potential bugs and could swear certain programs cheat by changing the outcomes of the cards based on your choices to increase randomness, but cannot prove it. Slow as it may be, I trust outcomes using real cards because strictly speaking, in this manner, I am the programmer. And no, I do not cheat.) This is a wonderful book. I gave it 5 stars.

A Great collection of Solitaire.

The whole book divide 179 games(in addition to hundreds of variations) into 3 catogaries: Elimination/Amalgamation (1-62); Ascending Suit Sequences on the Ace (63-91); Suit Sequence and other runs(92-179). The rules are clearly explained. What's more, each game has an example illustrating the rule and/or a strategy for good-play. With full-color print and 179 different solitaire games, this is both a resorceful book for solitaire lovers and a collection itself.

Excellent collection of solitaire games. Unfortunately, there are also quit a few errors. This includes discrepancies between the text and illustrations, and in some cases, the rules a simply too vague, making it impossible to play the solitaire. Despite these flaws, this book contains a lot of gems and is well worth the price.

There may be millions of card games in the world, but there are probably more books about card games. Most of them just cover the same games over and over again.

This book covers the games that most of the others tend to miss. This book includes:
Great games of the past like Hombre.
Games played widely in other countries like Scopone.
Unusual games not played widely anywhere like Ninety-Nine.

All in all, a book that deserves to stand out from the crowd of lesser "Hoyles."

"A Dictionary Of Card Games" by David Parlett is one of the most comprehensive books ever published on Western card games. A companion volume to the earlier "The Oxford Guide To Card Games" by the same British author, it gives the rules, in a clear and concise yet entertaining manner, of several hundred card games; just about every European and American card game you can think of, including "national" card games such as Jazz (Switzerland), Ulti (Hungary) and Scopa (Italy). You will also find the rules for a number of the "historic" card games that have now largely gone out of fashion, but which you may come across in novels and films: Primiera, Trappola, Bezique, Boston Whist, Conquian and many others.

The games are arranged alphabetically, with many cross-references, making it easy to find what you are looking for and at the same time making for fascinating browsing. A nice touch is that you also get a bit of mini-history with many of the games: where and when it originated. Also, you will find a short section on Tarot games -- yes, it is a deck for playing games with, the idea of "divination" using Tarot cards is a much later invention -- in the book.

The introduction is, in line with the rest of the contents, very informative. It discusses the classification of card games, answers the question "Why are there so many card games?", and finishes off with five pages of etiquette at the card table and sensible all-around advice. There is also a long appendix listing terms used in card-play.

A highly recommended book and a superb reference work on card games; an absolute must-have for the shelves of anyone interested in the subject.

David Parlett is one of the best and most readable experts on western card games, but almost all of the material in this volume + a lot more, is included in his " Penguin Encyclopaedia of Card Games" . The penguin version divivdes the games into families of related games, which makes it much easier to use, and it is more thorough.
So there is really no reason to buy this - excellent - book.

I am a Tarot "Reader", and hope to use these vividly colored cards along with my other Tarot decks. Although not a Tarot deck per say, it does offer inspiration and opens doors to the unconscious for personal discovery and insights. Each dream card could be used as a meditation or focus for the day. This lovely deck would make a fine gift for the spiritually aspired.

This is a highly prized deck to own; Created very well with fine abstract imagery that stimulates the mind, Dreaming in Color, is very appealing to the eyes.

For those who find themselves blocked reading the tarot, this deck helps you explored your intuitive side and if you are looking for a deck to help with mediation, the visual appeal of this set will touch off the senses.

Emotionally charged is another great way to describe this excellent workmanship. Used as a daily card, the Dreaming in Color: Luman Deck, will unlock hidden emotions and help one develop the intuitive skills needed for reading the Tarot deck.

If there is a deck to one in your collection, highly recommend giving Dreaming in Color a try. It can be used in addition to reading the Tarot or just as a form of mediation.

At first glance, the Dreaming In Color Luman Deck(tm) appears to be a straightforward--albeit ethereal--divination deck. But once you start working with the cards, you realize this deck is something far more than just another pretty oracle.

Created by Mindy Sommers, The Dreaming in Color Luman Deck(tm) is divinely channeled in both art and meaning--specifically designed to develop the user's intuition. The color-soaked imagery evokes a feeling of both depth and expansiveness--almost as if you're falling into a dreamscape of the subconscious.

This unusual oracle can not only be used for divination, but also for healing and meditation. In fact, I don't think I've ever come across a deck--either Tarot or oracle--which seems to work like a Rorschach. That is, the vibrant images are not cluttered with iconographic litter which tries to dictate the card meaning; rather, this 60-card deck serves as a multi-dimensional tool that provides immediate information. Like a pebble thrown into a cosmic pond, these cards ripples through the ego's layered defenses and brings forth vital guidance to the surface.

Inscribed on each card is a word that helps the user absorb the energy of its meaning, as well as provide a focus to receive insight on questions about the past, present, and future. I feel that this deck is especially helpful for those wanting to transcend negative personality patterns or to understand repeating relationship themes that have proved frustrating.

Using vibrant colors spanning a palette of greens, purples, reds, oranges, yellows, pinks--and even a few in black and white--these cards are gorgeous to look at just from an aesthetic perspective. In fact, my husband (who has little interest in Tarot or oracle decks), could not stop looking at the card images. He's a huge fan of fractals, and thought they were stunning in their intricacy and coloration. Many images are floral in nature, but they appear to be much more than just flowers. Also included with this deck is a pamphlet with the channeled card meanings.

Personal Notes

I did a 3-card spread with this deck, and it was insightful. Yet, I feel that these cards are better served by reading them organically--as an intuitive story board that's not beholden to rigid spread positions.

I feel these cards are best used for serious interior healing and consciousness work, perhaps in conjunction with spiritual practice such as meditating and journaling. If you want quick fixes and answers, I feel the profundity of this deck may be lost on you. Its use as a healing and meditation deck is unsurpassed in my opinion. Somehow, Mindy Sommers takes problematic emotions such as avarice, resentment, and pettiness and provides a visual and spiritual portal with which to see these issues clearly--yet without any shaming or disturbing imagery. This is a delicate balance that's not easy to pull off, in my estimation.

(To see 6 images from this deck, go to the Reviews--Decks section at JanetBoyer.com)

Janet Boyer, author of The Back in Time Tarot Book: Picture the Past, Experience the Cards, Understand the Present (coming Fall 2008 from Hampton Roads Publishing)

I am very impressed with this deck of "Playing Cards" --which can be used as "Tarot" cards and the descriptive book, which explains their meanings. The standard playing card decks used today derived from "The Tarot," so this deck is charged with centuries of "fortune telling" experience and history.

The deck is quite beautiful--with an Antique effect and an obvious "reversal" clarification mark (outline symbol) on each card--with the reversal meaning of each card listed in the book, also. The back of the cards are very pretty, as well.

The lovely, well-written book provided with the deck is loaded with information about each card, with great descriptions of each card, full-color illustrations of the cards, instructions for various layouts of the cards and instructions for interpreting the cards.... this is not a typical, tiny little booklet, which usually comes with a deck of Cards--it is a full-sized book (160 pages) and is packed with information!

Coincidently, I had just discovered another book which can be used, easily, with this deck, although the book provided with this deck has a lot more information.... however, if you want to start with a very simple, easy to remember format, you can purchase this set and begin with the simple correspondences listed in ISBN # 0312265093 ("Doktor Snake's Voodoo Spellbook: Spells, Curses and Folk Magic for All Your Needs" by Doktor Snake), then work your way up to the full descriptions / correspondences depicted in "The Fortune Teller's Deck: Predict your future with playing cards," by Jane Lyle.

I am very excited about this Book & Card Deck set, because I was looking for a "standard playing deck" to use with Doktor Snake's book, mentioned above....and I happened-across this great Book/Card Deck set--which is much more impressive than most standard decks, artistically / aesthetically.

I have been using Tarot cards since 1990 and I have added this book/deck set to my "Favorites."

I'd always thought that fortune telling was interesting and wanted to learn more about it. I received much more than I expected when I bought "The Fortune Teller's Deck." I discovered that fortune telling with playing cards was interesting, accurate, and much simpler than using tarot cards. I'd tried to learn how to use tarot cards in the past but was always daunted by the task of memorizing so many card meanings. A deck of playing cards is much smaller than a tarot deck and, as a result, is easier to grasp. Jane Lyle offers her readers some of the most in-depth analysis' of the cards that I've seen (and by now, I've read several books on the subject). She includes keywords for each card so that they're easier to memorize and shares with her readers many different spreads. In my readings, the Star of Fifteen has been the most accurate. I definitely don't regret purchasing "The Fortune Teller's Deck." In fact, it's one of the best purchases I've ever made, and I recommend that anyone interested in fortune telling buy it.

The book is easy to follow if you've never used tarot cards before. The deck is beautifully done. Definitely not a playing deck. The explanations in the book are easy enough for any beginners to start with. I wish the book was longer as the bits & pieces about the history of the older spreads were very intriguing.