Gambling Books

I FIND THAT THE AUTHOR HAS MADE IT QUITE SIMPLE TO FIND THE NUMBERS AND THE PERIODS OF THE YEAR AND THE DAY WHEN ANY PERSON SHOULD INCREASE HIS OR HER CHANCES OF LUCK. OTHER BOOKS THAT I HAVE BOUGHT ARE VERY CONFUSING, THEY DO NOT GO RIGHT TO THE POINT AND AT THE END ONE DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO FIND THE NUMBERS AND THE PERIODS FOR LUCK, ESPECIALLY FOR GAMBLING. MRS. DOYLE-BELAND HAS PREPARED AN EASY TO READ AND UNDERSTAND GUIDE THAT SHOULD HELP ANYBODY.

I found this book to be very interesting. It was fascinating to figure out what times and days to do particular things. Even though this book seemed to be geared toward gambling, it can be useful in determining lucky days and times for any activity, purchase...

This book goes a long way toward encouraging faith in those caught up in the ravages of addictive disease/behavior to believe in the power of spiritual deliverance. The only reason I gave 4 stars instead of 5 is there is still much more to be said on the subject than was captured in these pages. Sherri is on to something very powerful and she is brave to put it in print in the days of anti-Christian practices and beliefs. There is much more to learn about the power and effectiveness of spiritual deliverance to many of life's struggles. Perhaps the next book will take that on. Hint, Hint

This book has wonderful examples of real people who have been delivered from alcohol and drugs by surrendering their life to Jesus Christ. It is full of encouraging scriptures and prayers for those who don't really know what to pray. This book will truly help and encourage anyone who really wants to change their life from addiction, to a full,and meaningful life, in Chirst.

How to Pick a Kentucky Derby Winner

When your sitting back
In your rose pink Cadillac
Making bets on Kentucky Derby Day

-Rolling Stones

As the son of a son of a gambler, people ask me for betting advice.

Although I started going to race track before I was able to walk, I don't know that much about the horse industry. I go the track a few times a year and bet small amounts.

Most of my equine knowledge was gleamed when I worked on the clean up crew at the Kentucky Horse Park. I can tell you what horses make the biggest mess.

Although there are people more qualified to give Derby tips, like political or financial commentators, I won't let lack of expertise stop me.

I came to the conclusion in the mid 1980's that I wanted to live my life in Kentucky, I needed to know how to bet on horses.

I found a book called Racetrack Betting: The Professors' Guide to Strategies by Peter Asch and Richard E. Quandi.

It was written by two statistics professors and not the easiest book to read. I can sum up the advice in two statements.

1. Bet on the horse that everyone else is betting on. 2. Bet on the horse to show, not to win or place.

The book bases the ability to pick horses on a theory known as the wisdom of crowds.

The wisdom of crowds concept is really popular now. It is a driving force for web sites like Google.

The idea is that marketplace will move towards the best outcome.

If a horse moves from 10 to 1 to 2 to 1, it is probably a good horse to bet on.

Betting to show is a practice that I follow religiously. .

The professors said that betting to show will produce a winner 52% of the time. That is better than any other kind of bet.

The professors hate jackpots like the Pick-6. Just like the lottery, big odds draw a lot of excitement and attention.

Just like the lottery, you don't see many people winning them.

The professors frown on exactas, daily doubles or any bet that exhibits large risk.

Like in the investment world, the winner at race track is the person with a conservative style and discipline.

When I go to the track, I don't look at the racing form, jockeys, past history or pick horses with funny names. (My mother was a sucker for horses with funny names.) I just follow the odds.

I usually win enough money to pay for lunch.

My father, a professional gambler, absolutely HATED my betting system. He and I would go to Keeneland every session and we never picked the same horse. He would bet $100 on a horse and lose. I would bet $10 and win.

It drove him absolutely crazy.

Dad liked the excitement of big odds and big payoffs. He knew everything about the horse's past performance, their breeding and who was riding them.

Dad was superstitious and started to believe that my system was jinxing him. If dad ever met the professors, he would have punched them in the nose.

I stuck to my system. I stick to it today. Betting to show fits with my overall philosophy about investing. Slow and steady works in the financial markets and works at the track too.

For whatever reason, my system has failed me at Kentucky Derby's. The last one I remember winning was Sunday Silence in 1989. I didn't pick Sunday Silence because of my system. His owner, Arthur Hancock III, had graduated from Vanderbilt and I had received a Masters Degree from Vandy the year before.

I picked the horse because of an alumni connection to a man I had never met. It was a stupid reason for picking a horse but produced one of my few winners.

Thus, on Derby Day, my advice is forget all the high powered systems and give it your best guess.

Don McNay is the author of Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What To Do When You Win The Lottery. He is the Chairman of the Board for McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Kentucky. You can write to him at [...] or read his award winning column at [...]

I am glad to be the first one to write a review about this book. I am also astonished to be the first one to write a review about a book that was written over 10 years ago with an Amazon.com Sales Rank of over 300,000.

First of all, it is a well-written book. The authors have tried their very best to explain complicated ideas (topics about statistics and probabilities) step by step, and take the readers through simple calculations on probability first and then systematically to regression analysis and then ultimately to their findings. I have not touched any topics on probabilities and statistics for a long time since 1991 but I can still manage to understand the ideas and formulas presented in this book with the help of the authors.

The gist of this book is to tell us betting inefficiencies happen in Place and Show pools. Based on the authors' findings, one should pay attention to the drop of win odds from morning line odds to last-minute odds and bet on Place or Show of horses with relatively low win odds so as to yield a positive rate of return. The author's approach is also supported by the Dr. Z's system.

This book also emphasizes that the most important thing on horse gambling is to gain a positive rate of return, rather than merely picking winners. I totally agree with it.

"Profitable systems cannot be popular. Popular systems are sure losers." is also emphasized in this book. I totally agree with this statement also as the use of an originally profitable method by too many people will ultimately depress the odds and result in a negative rate of return. This is all about market efficiencies which we studied in Economics lessons before. Right?

Using terms of Economics, this book is about "technical analysis" of horse gambling. I recommend all horse racing fans who have read many books on "fundamental analysis" of horse handicapping/gambling to read this "technical analysis" book.

The book covers the game from all aspects and is easy to follow. It covers the game basics, and basic betting systems, and from there goes into some spin offs and playabe variations of those betting systems. It also covers other topics like biased wheels, numerical concepts that are important to playing the game, and technichal information about wheel construction and cheating (It does not teach you how to cheat). I consider the book an excellent referance for all Roulette players, and and a great addition to any library.

I give the book 4 stars because even though it was good reading it did'nt exactly reveal any real exciting secrets.Overall it could be used by the novice gambler to learn roulette and the best & safest ways to bet. It also gives some history on the roulette wheel and the different types used in the U.S. & abroad.

After reading this book, I lose just as much money, but now I know why I do. Seriously, I have bought several of Nestor's books. They are all fantastic books, well worth the price you pay. Nestor knows gambling and knows statistics. He does not try to sell you on any questionable, feel-good strategies. This is straight forward, honest, scientifically-based advice. As for this particular book, it is an excellent guide to blackjack. It starts out with simple strategies and then builds on these as it advanced to much more complex strategies. There are many helpful charts and tables. Do not expect miracles, this is honest advice.

The Smarter Bet Guide to Blackjack is a great introductory text. I does a good job of covering the rules and play. It's not so lengthy that you couldn't read it on a two hour flight to Vegas. It includes a Basic Strategy for both single deck and multiple deck Blackjack which are standard. Nestor includes a chapter on the variations such as Spanish 21, which a lot of books avoid. He includes a chapter on card counting which introduces the reader to counting. Lastly, he introduces progressive betting of which I am a proponent. This is a good introduction to Blackjack, and the price is right. Newly written Blackjack books generally sell for $15 or more, and this one is about $5. It's not thorough, but you can't expect a small and relatively short book to be comprehensive.

this is a very basic book with only the win bet being cover in any
detail.I have to say betting win instead of superfecta, triactor has
me a winner.flat betting 10 to win per race one bet one horse simple.

Tom Ainsley's book is great if your new to harness racing and want to learn how to handicap or if you're already into it and want to refine your skills. MUST READ!

This novel comes up to the top on my ranking of books.This novel grabs our teenager`s heart by usuing lots of emotional thoughts which these characters would do.It will tell us the feelings of love and friendship.The good thing is that,its not really that dramatic! Not the kind which is too romantic. I can imagine these things happening in the real life. I like the dialoges and characters. This book is great! I wish I could read more books from Jennifer Baker!

I really liked this book and the rest of the series I don't see why it so short-lived. Victoria is caught between a rock and a hard place even though I usually hate her I felt sorry for her. And I'm really beginning to hate Nikki with her jealous attitude towards Suzanne. Suzanne is a better person than Nikki is, though.

This is an absolutely informative and yet totally entertaining book about the inside of the gambling industry. David Johnston does a great job of detailing the evolution of the casinos, all the while making a strong case for its negative impact on society. Throw in the flashy gangsters, mobsters, lawmen, colorful tales of some of the biggest gamblers, incredible stories of rags-to-riches and vice-versa, and you have a real page-turner.

"Temples of Chance: How America Inc. Bought Out Murder Inc. to Win Control of the Casino Business" literally tells the story of how the modern Las Vegas invented by Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel when he built the Flamingo gambling resort as World War II was ending, was run by mobsters for three decades, who were bought out be a new generation of "respectable" businesspeople in the 1980s. While the media was focuses on the excesses of Wall Street the casino industry was being taken over by the heads of well known publicly traded corporations, as well as junk-bond kings like Donald Trump, Merv Griffin, and Steve Wynn. In "Temples of Chance" journalist David Johnston documents the little-publicized transformation of what has proven to be one of the country's fastest growing and most lucrative industries.

Johnston explains how in just over a decade revenues from gambling went from $2 billion a year to $10 billion. The immense profit potential of the gambling business attracted corporate giants like the Holiday Corporation and Ramada, Inc., both of which sold off their namesake hotel chains at the end of the 1980s and sank their resources into the new megacasinos. However, Johnston's book underscores that "no matter who deals the cards, the game is always the same." Now business school graduates and skilled managers have replaced mob muscle and the new "loaded dice" are provided by computer geniuses who carefully stack the odds against players, government officials who support corporate deal makers, and even subtle psychological techniques that invite addictive behavior.

The framing story for "Temples of Chance" is the story of Akio Kashiwagi, the boldest gambler in the world, who is wagering $14 million an hour for days while playing baccarat at Trump Plaza. As the first chapter ends Kashiwagi is has a pot of $18.6 million and the Donald is getting nervous. However, Trump has hired Jess Marcum, a physicist who helped invent radar and "a lonely atheist in the temples of chance because he did not believe in Lady Luck" on his side. Kashiwagi does not have a chance, but we do not find out how this game plays until the end of the book.

Ultimately "Temples of Chance" makes a convincing case that any wager placed on legal gambling in America is a sucker's bet, the exception being if you are one of the power brokers on the inside. Johnston has a whole series of horror stories reflecting the mentality of greed that drove corporate investors to sponsor casinos on Indian reservations, Mississippi riverboats, and every place it can get a foothold. Johnston maintains that the logic underlying government support of the expansion of legalized gambling is pretty stupid in light of the evidence that while legal gambling can offer short-term economic relief, it creates no new wealth, and has not and cannot permanently revive struggling economies. The value of this 1992 book as a warning has obviously waned, but it still provides a fascinating look at how Wall Street moved in on the mob to make a killing at the gaming tables.

IN THE ACTION MAN, THAT'S WHAT I WANT, WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY, HOUSE, CAR AND YOU MIGHT LAND IN JAIL?

A number of Vignettes highlighting actual accounts of people becoming embroiled in the "hell" of pathological gambling. This is a well written, inexpensive, and easy read. I believe most useful as an eye opening introduction to the topic.

With the explosion of Casinos all over America we are seeing an equally proportinate rate of ruined lives related to gambling. The suicide rate amoung problem gamblers is extroardinarily high. It is most important for healthcare professionals, both in addiction and general medicine, to become familiar with this problem and screen patients for potential gambling addiction. This book was part of my curriculum as an addictions counselor in the state of New York.

Another excellent book on this topic is 'Born to Lose' by Bill Lee, who also wrote the book inspiring the movie 'Chinatown'.

UPHOLSTERY: A Complete Guide by David James is a logical book with clear concise step-by-step directions. With the directions from this book I have recovered six wing-back chairs and saved a small fortune...

As an Upholsterer's Dictionary it is a good book and rather thorough.There are endless detailed sketches of the equipment Upholsterers use,a glossary of common terms ,information about exhibitions and Fairs etc. However,it isn't a "how-to" book. There are no step-by-step projects or photographs. This is a very technical book,a guide to wanna-be upholsterers rather than a guide to anyone who simply wants to experience the joys of a home-made redo.