Gambling With an Edge - guest Anthony Curtis 4

Our guest this week is Anthony Curtis, owner of The Las Vegas Advisor and Huntington Press publishing.  

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High Roller Las Vegas

The new Linq Mall has opened between Harrah's and The Quad in Las Vegas. It's an open air mall filled mostly with bars and restaurants.

The High Roller is at the east end, and is the tallest observation wheel in the world. I went yesterday, April 9th at about 2pm. The wheel has only been open a week, and it was empty when I went.

They encourage you to get drunk to ride this thing but I took a pass on the $12 cocktails. Tickets during the day are $24.95 and at night they are 34.95.

Boarding Area

One thing surprised me. As you can imagine there is a video screen with some guy prattling on. At one point he said, "Right now we are 420 feet up. That's right, 420. You know what that means. We're high." This surprised me that marijuana has become so mainstream. It is kind of a perfect joke since the people who get it will really appreciate, and the people who don't won't be offended. If you don't get it just google 420.

The ride takes 30 minutes, and really 10 would have been plenty.

Bellagio fountain

I saw some pictures of the ride at sunset, and that would be a much better time to get great photos. The best parking is a large free lot just east of the High Roller which you can access off Koval or off Linq Lane. I did the big wheel in Chicago with my son about 15 years ago. That one was open air, and we went in December. This was a much better experience than that, but I wouldn't go again. Maybe I've just been around Vegas too long.

The Player Secrets of a Vegas Whale

I opened Netflix last night only to see this in my recommended list. How could I not watch? The Player is 45 minutes of what I would call "Newsotainment"; not really news, and not really entertaining. It is the story of how Don Johnson won $15 million in Atlantic City by exploiting their loss rebate program.

The show is filled with a lot of fluff. The actual time spent on what Don Johnson did maybe totals 10 minutes. The rest of the time is spent talking about how the economic collapse of 2008 effected CET, MGM, and Wynn. There are interviews with Steve Wynn, Jim Murren (CEO of MGM), and Gary Loveman. (CEO of Caesars). Now either Gary Loveman has no clue as to what goes on in his casinos, or he is a blatant liar. When Trish Regan asks him about DJ being barred at Caesars properties he says, "We can't, or wouldn't bar you from coming to the casino." Really? Would you like a list of just the people who have sued CET for being handcuffed and mistreated while being 86ed for doing nothing illegal?

Unfortunately I'm and addict. For me these shows are like pizza - even when it's bad it is still pretty good. The more you already know about the Don Johnson story, the less you will like this show. One tidbit the show brings out that hasn't been mentioned much in other places is his use of porn stars. The idea is the dealer and pit get so distracted by the girls they make errors. One or two errors a night and DJ now has an overall edge. If you're bored some night and scrolling through Netflix you might check it out.

The show was originally made for Bloomberg TV, so if you don't have Netflix you can also watch it here. The Player.

Gambling With an Edge - guest Ed Miller

This week's guest is Ed Miller, poker author and player. His new book is called Poker's 1%. 

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Richard Marcus, author of American Roulette

This week our guest is Richard Marcus. Richard was a casino cheat, and tonight we will be talking about his book American Roulette.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Paul Hoppe

This week our guest is Paul Hoppe. Paul is the coauthor of Poker in Practice: Critical Concepts which we discuss in this episode. He also makes poker training videos which you can view at his website Poker is a Skill.

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Talking to the enemy?

Regular visitors here know that I do both print interviews, which you can read by clicking the interviews link to the right, and podcast interviews which come from the radio show Gambling With an Edge which I cohost with Bob Dancer. Recently I heard that Colin and Ben of the blackjack team known as The Church Team, had spoken at the recent World Gaming Protection Conference. (The Church Team was featured in the movie Holy Rollers. You can read my review of the movie here.) I wanted to ask them about this, and thought that rather than transcribe it I would put it up as a podcast.  I'd love your feedback. Do you like these shorter interviews as podcasts or would you rather read them?

If you would like to hear what Colin had to say at the conference you can listen to it here.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDBPMgRSfJs

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Blair Rodman

This week our guest is Blair Rodman. Blair was part to of Stanford Wong's tournament team, and has been a poker player for over 40 years. He also is a successful sports bettor and one of the authors of the book, Kill Phil. 

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Tom Artle - banking California games

This week our guest is Tom Artle. Tom was part of Al Francesco's ace sequencing team, and then went on to banking games in CA.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Chris McKinlay

This week our guest is Chris McKinlay, author of Optimal Cupid. Chris is a former blackjack player, and current math professor who used his applied math background to figure out how to "get the edge" at dating site OK Cupid..

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Optimal Cupid

The Eyes Have It

When I was about 7 my father bought a tachistoscope. "Why?" you may ask. He was learning to speed read. Illinois had banned Henry Miller's The Tropic of Cancer as obscene. My father was hired as an expert witness on pornography, and had to read 200 pornographic novels before testifying. But I had this amazing toy to play with. You could set the interval from 1 second to 1/1000 of a second, and a word would flash across the screen. About every year or two the subject pops up on the blackjack message boards. "Should I get a tachistoscope to train my eyes?"

I was reminded of this recently when visiting a friends apartment in Las Vegas. I noticed what looked like a toy. It looked like an airplane with a two-foot wingspan, and across the front of the wings were red and blue LED lights. It came with a pair of glasses with one red lens and one blue lens. It was a different type of eye trainer called Eye Port. You wear the glasses and turn this thing on. The red and blue lights flash randomly, but you only see them out of one eye because of the glasses. You basically dart your eyes around looking at the lights and it is supposed to help your vision. Before you rush out to buy one of these contraptions I will tell you that my friend did not find it helpful.

Back in the early 80s there was a device called BJ Quick-Eye.

I believe this device was invented by Mark Billings who wrote The Ultimate Edge. You look down the box, and slide cards down the chute. You can adjust the angle of the chute to increase the speed of the cards. This item is no longer being sold, but as you can see from the drawing it would be fairly easy to make.

If you're interested in a tachistoscope let me save you a lot of money. Here is an app that does the same thing for $2. It's called Quicki. It flashes numbers on your phone screen. You can adjust the speed, and the number of digits.

Does it all work? I'll leave that to you to decide. My eyes are shot so I don't think any amount of training will help me.

Gambling With an Edge - guest David Schwartz

Our guest this week is  Professor David Schwartz. He is on to talk about his book Roll The Bones: The History of Gambling.

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Gambling With an Edge - Video Poker for beginners part 2

This week our show is about video poker. We were supposed to have Vinny DeCarlo but he had to go into the hospital for surgery. I follow up with Bob asking about how to analyze a particular casino for my first video poker foray.

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Gambling With an Edge - guests Max Rubin & Smoke discuss Blackjack Ball 2014

The guests this week are Max Rubin and Smoke. They are on to discuss this year's Blackjack Ball.

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Blackjack Ball 2014

In 1997 Max Rubin decided to throw a party for all his professional gambler friends. All the blackjack teams, big and small, would be in Las Vegas for New Years Eve, so after new years it would be time to kick back, count the money, and have a party. Rather than a boring party where people stand around with drinks in their hand, he decided to have a competition. Gamblers are competitive by nature, and love to play games. He designed the game in two parts. First a written test to narrow the field. Second, a skills portion. Both sections had some things that were silly, (How many chips can you shuffle?) and some that were serious. (See some sample questions below.) The party was a huge success, and has been held every year since. Here is my recap of the 2014 Blackjack Ball.

Gambling With an Edge - guest Mike Shackleford - Super Bowl 2014 edition

The guest this week is Mike Shackleford. We talk about Super Bowl prop bets, and current gambling news. Shak has also developed a new simplified basic strategy for the game Ultimate Texas Hold'Em which we discuss.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Anthony Curtis

Our guest this week is Anthony Curtis, owner of The Las Vegas Advisor and Huntington Press publishing.  

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Geoff Freeman of the AGA.

Our guest tonight is Geoff Freeman, President and CEO of the American Gaming Association. 

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Gambling With an Edge - Video Poker for beginners

This week our show is about how to go about learning video poker. We cover books, software, what games to play, and more..

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Ken Smith

This week's guest is Ken Smith. Ken has written 2 books, How to Win More Blackjack Tournaments, and How to Win Even More Blackjack Tournaments. In addition he recently came out with some new strategy cards, and has one of the best blackjack websites on the net.  blackjackinfo.com. He has a special landing page for listeners of the show at GWAE.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Brian McAllister

This week's guest is Brian McAllister, a long-time options trader.  He has been on the show before to talk about his video poker exploits, but tonight we will talk about what options trading can teach you about gambling.

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Do you trust your partner?

I received an email recently in which a player asked about his partner. He said the partner had lost $220 scouting a hole card game with a $5 minimum. He said that he could usually tell in one or two hands if a dealer was good or not, and didn't I think this completely unreasonable for his partner to have lost so much.

First, can you scout a dealer in one or two hands? Usually no. I guess if you look at two hands and see absolutely nothing you can move on, but usually it takes longer than that. What if you sit down, and on the first hand you see the hole card clear as day. Then you play three more hands and get nothing. The fifth hand you see it pretty good, and then four more hands of nothing. You could easily play 10 hands before abandoning this game, and on some carnival games with multiple bets you can end up betting 10 times your initial wager. Is it unusual to lose $220 scouting a $5 carnival game? Absolutely not.

But this brings up a much more important question? Do you trust your partner? Did he lose $220 scouting? Or did he lose $20 and tell you it was $220 and put $200 in his pocket? If you are asking yourself these questions then you should really think long and hard about why he is your partner.

Secondly - Do you trust your partner's judgement? If my partner came back to the hotel room, and said he lost $1,000 because he also had to scout the craps, and roulette tables I wouldn't give it a second thought. Why? Because I trust his judgement. I know that he would not be on those games just because he likes to gamble. (Although I would ask what he had seen that would make him want to scout a craps or roulette game?)

Third, write this down and remember it: Every person is peculiar about money in their own way. We all have things we don't mind spending money on, and other things we don't like to spend money on. And mine are different than yours. Mine are different than anyone else, and yours are different than your partner's, or your wife's. So don't try to micromanage everything your partner does. Why were you betting $10 instead of $5? What difference does it make? If he is playing at -3% it costs him an extra 15 cents a hand to bet $10 instead of $5.

Partnerships are like marriages. Your partner may do things that drive you crazy, but like marriage, when it is good it is really, really good. So if you trust him, and you trust his judgement, then don't sweat the small stuff.

Gambling With an Edge - guest Moo the Cash Cow (and accountant)

Our guest this week is  Moo the Cash Cow. He is on to talk about what gamblers should be aware of tax-wise before the end of the year. In addition to being an accountant he is also a blackjack player so we are hiding his identity.

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Gambling With an Edge - guests Tommy Hyland & John C.

Our guests this week are Tommy Hyland, and John Chang, on to talk about blackjack teams. Tommy runs the Hyland team, one of the longest running and most successful teams of all time. You can read about him in Gambling Wizards. (Shameless plug) John ran the MIT team and you can read more about him here. Interview.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest David Schwartz

Our guest this week is  Professor David Schwartz. He is on to talk about his book Grandissimo.

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Grandissimo

James Grosjean's new blog

For those who haven't heard James Grosjean has a new blog.  I wanted to get the link out there since any serious player should put this in their RSS feed. Here it is, enjoy.

http://beyondnumbers.lvablog.com/

Gambling With an Edge - guest Joe Pane

Our guest this week is  blackjack and poker player, Joe Pane.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Mike Shackleford

Our guest this week is Mike Shackleford on to talk about football parlay cards.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Royal Cat

Our guest this week is long time professional video poker player who goes by the name Royal Cat.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Scott Bell aka ElevenGrover

Our guest this week is Scott Bell aka ElevenGrover in the poker world. Scott has produced a new documentary called Ultimate Beat about the cheating scandal at Ultimate Bet poker.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Rich Muny of the PPA

The guest this week is Rich Muny of The Poker Players Alliance. The PPA lobbies for legal regulated poker in the US.

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No Work and All Play - Book Review

No Work and All Play: Audacious Chronicles of a Casino Boss

When I was a teenager I was obsessed with gambling. I was reading any book I could find, mostly about backgammon and poker, but also general gambling books. There was a pit boss from Las Vegas named Mike Goodman who wrote a book in the 60s called How to Win, and another in the 70s called Your Best Bet. You can pick these up for a penny now if you like - Mike Goodman books. These books were filled with a lot of nonsense about how to gamble, and about gamblers who were "sharp" or "tough" because they knew to bet more when they got on a streak. But what I liked about the books were the stories form the pits in Las Vegas. Superstitious bosses, or players. People who did crazy things in the casinos. High rollers and dames. It just made Vegas sound like the coolest place in the world. Then in the 80s another pit boss, this one named Barney Vinson wrote a couple books called Las Vegas Behind the Tables 1 & 2. Again, the advice on how to play was mostly voodoo and nonsense, but he had some great stories about the characters you find in Las Vegas on both sides of the tables. Now you know what I was expecting when I picked up this book. Unfortunately the book should be titled Chronicles of a Hotel Boss and Corporate Suit.

Roger Wagner went to UNLV, and graduated in 1969. He started working at the Dunes as at the front desk of the hotel. He bounced back and forth between the Sands and the Dunes during the 70s, working his way up the corporate ladder, but always working on the hotel side of these organizations. I found this mildly interesting only because I have a soft spot in my heart for the Sands. I spent my honeymoon there, and spent a lot of time there counting cards when I first started playing blackjack. Anyway, we get a step by step of Roger working in Reno, and Laughlin, and then Atlantic City, (He worked for Trump which provided a few interesting stories) and ultimately COO of the Horseshoe casinos under Jack Binion.

Anyone who has ever had a job has had a supervisor, or boss who was a complete moron, and/or grossly incompetent. Not Roger. Everyone he worked for is a "role model" or a "mentor". The harshest thing he has to say is he doesn't care for Harrahs. His favorite quote, which he mentions several times in the book is, "The boss aint always right, but the boss is always the boss." You can see why he ended up at the top of the corporate ladder.

I will recommend the final section of this book to anyone who works in casino management. The difference in the way Jack Binion ran his casinos is something most casinos could learn from. When Caesar's was in negotiations to buy Horseshoe they asked how many Harvard MBAs Jack had in the organization. (Caesar's is apparently very high on Harvard MBAs.) Jack said there might be one or two, but he had 60 CPAs at Horseshoe Hammond alone. They asked why he would have so many accountants. He said, not accountants, Car Parking Attendants. You know, people who actually have value to the customers.

I have to relate one story from the book about Jack's father, Benny Binion. There are hundreds of stories about the late Benny Binion, but this is the only one in the book. Benny was running a craps game in a hotel room in Dallas. Benny had a lookout in the hallway, and the guy tells Benny that the game is pretty noisy, and people coming down the hallway might hear it and know what was going on. Benny sends the guy across the street to buy a radio so he can play music in the hall, and cover the sound of the game. The guy does, comes back, but the radio doesn't work. He takes it back across the street, and the guy has a sign, "No Returns." They argue, but the guy refuses to take the radio back. The guy goes back across the street, and tells Benny the store won't take the radio back. Benny grabs the radio, and heads back across the street. The store owner points at the sign, and tells him, "I told your flunky i have a policy, no returns." Benny winds up and throws the radio into the shelf of radios behind the counter. He then whips out his pistol and puts a bullet into 6 more radios, and yells at the owner, "And I also have a policy. Don't ever let anyone screw me. That's my policy. Period." He then grabbed a working radio, and stormed out.

Roger tells this story as, "The funniest story about Benny Binion." All I could think when I read it was, "Why was this sociopath allowed to roam the streets?" Sorry Roger, I guess we just have very different senses of humor.

No Work and All Play: Audacious Chronicles of a Casino Boss  I give it...

1 1/2  ACES

Gambling With an Edge - guest Bob Nersesian #8

The guest this week is Bob Nersesian.  Bob is a frequent guest to the show, and always entertaining.  Bob is the lawyer who advocates for the players against the casinos, and has successfully sued many Vegas casinos on the behalf of players.  He is also the author of Beat the Players.

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Gambling With an Edge - No guest this week

We have no guest this week, so Bob and I discuss various promotions and other gambling stories from our pasts.

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Advantage Play of the Day

Here is a free shot. The government just released a new $100 bill. See the article here. New $100.

I visited 3 banks today. Two had not received the bills yet, and one had 17 which I bought. The idea is if you are lucky enough to find bills with very low numbers, like 000000001, well that bill is going to be worth more than $100. Any unusual number could score. 314159... or 123456789. all it takes is a few minutes of your time.

Back in 2007 the government started releasing $1 coins with the faces of presidents. The first coin was of course George Washington. What makes these coins unique is they have printing around the edge of the coin.

Some of the first batch were printed in error, and this printing on the edge was missing. I bought all the rolls I could find at my local bank, and was lucky enough to score 24 of these. This netted me over $2,000 for about 15 minutes of my time. so give it a shot. Stop by your local bank, and try to hit your lucky number. It's like the lotto, except the ticket costs you nothing. Good luck, and good hunting.

Gambling With an Edge - guest Ed Miller

This week's guest is Ed Miller, author of Playing the Player, as well as 4 or 5 other books on poker. We talk about the new online poker, and the upcoming World Series November 9. We also discuss Poker Plays You Can Use by Doug Hull which Ed edited.

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Enemy Number One: The Secrets of the UK's Most Feared Professional Punter

Enemy Number One, by Peter Veitch is a chronicle of the life of a professional horse bettor in the UK. The first section is devoted to an eight year stretch, beginning in 1999, where he won ten million GBP. Ten million is nothing to sneeze at, but since the top horse bettors make many times that every year I hardly would call him "Enemy One." This first section is page after page of, I bet this horse, at that track, and won X amount, or lost Y amount. It very much reminded me of Stuart Perry's Las Vegas Blackjack Diary, which will teach you two important things. Record keeping is not the same as writing, and trying to make a living counting cards in Las Vegas is truly awful, tedious, and boring.

The book then takes an odd turn. Veitch gets extorted by a mobster who threatens to kill him. It appears he is just a rich guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. The police take this threat very seriously, and Veitch spends quite some time hiding out, and under police protection before this guy eventually goes to prison for killing a policeman. This does pick up the pace of the book some, but it has absolutely nothing to do with gambling.

Veitch eventually branches out into horse owner, as well as bettor. He flies around England in his private helicopter, which must be pretty cool, but it is still a lot of - I bet this horse - or this is how my horse won this race. We do hear about the frustrations of being a professional gambler. Much like sports bettors he gets barred from some books, uses beards to bet for him, throws the bookmakers off track by betting the opposite of what he wants, and then sending the real money in after they adjust the odds the wrong way. UK apparently does not use a parimutuel system for their racing which seems odd and old fashioned. There is one good chapter near the end of the book where he describes how a winning bettor thinks, and how he goes about finding an edge. Is this book worth reading for that one little nugget? I'll leave that to you. On my 4 Ace scale I give it.

Gambling With an Edge - guest Mike Shackleford G2E edition

The guest this week is Mike Shackleford . This week is the largest gaming conference of the year, G2E. Mike and Bob attended, and will discuss the new games they saw.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Mark Dace

The guest this week is Mark Dace. Mark travels the world playing blackjack, betting sports, and doing whatever other advantage plays he can find.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest I. Nelson Rose

The guest this week is professor I. Nelson Rose, author of, Gaming Law in a Nutshell.

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Ship It Holla Ballas - book review

Ship It Holla Ballas!: How a Bunch of 19-Year-Old College Dropouts Used the Internet to Become Poker's Loudest, Craziest, and Richest Crew

We've all seen the movies about what happens when guys go off to college.  Think Animal House, American Pie 2, or Van Wilder. There is usually a central party house, and guys who suddenly have no restrictions tend to go a bit overboard with sex, drugs, and crazy amounts of alcohol. Now imagine what would happen if every one of those guys was making five or ten thousand dollars PER WEEK playing online poker. If you are imagining complete partying insanity you would be exactly right.

The book follows a group of teenagers, starting in about 2004.  Online poker is exploding, and this group of high schoolers starts putting in a lot of hours playing. And they find they have an aptitude for the game. This is not just luck, they start reading books, and when not playing they find each other in the twoplustwo poker forums. They start improving, and raising their stakes, and start making serious money. Now it is time to go off to college, but seriously, if you had a choice between a boring poli sci lecture, or playing some online poker and making $500 an hour which would you do? These guys, with names like Good2cu, Raptor, and Apathy start becoming online friends. One is in Texas, another in Michigan, but they immediately bond. They are failing college but making gobs of money. Someone gets the idea to rent a mansion in Vegas, and all go out there for the summer, and the World Series of Poker. It turns into a frat house, with a giant table in the dining room filled with computers and laptops. Cases of Dom, and Cristal, many nights at the strip clubs that result in 5-figure tabs. Someone gets the bright idea to buy a bunch of fireworks, and a bottle rocket fight breaks out INSIDE THE HOUSE. Yes, this is Animal House on steroids.

If you're going to form a posse you have to have a name right? One of my first blackjack teams called itself the A Team. (Okay, so we weren't very creative.) Jman suggests they come up with a "gay" name so it will be funny every time an ESPN announcers has to talk about them. He suggests the Pushbotting Panthers, but it is Good2cu who comes up with the Ship It Holla Ballas. If nothing else these guys are media savvy. They know there is money in being a name player, and they already know they are going to rule the poker world. I mean who else would ESPN want to talk about? (Ah to be 19 again.) But when the WSOP rolls around there is just one problem. NONE OF THEM IS OLD ENOUGH TO PLAY! Sure they can sneak in and play some cash games, but the events require ID and a social security number, and none of these guys is 21 yet.

One day Good2cu wakes up about noon, and it is about 100 degrees in his bedroom. He heads downstairs, and everyone awake has already gone to the Rio. He tries to fire up his laptop, and it won't come on. The XBox is out, and the refrigerator light is off. He walks over to the neighbor's house to ask if their power is out, but their power is working fine. A few house guests are waking up, and convince him to call the power company, which he does. When the guy comes it turns out to be just be a circuit breaker. He turns the power back on, and explains that if it happens again just unplug a few things, and flip the breaker. They fire up their laptops, and the bong, and sit down to play poker. About an hour later the power blows again. Good2cu wonders - where is this circuit breaker thing the guy talked about? Someone suggests it's in the basement. This is Vegas, there is no basement. Screw it, let's go to the Rio where there is air conditioning. A few hours later Good2cu gets a call from Jman, telling him to come home. Good2cu says he already knows the power is off. No man, we've been robbed. when the cop arrives he sees the house full of beer cans, spent bottle rockets, and garbage.

"Whoever did it really trashed the place," he says. "Terrible," Good2cu replies, "Just terrible."
"So what exactly got stolen?"
Everybody starts talking at once. Fourteen laptops. A couple desktop computers, and flat screen monitors. A few digital cameras and iPods. Bonaphone's video camera - considered priceless because it contained footage of Good2cu chucking the pool ball through the neighbors window. Around $10,000 in cash and casino chips.
The cop puts down his pen. These kids are clearly shitting him. "You know insurance fraud is a serious crime."
"It can't be insurance fraud," Raptor assures him, "when you don't have insurance."

The kids learn some life lessons.
If you plug in 27 computers, laptops, XBoxes, and Playstations you might blow a circuit.
Strippers don't make the best girlfriends.
Not everyone you allow to owe you $50,000 is going to pay it back.

As I read this book I would alternate from laughing out loud, to cringing, thinking, "This is not going to end well." But you know what? They grew up, and most of them have not crashed and burned. Some realized that sitting in front of a computer screen for 16 hours a day was an empty life, and did things to change that. Some went back to school, but some are today's top pros. Andrew Robl (Good2cu) has over $3 million in winnings, as does David Benefield (Raptor) and Tom Dwan (Durrr) is considered one of the best players in the world. Check it out, I think you'll enjoy it.

Ship It Holla Ballas!: How a Bunch of 19-Year-Old College Dropouts Used the Internet to Become Poker's Loudest, Craziest, and Richest Crew

Gambling With an Edge - guest Bill Robertie

Our guest this week was Bill Robertie. Bill has written many of the best backgammon and poker books on the market. You can see his author page here. Bill Robertie His website is The Gammon Press.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Arnold Snyder

This week's guest is Arnold Snyder talking about blackjack, and answering listener questions.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Steve Cyr 2

Our guest this week was Steve Cyr, Super host. He is the subject of the book, Whale Hunt in the Desert which contains many of his crazier exploits. 

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Gambling With an Edge - guest "Old-Timer"

"Old-Timer" is a current video poker player whose been playing for more than 25 years. O-T and Bob will share some stories of video poker from the good old days.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Frank B. on dice control

The guest this week is Frank B. on to talk about his experience with dice control..

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Gambling With an edge - guest Ray Kondler CPA

The guest this week is Ray Kondler. Ray is a CPA in Las Vegas and handles the taxes for many professional gamblers. If you have gambling income you should listen to this show.

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Gambling With an edge - guest Kent Goulding

The guest this week is Kent Goulding. Kent has been one of the top backgammon players in the world for over 30 years. He also plays poker, and advantage slots.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Gavin Smith

The guest this week is poker pro Gavin Smith. Gavin has one World Series bracelet from 2010, and won the World Poker Tour player of the year in 2005.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Bob Nersesian #7

The guest this week is Bob Nersesian.  Bob is a frequent guest to the show, and always entertaining.  Bob is the lawyer who advocates for the players against the casinos, and has successfully sued many Vegas casinos on the behalf of players.  He is also the author of Beat the Players.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest BJ Traveller

The guest on the show this week is BJ Traveller.  BJT is Chinese and has played blackjack in 76 casinos around the world, and written 10 books about his exploits.  You can read my print interview with him here under the interviews link.

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Gambling With an edge - guest Kevin Lewis

The guest this week is Kevin Lewis, on to talk about video poker in the Reno/Tahoe area. We also discuss the upcoming loss rebate promotion at Revel in Atlantic City.

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Don't Revel in your loss rebate

The internet is all aflutter with the announcement by Revel Hotel-Casino in Atlantic City, that for the month of July they are offering a 100% loss rebate up to $100,000. That's right, 100% on 100k. The offer applies to action on slots, video poker, and electronic table games. There are threads on Wizard of Odds, VPfree, and several blackjack sites. I am sure that casino consultants will weigh in very shortly.

Before you get too excited you should know that to collect this rebate you receive 5% of your loss back each week for 20 weeks. You may be able to do this in 10 trips if say the new week begins on Monday you can schedule your trips so that on Sunday you collect for week 1, and then after midnight collect for week 2. But this would still mean making 10 trips to AC.

But there is a bigger problem. Casinos often have promotions that give away money. They often cost themselves more than they realize, and many players take advantage of these promotions. Usually when they stick their foot in it they lose 6 figures, maybe into 7 on a really bad one. This promo has the potential to cost them tens of millions of dollars. There is a long history of casinos changing the rules in the middle of a promo, or even after the fact. Every player faces the danger of the casino suddenly saying, "We changed our mind, Video Poker doesn't count," or "Sorry, we didn't mean those slot machines that you played, it was only for these that you didn't." On the flyer I read it said, "See the Revel card desk for details." I haven't been able to find any additional details online. So if you live fairly close to AC and want to give it a shot, by all means. Just don't expect this to be a walk in the park.