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.

podcast

Click to listen - Alt click to download

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..

podcast

Click to listen - Alt click to download

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.

podcast

Click to listen - Alt click to download

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.

podcast

Click to listen - Alt click to download

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.

podcast

Click to listen - Alt click to download

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.