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I have two distinct lives. One in the trenches of low-budget film and television, the other in professional gambling. Because of the feast-or-famine nature of show business I need a reliable income... gambling. So here you will read about both worlds. Enjoy!



Thursday, November 24, 2011

A Thanksgiving treat.

I have made some crazy movies in my time, and most of them involved kickboxing.  But I never could have come up with this.  Here is my pitch - we put a kick boxing ring in a bull fighting arena in Spain.  (The producers will love this because it will help sales to foreign markets.)  And then we get a pair of rivals, one Dutch, and one French, you know, to help sales in those countries.  And to broaden our appeal we get 2 guys that are famous in some other "sport" that will bring in a bigger audience.  How about... PROFESSIONAL POKER PLAYERS!  Too late, it's already been done. The story I hear is that Bertrand ElkY Grospellier has taken up kick boxing recently, maybe after repeated viewings of Ring of Fire.  So he gets drunk one night and  says he thinks he can take Lex RasZi Veldhuis who has been known to have a street fight or two.  A match is made, money is bet.



Judging from this video they had a similar budget to what I used to work with, but I definitely could have given them some help with the camera angles.  And where are the girls?  Everyone knows kick boxing needs sexy girls.  Now for those of you with attention deficit disorder you can fast forward about 9 minutes in.  This really does look a lot like my son and his friends in the back yard.  Now all we need is a title. Maybe
I See Your Foot and Raise My Head
Bet The Flop

I welcome your alternate titles.  Now for any of you interested in one of my kick boxing extravaganzas you might check out Deadly Bet.  Extra credit for spotting the Hall-of-Fame blackjack player in a cameo appearance.







Tuesday, November 22, 2011

My interview with BJ Traveller

I interviewed BJ Traveller back in 2003.  He is still galavanting around the world playing blackjack.


The Traveller

            When I read the blackjack message boards I often see people bemoaning the state of blackjack.  The casinos have gotten smarter, they have software to evaluate your play, and after only 25 years they have snapped to the “Big Player” approach.  The players who write these things have one thing in common—they’re Americans.  It’s a big world out there, and there are about 100 other countries that have casinos.  BJ Traveller would like to visit them all.  You won’t find a copy of The Big Player in the casino gift shop in Romania, or Blackjack Survey Voice in Cambodia.  Blackjack is alive and well, and living outside the United States.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Gambling With an Edge - guest Max Rubin

Our guest this week is Max Rubin, author of  Comp City, and one of the inventors of Bad Beat Blackjack. We talk to Max about the comp system at the MGM/Mirage properties, about a recent armed robbery at Barona Casino in San Diego, and what it entails to invent a new casino game.

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Friday, November 11, 2011

Gambling With an Edge - guest I. Nelson Rose

Our guest this week is Professor I. Nelson Rose, author of Gambling and the Law.  First Bob and I discuss the difference between professional and recreational gambling, and comp hustling.  With Professor Rose we discuss Full Tilt Poker, and we discuss your rights in casinos on Indian reservations.

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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Nifty little baccarat scam

Here is a baccarat scam that was uncovered in the Philippines.  There is nothing new under the sun.  This is a move that Keith Taft called The Super Drop, and he was doing it back in the mid 1980s.  In his version of this scam players were allowed to cut the cards in blackjack by hand.  The cutter would riffle the edge of the deck before cutting, and a hidden camera would record the order of cards.  Mark Billings describes the move in detail in his book,The Ultimate Edge.  Be sure to watch the video to the end.
baccarat scam video




Friday, November 4, 2011

Gambling With an Edge - guests Michael Shackleford and Avery Cardoza

We have two guests on our show this week.  First up is Michael Shackleford aka "The Wizard of Odds."  Mike is on to talk about the lack of any real data supporting dice control.  We also talk briefly about an online casino software that he busted for cheating at craps.  Our second guest is Avery Cardoza.  Avery is the owner of Cardoza publishing which is the largest publisher of gambling material in the world.  He is also the owner of Gamblers Book Club, a Las Vegas institution.  We discuss his new novel Lost in Las Vegas as well as what other new gambling books will be coming out soon.

Click to listen Alt-click to download