Thursday, February 27, 2014
Monday, February 24, 2014
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.
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.
Friday, February 21, 2014
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.
Click to listen - Alt click to download
Thursday, February 13, 2014
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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Thursday, February 6, 2014
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.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Blackjack Ball 2014
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.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Gambling With an Edge - guest Anthony Curtis
Our guest this week is Anthony Curtis, owner of The Las Vegas Advisor and Huntington Press publishing.
Click to listen. Alt click to download
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Gambling With an Edge - guest Geoff Freeman of the AGA.
Our guest tonight is Geoff Freeman, President and CEO of the American Gaming Association.
Click to listen - Alt click to download
Friday, January 10, 2014
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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Thursday, January 2, 2014
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.
Click to listen - Alt click to download
Thursday, December 26, 2013
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.
Click to listen - Alt click to download
Sunday, December 22, 2013
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.
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.
Thursday, December 19, 2013
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.
Click to listen - Alt click to download
Thursday, December 12, 2013
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.
Click to listen - Alt click to download
Show Notes
[1:00, ]: show introduction (questions for guests)
[2:03, ]: introduce guests
[2:15, ]: How do you recruit new members?
[4:05, ]: What percent of players that expressed interest actually followed through?
[5:13, ]: How do you evaluate member skill?
[6:21, ]: What was the testing process for new counters?
[9:35, ]: Accuracy of the movie 21- checkout process.
[10:58, ]: how do you split profits in a team (managers, investors, scouts, players, etc),
AND… how did that evolve over time?
[18:21, ]: what did management end up with?
[18:40, ]: how were comps treated w/r/t team compensation?
[24:30, ]: how did you deal with barrings?
[27:30, ]: [how] has the game, esp w/r/t barrings/backoffs, changed for teams since the advent of player lawyers such as BobN?
[30:58, ]: how do you detect and handle dishonest players when managing a team? did you use polygraphs ever?
[37:59, ]: do you require that everybody on the team have investment in the bankroll?
[40:41, ]: how do you deal with players that play sub-par games because they’re afraid of heat?
~42:00 VARIANCE ANALYSIS METHOD
[46:35, ]: do you two (Tommy, John) still play yourself?
[48:50, ]: do you allow players to play games on the side (such as poker) while on team trips?
[51:45, ]: in the event that a player is robbed, how would you handle that?
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Gambling With an Edge - guest David Schwartz
Monday, December 2, 2013
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.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Gambling With an Edge - guest Joe Pane
Our guest this week is blackjack and poker player, Joe Pane.
Click to listen - Alt click to download
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Gambling With an Edge - guest Mike Shackleford
Our guest this week is Mike Shackleford on to talk about football parlay cards.
Click to listen - Alt click to download
Thursday, November 7, 2013
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.
Click to listen - Alt click to download
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