Thursday, April 24, 2014
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Gambling With an Edge - guest Dusty from the Church Team - Holy Rollers
Our guest this week is Dusty. Dusty was part of the Church Team, a group of card counting Christians featured in the movie Holy Rollers. You can read my review of that movie here - Holy Rollers.
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Thursday, April 10, 2014
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 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
The Player Secrets of a Vegas Whale
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.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
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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Thursday, March 27, 2014
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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Thursday, March 20, 2014
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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Sunday, March 16, 2014
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
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
Click to listen - Alt-click to download
Thursday, March 13, 2014
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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Thursday, March 6, 2014
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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Thursday, February 27, 2014
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..
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.
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