More Book Reviews
Best Selling Poker Books of 2014How did the new books compare to the old classics? Well, we will let the data speak for itself. Take a look at the list of the best selling poker books of 2014.Deal Me In and Eat Professional Poker Players Alive ReviewedThere isn't a clear path by which people become professional poker players. There aren't any good courses at the local vo-tech for a person to study. The road to becoming a poker pro is inevitably difficult, circuitous, and filled with setbacks. Deal Me In is a book describing the course by which twenty top poker players became professionals. Poker Winners Are DifferentThere is a big difference between what's typical human behavior and what is called for to play poker at a high level. There aren't a lot of people for whom maximizing their expectation in poker games comes naturally. Poker Winners Are Different by Alan Schoonmaker examines this conundrum. 
Fortune's Formula, The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street
by William Poundstone
In 1961, MIT mathematics professor Ed Thorp made a small Vegas fortune by 'counting cards'; his 1962 bestseller, Beat the Dealer, made the phrase a household word. With Claude Shannon, the father of information theory, Thorp next conquered the roulette tables. In this fascinating cultural history, Poundstone (How Would You Move Mt. Fuji?) tells not only what they did but how they did it.
Fortune's Formula -- Unique History of Gambling's Betting Systems
For generations of successful gamblers, speculators and edge-seekers, the subject of money management and its correct and disciplined application has been an understood secret. Sports bettors, table
Howard Schwartz, the "librarian for gamblers," is the marketing director for Gambler's Book Club in Las Vegas, a position he has held since 1979. Author of hundreds of articles on gambling, his weekly book reviews appear in numerous publications throughout the gaming industry. Howard's website is www.gamblersbook.com games fans, and stock market investors would "live to fight another day" -- if they mastered the formula or technique. Those folks who had no understanding usually fell by the wayside.
Howard Schwartz, the "librarian for gamblers," is the marketing director for Gambler's Book Club in Las Vegas, a position he has held since 1979. Author of hundreds of articles on gambling, his weekly book reviews appear in numerous publications throughout the gaming industry. Howard's website is www.gamblersbook.com games fans, and stock market investors would "live to fight another day" -- if they mastered the formula or technique. Those folks who had no understanding usually fell by the wayside.Now comes William Poundstone's Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street (386 pages, hardbound, $27). The illustrated and well-indexed book is comprised of six major sections.
Poundstone, author of nine nonfiction books and a Pulitzer Prize nominee, is never boring. He creates some of the most interesting scenarios, including how closely the early telephone companies were indirectly connected to bookmaking (the Annenberg family's wire service business is explained) and how legal pressure would eventually put the Mob's wire service out of business.
In 1956, a young scientist named Claude Shannon would devise "the most successful gambling system of all time." How Shannon got interested in gambling, his meeting with Ed Thorp, who would later write the classic blackjack book Beat the Dealer in the 1960s, is documented in detail. Both men were geniuses in their own way. Both were fascinated with the chances of beating casino games, especially blackjack and roulette. They were among the first to try to "clock the wheel" for profit.
For those knowledgeable players who understand or want to know more about "gambler's ruin," randomness, disorder and uncertainty, this book makes fascinating reading. And for those who want to know more about John Kelly, who worked for Bell Labs and the discovery of the Kelly Criterion, the birth of "information theory" and code-breaking, Poundstone lays it all out for you. (In part, the secret was to wager only a fraction of your bankroll on a favorable bet.)
One section of the book examines the relationship of mobster Manny Kimmel with a young, somewhat naive Ed Thorp and how Kimmel bankrolled the young mathematical genius in the 1950s.
Poundstone says Thorp and his book were responsible for "creating a subculture hero." Want to get rich without working? Like disguises, glamour and neon lights? Thousands have answered that call. Yet the card counter is an often lonely figure whose appeal rests on the masquerade as much as the all-too-hard-earned money."
Poundstone's book keeps rolling with a section on arbitrage, its impact on Wall Street, the parallels between the stock market and race track betting. He brings in Michael Millkin, Ivan Boesky, Rudy Giuliani, hedge funds, the Computer Group of sports bettors and Dr. William Ziemba by book's end. How each relates to "finding the edge" and eventually a profit is there.
For generations of successful gamblers, speculators and edge-seekers, the subject of money management and its correct and disciplined application has been an understood secret. Sports bettors, tableHoward Schwartz, the "librarian for gamblers," is the marketing director for Gambler's Book Club in Las Vegas, a position he has held since 1979. Author of hundreds of articles on gambling, his weekly book reviews appear in numerous publications throughout the gaming industry. Howard's website is www.gamblersbook.com games fans, and stock market investors would "live to fight another day" -- if they mastered the formula or technique. Those folks who had no understanding usually fell by the wayside.
Howard Schwartz, the "librarian for gamblers," is the marketing director for Gambler's Book Club in Las Vegas, a position he has held since 1979. Author of hundreds of articles on gambling, his weekly book reviews appear in numerous publications throughout the gaming industry. Howard's website is www.gamblersbook.com games fans, and stock market investors would "live to fight another day" -- if they mastered the formula or technique. Those folks who had no understanding usually fell by the wayside.This is a marvelous book which includes an 11-page list of references--with one significant flaw. I would not hesitate to tell Poundstone in person if I ever meet him that he's neglected a very important person--the late great Huey Mahl, whose work in the 1970s and 80s in particular first explained the concept of "middling" in sports betting and who explained money management and the Kelly Criterion more clearly for the average guy on the street.