This book is for you only if you gamble to make money.
If your idea of "fun" and "entertainment" includes giving away your hard-earned money to casinos, I can't help you.
If you enjoy sitting in a mindless, bright lights/dinging trance while you drop quarters down a slot, this book is not for you.
If you think casinos are built and run by stupid people, you better stay out of them.
If you think you can beat a blackjack dealer by wild-assed guessing, think again.
If you play poker just because it's now so popular . . . you don't need my book.
If you believe you can just happen to be "lucky" enough to beat the odds, you live in a fantasy world and you'd hate this book for destroying your illusions.
But if you're hard-headed, serious, willing to work, and tired of the mainstream gambling books that simply teach you how to lose less rather than win . . .
If you understand casinos don't stay in business by giving out more money than they take in . . .
This is an extensive examination of the most popular forms of gambling. If you can find any positive expectation bets, and how.
Some of the material is controversial. Some of it is unique.
It's not for beginners. If you don't already know how to play blackjack or craps, buy and read the basic books first. This one assumes you know and understand the rules of play.
If you have emotional or psychological issues around money -- my strong advice is, don't gamble.
If you want to believe casinos are playgrounds built for your amusement, this is not the book for you. I use statistical concepts and common sense to strip away the bright lights and glamor to reveal the mathematical realities of gambling.
For the most part, it's not pretty. Not if you want to make money instead of lose it.
But there are opportunities there for people willing to work hard and understand the obstacles so they can surmount them.
If you're still an emotional child needing the adrenaline rush and excitement of "winning" money, this is not for you.
Genre: GAMES / Gambling / GeneralFortunately, this is exactly what Thorp did.
He went on to work out a system by finding out how different cards affected of the game.
He learned the high cards: 9, 10 and Aces are good for the player and therefore bad for the dealer.
8 is a neutral card.
7 and under cards are bad for the player and therefore good for the dealer.
5s are the worst card for players, and Thorp's first counting system counted them. He soon figured out however although each individual 10 is not as favorable to the player as each individual 5 is unfavorable, there are four times as many 10s as 5s and so the player can obtain better knowledge of the deck by counting 10s.
Actually, the count is recording the ratio of high cards to low cards.
If relatively more low cards than high cards are played in a few rounds, the logical conclusion is the remaining cards in the deck contain relatively more high cards than low cards.
Since high cards are favorable to the player this is a good situation. It's time to increase your bet and stand on stiffs (since 10s will break your stiff hands).
That is the essence of card counting.
Ed Thorp obtained some financing and visited some casinos and tested out his system in the real world.
Dealers and other players alike could not believe someone who looked so smart (he was an early geek who did not look at all like the typical Vegas crowd of those days) played so obviously stupidly and yet somehow failed to go broke within a few minutes.
When he and friends started winning a lot of money they started getting thrown out of casinos even though the casinos didn't understand what they were doing.
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German
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Already translated.
Translated by John Wannecke
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Japanese
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Translation in progress.
Translated by Anderson D
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Portuguese
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Already translated.
Translated by Emanuel Guedes Santos
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Spanish
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Already translated.
Translated by Miguel Segura
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