Review: "Gambling 102"

[PE101]

I’m a huge fan of the Wizard of Odds website. I think Michael Shackleford has done a terrific job of researching and explaining most of the game you’ll run into in a casino. In almost every case, he carefully explains the math involved to derive the “house edge” he lists for the various games. When his new book “Gambling 102” was released, I was anxious to add it to my collection because I figured that it would add to my math knowledge of gambling in general.

What a disappointment! I don’t think there is anything in the book that you couldn’t find at his web site. There is no discussion of the underlying math! It is simply a list of the various games with house advantage listed for the various bets available. He includes suggestions of which games to play, and which to avoid.

This book is only appropriate for a neophyte gambler that may be interested in knowing which are sucker bets, and which are better bets, but doesn’t care to understand the analysis behind the numbers.

Fortunately, I had ordered the book from my local bookstore, not online. I promptly took the book back for a full refund. I’ve never done that before – I wonder if you can do this if you buy a book online.

Too bad!

[poker327]

On his Web site he explained at one point that the book is basically his Web site in book form.