Customer Reviews

Gamble to Win: A Complete Guide for the Serious Player

5 star:		(4)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is a must read for anyone who is interested in playing seriously. True, the author does not give you a specific system to use. He gives you much more! He gives you all the tools you'll need to survive the mighty opponent we call the casino. He teaches you how not to lose first, which by my experience and other pro-gamblers I have spoken to, is MORE important that how to win. If you can control yourself, your urges and recognize the casinos weapons against you, you are on your way to winning. Now, that being said....he does give plenty of information,advice and a few strategies on how to win. In one section of the book, he teaches you how to build a large bankroll from $100 sessions in stages and outlines exactly how to do that. I am a much better gambler because of it.

As with most books on gambling, the rules and procedures for the major casino games in the United States are explained. The author through the use of illustrations, provides sufficient detail and clarity for even a beginner to approach any gaming table with an understanding of what he is doing and his best chances of winning.

What sets this book apart is the practical advice that it contains. It pulls no punches and emphasizes that the odds are always with the house. Still, if one follows the practical advice, based on personal experience of the author, he will "know when to hold them and know when to fold them".

Logical MIT types will hate this book. They will accurately point out that in the long run no one can beat a negative expectation game. And yes..that is correct. Ellison doesn't deny this either.

What he does point out in easy.... yet brilliant fashion is that in the "short term" strange things happen all the time in casinos. (Actually not so strange at all as you'll learn)

Think RED can't come up 14 times in row? LOL....wrong. If the ball goes black three times in a row....you either bet black or you don't bet at all.......because if you are wrong you lose one bet. If you are right....you might jump in on of those so-called "trends that defy logic." lol.

Ellison lays out a very straight forward approach that will cut your loses and let your winners run wild.

I rank this and Lyle Sturat's The Winners' Guide to Casino Gambling as the two books that literally taught me that gambling is about winning..not PLAYING. Hit and run...and live to fight another day. You "players" who fill the slot pits and attempt to earn your free meal that's tougher then a 2 dollar Las Vegas Steak will hate this book. Because you don't really want to WIN....you want to PLAY.

Big Difference. Kudos. I've read them all. Great book for those who get it..and those who don't.......hate away. peace, Vegas Vince

I was very sadly disappointed by this book. I had bought, (and truly
enjoyed) Mr. Ellison's GAMBLE TO WIN: ROULETTE book......and expected
this volume to be a compendium-reprint of it, and Mr. Ellison's other
gaming books, in slightly smaller print. A compendium book would obviously save me money, and since I had enjoyed Mr. Ellison's GAMBLE TO WIN ROULETTE book so much, I decided to buy this one, and see what he had to see about other games, too.... I looked forward to being entertained and instructed on how to play these other games, as well as reviewing Mr. Ellison's views on roulette.....

This turned out not to be what happened. This book is not a compendium, but a re-write, (in the roulette section), and a set of confusing explainations (in other games' sections). In the roulette section, gone
was the humourous aside of what to do if an alien invades your casino, or
at-home game. Gone, too, were the clear explainations of how to play the game and how to win. In place were complicated meanderings that were so complex and incomprehensible, that I wondered if this had really been written by the same person whose other book I had enjoyed so much! I didn't dare waste my time of what I feared would be similarly confusing if not incomprehensible explainations of other games........

The only good thing I can say about this book is that, being a hard-cover volume, it gives a PICTURE of Mr. Ellison, as the soft-cover GAMBLE TO WIN; ROULETTE book, did not. From the wisdom imparted in the Roulette book, I had expected Mr. Ellison to be at least 45, and perhaps balding and paunchy. How delighted I was to discover that, from the picture on the jacket, he appears to be far younger, and quite handsome, as well!
I look forward to his writing many more books, (baccarat, blackjack and slots await!), and I earnestly hope that they are given the humourous, erudite, and hightly intelligent treatment given in his Roulette book....and not the over-complicated meanderings, disappointingly found here.

After correctly stating that random events are independent of each other, the author spends the rest of the book directly contradicting this, claiming that there are "trends," that some tables are "hot" or "cold," etc. This is claiming that past random events really do affect future ones -- the book is a rehash of the old "gambler's fallacy." In reality, the odds on a spin of the wheel or a roll of the dice never, ever, ever, ever, change. There's no such thing as a "hot" table or a "trend."

All you really need to know is the formula for EV (expected value). It is:

((probability x payout)-bet)/bet

If the number is negative, it's a bad bet.

If you want to gamble, read some poker books, get some good poker software and practice, practice, practice. IF you're good, you can beat the rake (and the other players). All other casino games are losing propositions, period.

This book is a pleasure to read. Ellison describes the psychology and mechanics of gambling better than any other author I have read. He is a superior writer. It's been painful for me to read Patrick, Scoblete, Grafstein etc.-really very painful. I enjoy Ellison because he is a refined intelligence reporting clearly and elegantly from what is after all, a sewer of sorts. Gambling is not a good thing. Gambling is related inevitably to moral and emotional degeneracy. Naturally, I enjoy it as often as I can. Ellison writes as a literate gentleman for the great unwashed hordes-wonderful dissection of the underbelly of the beast that is gambling. Mr. Ellison, hang on to that pen.

If you want to play games of complete chance, there are any number of books available through Amazon or elsewhere that can explain how these games work and how one plays them. Ellison does some of this, but then spends much of his book talking about how to "spot patterns" and how such nonsense can be used to "beat the house" at games like roulette and craps.

Nonsense.

Spend your money wisely, and buy a book that shoots straight. Ellison's "wise guy" tips will only make one person wealthier-- Ellison.