Customer Reviews

Gambling Wizards: Conversations with the World's Greatest Gamblers

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Gambling Wizards is a must read whether you're aspiring to become a professional gambler or are just curious about what makes real pros tick. The book contains advice more valuable than any gambling "secret." You will learn from their successes, but more importantly, you learn from their mistakes without having to make them yourself. Read how some of them stumbled at first and went broke (perhaps multiple times), and then went on to make millions. Learn what's most important in being a great gambler -- there are a couple of things much more important than being the greatest player and playing perfectly. Best of all, you read it straight from the point of view of the players themselves, not distorted by an author's agenda.

Even seasoned gamblers, like myself, will benefit from reading the book, by reinforcing important ideas. I for one wish I could have read this book years ago -- I definitely would have made a lot more money.

Andy Bloch
(former blackjack player and professional poker player with 2 World Poker Tour finals)

This book has made me more money than any "How-to" book. The first time I read it, it was "only" entertainment. I thought "This was a really funny book, but I did not learn much". However, it was amazing how often I come to think of one passage or another while contemplating how to bet! I kept re-reading it, getting very useful hints on what to look for. It is now two years ago since I first read it and I got another one of these "flashbacks" while reading Ziemba's paper om horse betting markets. I though "Didn't they mentioned this in Gambling Wizards?" They sure did - along with one expert telling you why the PhDs model is flawed! All in all, I have been reading over 50 gambling books and this has given me the most help along the way - even though it is not even a "How to" book! My highest recommendation. Get ready to be both entertained and educated.

"Gambling Wizards" is a compilation of interviews with gamblers who are the best in their field. Covering sports betting, blackjack, backgammon, horses and poker, Munchkin assembles an impressive array of talent to fill the content of his book.

Do not expect the masters to reveal their inner gambling secrets. The professionals will not keep out information that will jeopardise the small edge that they possess.

Do expect to see some of the attributes that are necessary to become a successful professional gambler. The traits that are necessary are much the same as in any other profession. You need skill, hard work, persistence, a healthy appetite for risk and of course a little bit of luck.

Slightly alarming is the frequency with which the protagonists of the book go from being broke to being a millionaire and then back again. Although trivialised in the book, when a professional gambler goes broke it often represents damage that is irreversible. Nevertheless, each person in the book has character attributes worthy of emulation.

A good read for historians of the game and those who wonder what it is like to be a professional gambler.

Gambling Wizards: Conversations with the Worlds Greatest Gamblers, gives you exactly what you read in the title. A short intro to each person interviewed then a Q&A format from there on, some questions have some prior research on the part of the author so he knew which way to lead the conversation as well as a couple standard questions asked each person like "If your teenager came to you and wanted to be a professional gambler, what would you say?".

What I liked about this book the most is the personal information learned about these very famous gamblers. How they started on the road of gambling, personality, views on other gamblers and what it is like to be a professional gambler. I didn't expect them to be so candid and honest. The stereotype that most gamblers are liars hooked on drugs and alcohol didn't even come close to being upheld, most of them talk about having a great routine of exercise and are either completely against drinking and drugs or very infrequently touch it, especially while "working".

There are some really great stories about things that they've gone through, some shaken down by the government/police for money or flat out robbed by someone waiting in the parking lot. Being a millionaire one day, broke the next, and back again the day after. The gamblers don't give up secrets about particular games, which is something I didn't expect to see anyway since every time someone does then everyone knows and it doesn't work anymore.

The book is what you would expect if you were buying based on the title, candid conversations with professional gamblers. I enjoyed it.

Gambling Wizards is for two types of readers: gamblers who understand the environment; and those that get the jitters buying a $1 lottery ticket. If you want to travel past the glitz and into the minds of a select group of people who are skilled professionals buy this book. The true stories titillate, provide insider information, and offer advice on how to avoid ending up a sucker.

This book contains a series of 8 interviews with gamblers across a range of games (backgammon, horse racing, poker, other) of proportionate length and content. There is a standard range of in each discussion including youth, introduction to gaming, books, going broke, children and recommendations to others. Each interview is structured as an open ended question and answer session.

The author is not famliar with some of the answers as evidenced by reference to Harvel (for Harville) and may have lost other details in the transcription. An interesting aspect of the book is the definition of gaming slang (e.g. going broke). None of the questions are very pointed and the answers are equally dull. There is nothing about the questions or answers which is going to "open the bank" for any one. Instead, the book points to hard work and frequent losing streaks for the interviewees. Recent interest in poker may stimulate some interest. It was interesting to compare and contrast the answers and come away with my own picture regarding the key factors to success.

Do not expect this book to tell you anything about how the professional gamblers bet or what they perceive the right betting strategy is or how money management is about. This book is just some kind of fiction. By adopting a question-answer or interview approach, this book reveals how those professional gamblers started his/her first betting, how they became professional gamblers and what their interesting experiences were. This book is more of a leisure reading.

This is an easy, fun and exciting read that will be enjoyed by anyone who's ever placed their fate in the hands of the gambling gods.

After you read it, you'll soon realize that the real gods of gambling are the seven guys (that you've probably never heard of) featured in the book who learned early on that Lady Luck is a fickle broad who's best left at home.

This book seems a bit dated in that through the interviews they refer to how computers have changed the face of gambling in a manner that strikes me as though computers are only just gaining steam. The book seems to have been published in 2002 so I guess it is not that dated.

The stories will not give you any hints on being a professional gambler except for maybe two obvious ones:

1. To be successful do what it takes to ensure you have an advantage
2. Don't be afraid to lay it down

One reflection that appeared throughout the book was the partial respect some of the interviewees have for the up and coming "computer kids" Very smart savvy kids who have the computers and know all the technical knowledge through book learning and study. Their general downfall is the inability to put down the necessary wager, make the risks. I get from the book that this generation of gamblers, who have come up from the 50s through 70s, made their bones as it were in a tougher time and have tougher skins than the new breed, which is very true. They acknowledge this, but then like the true champions they are they also acknowledge the potential of the new generation. No slamming of them being one shot wonders. Doyle Brunson makes a great comment,

"There are poker players who know as much as I do - They might know more about probabilities and odds and everything - but there is an intangible that defines whether you're a winner or not."

In short, this was definitely a great read, a good insight in to successful gambler's histories and what risks they have had to take to get where they are at. A four star because, as good as it was, it was something I could put down for days on end, but otherwise maybe a 4.5 stars is more accurrate. Definitely worth purchasing if you like reading about successful gamblers.

Having read and loved Jack Schwager's Market Wizards books (interviews with traders) I bought this book as soon as I saw it existed. I was pretty disappointed - there was very little information in the book about how or why these people had bucked the trend and been able to make a living as a gambler, unlike the much better written and interviewed Market Wizards which actually did a very good job of profiling and giving meaningful insight into the traders that were interviewed. Instead it was a series of stories about the travel or other people's good or bad luck, and in more than one case the subject was using the author to help establish a different reputation for themselves.

The interviewer seemed to stick to a script and ask the same generic questions of each interviewee, he did not do a good job of delving in deeper on interesting stories, and would awkwardly bring the conversation back to the original question asked - often abruptly and at the expense of an interesting sideline. I have no idea of the author's gambling credentials, but he was frequently cutting off the answers and inserting his own comments which invariable halted the dialogue on the subject being talked about.

If you enjoy stories about gamblers there are far better reads. If you are looking into insight on personality or character traits of successful professional gamblers or even tips on how to be a successful gambler this book has almost none of that.

It is not horrible - it is just not a must read. For all but the most avid gambling reader I can confidently suggest taking a pass.