How to Make $100,000 a Year Gambling for a Living (Paperback)

~ (Author), (Author) "In 1962, an incredible event occurred in the world of gambling..." (more)
Key Phrases: house quinellas, exacta prices, exacta pool, Las Vegas, David Sklansky, Mason Malmuth (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Is there really such a thing as a professional gambler? The answer is an unequivocal yes! The authors of this book are but two examples. The truth is that there are many thousands of people around the country who make a good living exclusively from gambling. It is not easy but it can be done. The key ideas are to understand which games are beatable and how to beat them.

David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth have both spent many years writing about the finer points of poker, blackjack, and other beatable games. (As you will see in the book those other "games" are horses, sports, progressive slots and video poker, casino tournaments, and special promotions. They don’t include craps, roulette, keno, or baccarat for reasons explained herein.)

This book, however, was written for the not-quite-as-experienced aspiring gambler. It shows you everything you need to learn and do if you want to gamble for a living both from the practical and the technical standpoint. The rest is up to you.

About the Author

About David Sklansky

David Sklansky is generally considered the number one authority on gambling in the world today. Besides his ten books on the subject, David also has produced two videos and numerous writings for various gaming publications. His occasional poker seminars always receive an enthusiastic reception, including those given at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City and the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

More recently, David has been doing consulting work for casinos, Internet gaming sites, and gaming device companies. He has recently invented several games, soon to appear in casinos.

David attributes his standing in the gambling community to three things:

1. The fact that he presents his ideas as simply as possible (sometimes with Mason Malmuth) even though these ideas frequently involve concepts that are deep, subtle, and not to be found elsewhere.

2. The fact that the things he says and writes can be counted on to be accurate.

3. The fact that to this day a large portion of his income is still derived from gambling (usually poker, but occasionally blackjack, sports betting, horses, video games, casino promotions, or casino tournaments).

Thus, those who depend on David’s advice know that he still depends on it himself.

About Mason Malmuth

Mason Malmuth was born and raised in Coral Gables, Florida. In 1973 he received his BS in Mathematics from Virginia Tech, and completed their Masters’ program in 1975. While working for the United States Census Bureau in 1978, Mason stopped overnight in Las Vegas while driving to his new assignment in California. He was immediately fascinated by the games, and gambling became his major interest.

After arriving in California he discovered that poker was legal and began playing in some of the public cardrooms as well as taking periodic trips to Las Vegas where he would play both poker and blackjack. In 1981 he went to work for the Northrop Corporation as a mathematician and moved to Los Angeles where he could conviently pursue his interest in poker in the large public cardrooms in Gardena, Bell Gardens, and Commerce.

In 1983 his first article "Card Domination — The Ultimate Blackjack Weapon" was published in Gambling Times magazine. In 1987 he left his job with the Northrop Corporation to begin a career as both a full-time gambler and a gambling writer. He has had over 500 articles published in various magazines and is the author or co-author of 12 books. These include Gambling Theory and Other Topics, where he tries to demonstrate why only a small number of people are highly successful at gambling. In this book he introduces the reader to the concept of "non-self weighting strategies" and explains why successful gambling is actually a balance of luck and skill. Other books he has co-authored are Hold ’em Poker For Advanced Players, written with David Sklansky, and Seven-Card Stud For Advanced Players written with David Sklansky and Ray Zee. All the "advanced" books are considered the definitive works on these games.

His company Two Plus Two Publishing has sold over 400,000 books and currently has 22 titles to its credit. These books are recognized as the best in their field and are thoroughly studied by those individuals who take gambling seriously.

Product Details

• Paperback: 305 pages
• Publisher: Two Plus Two Pub.; 1st edition (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1880685167
• ISBN-13: 978-1880685167
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #577,716 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A clear introduction, but dated and a little shallow, August 9, 2006

By	Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

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Sklansky and Malmuth do a good job of introducing the reader to the world of gambling for a living. They make it clear just which games can be beaten and which can't (see below) and which may be beaten depending on circumstances (e.g., progressive slots and video poker). The authors also give a brief sketch of casino games that cannot be beaten (at least by normal means) such as craps, roulette, keno, etc, and point out why they can't be beaten.

Clearly if you hope to make a living gambling you will become an expert on one (or more) of the four major games that can be beaten. They are horse race betting, sports betting, poker, and blackjack. The authors introduce the games with an emphasis on the circumstance and milieu in which you will find yourself. For example, if you are going to play blackjack for a living you have to get the basic strategy down pat, learn to count cards unnoticeably, and even learn to dress and behave appropriately so that it takes a long time for the pit bosses to realize that you are a winning player and throw you out.

If poker is your choice then you'll have to learn the game(s) through experience (with some help from the literature). You'll start at the small games and work your way up, all the while making sure you have a sufficient bankroll separate from your living expenses. Sklansky and Malmuth make a big deal about this, but I can tell you from personal experience more would-be professionals failed because they couldn't or wouldn't play within their bankroll than for any other reason. It's called "gambler's ruin." Many of the guys I knew who managed to stay in the game year after year had a working wife or rich parents or some other means to fall back on after they went bust. The authors recommend from 200 to 300 times the big bet in your game as a minimum stake against a bad run of cards. This will vary depending on your variance, your style, how many hands you play, and against whom. Of course if you play too many hands you become a loser no matter how skilled you are. Play against the best players in the world and you also find yourself "on the rail," which is why Sklansky and Malmuth also recommend that you spend some serious time selecting the games to play in, that is, find the easiest games available at your bankroll and skill level.

The section on sports betting is encouraging, as the authors show how the bookie's line can be beaten, but what the authors fail to say is that these opportunities (a line out of line, so to speak) come up much less often than bettors would like; in fact so seldom that unless you are betting tens of thousand of dollars on the games, it is very difficult to make a living betting on sports. Furthermore, behind the sly insights one might have into the psychology of a particular game situation--as opposed to an analysis of the comparative strengths of the teams ("power ratings")--is the assumption that (1) such factors are not already in the line; and (2) the sports bettor knows them better than the line makers.

The only reliable way to beat sports betting in my opinion is to have intimate knowledge of the teams and to shop the line, that is live and breathe the teams like a fan (only with objectivity) and pick the best price given by several books. A professional line shopper I knew had a team of people who would bet for him in various cities across the country. Clearly in L.A. most bettors want to bet on the Dodgers so LA bookies overprice the boys in blue. But just the opposite is the case in Atlanta where the bookies overprice the Braves. Solution, bet on the Dodgers in Atlanta and on the Braves in LA!

The main problem with this book, despite all the absolutely accurate assessment of the games, is, it's out of date. Written over ten years ago, it does not give the reader any information on Internet play and there is little that reflects the enormous increase in the tournament action both online and in the casinos. Furthermore, although Sklansky and Malmuth warn the reader gently that there's a lot of work to be done to get to the professional level, and again warn the reader that there are pitfalls along the way, they fail to convey--at least to my mind--just how hard it is be a successful gambler. Most people cannot do it. Furthermore, most people, if they could do it, would not because, frankly, it's a lot of work and can get boring. Playing poker or betting on sports can be a lot of fun if it's done just for fun and recreation, but if you have to grind it out, it can get tedious and you'll miss the sunshine and the greenery. One of the sad sights that I used to see in the clubs was a middle level professional running rough and absolutely hating to be there. You could almost hold your breath until he went completely on tilt.

And that's why the rounder's dictum is that gambling is "a hard way to make an easy living." I don't think Sklansky and Malmuth are completely candid about the obstacles, both technical and psychological that challenge the prospective professional. They set out the cautions in a clear manner (the book is eminently readable), but they do not actually convey just how difficult it is to achieve the stated goal of making $100,000 a year gambling, mainly because for them--level-headed mathematicians fascinated by probability--it was not nearly as difficult as it would be for many others. I might also point out that Sklansky has now made more money writing books than he ever made playing cards.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I'm Glad It Was In The Public Library..., September 11, 2004

By	DJ712 (Henderson, NV) - See all my reviews

Because I would never have paid for it.

Their section on Sports Betting was kind of a joke and I can sum it up for you in their own words:

"If you know what you're doing, the sky's the limit."

Wow, what great advice. You could probably apply that to anything in life.

Their advice on poker and blackjack are more thoroughly covered in their other books. Their craps and horse racing sections basically had the same advice as above, yet they didn't get into any specific detail (like their poker/blackjack books) as to how to make $100,000 a year.

I was hoping to see systems of play, bankroll management, guidelines for betting, how to recognize/maximize your advanatage in games, etc. etc. etc.; but it never happened.

I was lucky, I got to check it out of the library. Don't even bother doing that if it's in yours. Read something else.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not nearly as good as their other titles, May 23, 2004

By	"bigdave_la" (playa del rey, ca United States) - See all my reviews

I have purchased two other Mulmuth and Sklansky books this year, Advanced Hold Em, and Tournament Strategies for Hold Em, and they were both excellent books. This book...not so much.

It's just offers basic strategy advice for a number of games, most of which I don't care about, and for none of them does it offer anything close to the understanding you would get from a dedicated book (or even series of essays) about that particular vice.

I was really hoping to get information on HOW TO MAKE A LIVING, as opposed to how to gamble at different games. I know how to gamble. I needed to know more about managing bank rolls, travel, limits to play, when to give up, etc...