You can have loads of fun with gambling, whether you play online casinos or visit the land-based casino establishments. In order to get inspired or to increase your chances of winning you can read certain books on gambling. Fortunately, there are plenty of books on gambling and casinos available today.
They can help you widen your knowledge about gambling. Some of them also have intriguing tales about famous gamblers. Here, we’ve listed some must-read books for gambling enthusiasts that would help them understand casinos and gambling. Want put theory into practice? Test real money online casino on red dog casino, it’s one of the best platform in the US.
1. Bringing Down the House
This book is based on a true story about a professor and his students. They decide to develop a strategy that would help them win big in a casino establishment. This M.I.T. blackjack team won nearly $10 million with the help of their brilliant ‘spotting’ strategy. It allowed them to predict when the decks were ready and the cards were to be counted.
This is one of the best books on gambling ever, as it offers scientific evidence mixed with entertaining stories. While writing this book, author Ben Mezrich stayed true to the authentic story. If you wish to know how these geniuses managed to beat the house, grab a copy of this book.
2. Fortune’s Formula
The scientists John L. Kelly Jr. and Claude Shannon from Bell Labs decided to get rich quick in 1956. They began exploring several options, such as stock investing, gambling, and information theory. While doing so, they created the ‘Kelly criterion’, popularly known as the Fortune’s Formula. Both these scientists tested their Fortune’s Formula on everything they could.
This included the roulette and blackjack games in Las Vegas casinos and the Wall Street. They ended up winning every single time. Their strategy was picked up by the legendary investor, Warren Buffet. Author William Poundstone gives you some valuable insights on this formula in his book. So, whether you play casino games or bet on sports, Fortune’s Formula is surely a book you must read.
3. The Biggest Bluff
A book that explores a gambler’s psyche, The Biggest Bluff comes from author and psychologist Maria Konnikova. It provides an insight into how she used her knowledge of psychology to predict human behavior. Konnikova focused specifically on the game of poker.
She just didn’t write an account of what it is to be a poker player. She also proved that getting a deeper understanding of the game was possible. This is why she went on to win more than $311,000. She still visits casinos and plays live poker games. She has also continued working as a psychologist at the same time, writing and researching on the subject.
Konnikova just keeps poker on the side as a hobby. You’ll find this deeply compelling book quite interesting. It is about how the author went on to become one of the most feared women in poker.
4. Soccernomics
In this book, author Simon Kuper argued that each sports betting event must be studied individually. He also gave a suggestion to establish a model on the basis of the study. Although the book doesn’t provide easy solutions, it puts forward an excellent argument.
Kuper shows how observing certain events in a game in a specific season can lead to a successful strategy. However, this is with regards to sports betting. This book got some futures right quite successfully. Kuper had mentioned that his wife had ended up outscoring him without a deeper understanding of soccer betting.
She was able to achieve this without any scientific knowledge as well. Soccernomics is a little-known book by Kuper. After observing the 2018 World Cup, he intended to devise a pattern. This was to help him win more in sports betting.
5. The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told
Mark Paul recounted the story of a racehorse through this book. The story of this book has been described as ‘crazier than fiction’. It narrates the tale of three young men who believed that a three-year-old racehorse could be a winner. The horse went on to achieve a historic win in the 1988 Kentucky Derby. Many of the gamblers had chosen to stake against her.
The three gamblers had placed their bet with a suspected Mexican drug cartel. They then had to claim their prize while trying to stay alive. The three men are also arrested by the Border Patrol in this process. This book has some exceptional storytelling by Mark Paul and is definitely worth reading.
6. A Man for All Markets
It would be wrong to predicate that personal wealth depends on chance. This is what Edward O. Thorp argues in his book, A Man for All Markets. He proves his point by citing many real-life examples. The book tells an incredible true story of Thorpe, a card-counting mathematics professor. He taught himself to predict stock patterns and count cards in blackjack.
Thorpe then used his understanding of the way these things worked and made a significant sum with this knowledge. This caused such an uproar in the world of casinos that these establishments had to alter the rules. This was the only way to thwart him and the people that he inspired. He then turned his attention to Wall Street and used his mathematical formulas to beat the market.
Thorp has spent a considerable amount of time studying mathematical constants and patterns. As a result, he accumulated a special knowledge that helped him to make the right moves. A Man for All Markets will certainly inspire those who want to try their hand at gambling.
7. Thinking in Bets
This highly-acclaimed book was described as a blueprint of modern investing by The New York Times. The author of this book is Annie Duke, who embarks on a study of the institution of betting. She also offers interesting insights on how you can try and produce reliable outcomes with information that’s not perfect. One of the reviews mentioned that the domains explored were all problematic.
Still, Duke found a way to provide solutions when faced with many possible outcomes. Thinking in Bets examines gambling from various angles like any of the great books on this subject. The lessons that it has for the reader can be applied in many areas as well.
