I’ve been reviewing a lot of books lately, largely because I’ve been reading them to prepare for my Gambling with an Edge radio show. Some of you may remember the June 30th show where we had Richard W. Munchkin on. I read his Gambling Wizards: Conversations with the World’s Greatest Gamblers prior to that date for the third time. (I read it when it came out and go back and reread it periodically. It’s that good.) The question is why should I review the book now instead of just prior to the show? Reviewing it just prior to the show would have had the added benefit of attracting more listeners who were sufficiently inspired by the review so as to catch the broadcast.
The reason I didn’t do that was there was an elephant in the room that I didn’t want to acknowledge at the time. At the time of the show, Richard, Frank Kneeland, and I all knew that Richard would be my new co-host on the radio show beginning August 4, and that Frank would be moving on to other projects. It just hadn’t been announced yet publicly.
So this article will be as much an introduction to my new co-host, who I hope you turn in to listen to on Thursday evenings, 7-8 p.m. 1230AM in the Las Vegas area and www.klav1230am.com everywhere. Prior shows are archived on www.bobdancer.com, so if you want to catch the June 30 show (or any other), it’s there for download whenever you are ready.
The book, Gambling Wizards, interviews 8 different gamblers. When I read it the first time, I thought these guys were just like me, only more successful. I now don’t think that’s close to being true. I tried as hard as I could to play backgammon and blackjack professionally — and I simply didn’t have what it took to be a superior player. I tried poker in the 70s and 80s, and I couldn’t even beat the low-level games. Guys who could figure out those games and succeed at them year after year have something I don’t.
During the show Munchkin mentioned that if he did a sequel that I’d probably be in it. For reasons I don’t completely understand, I was able to find my niche at video poker after failing to find it in the other games. Most of the gamblers in the book were very good at LOTS of different games, not just their specialty. I wish that were true of me, but it’s not.
Billy Walters (sports bettor) asked if there were any books on gambling he’d recommend. Walters responded, “Books that can teach you the basics. But I think the most important things in gambling you’re only going to learn by living them, by living them.” (page 33) Maybe that’s why I was never exceptional at backgammon or poker. I could read the books and master what they said, but applying it to the real world was difficult for me — because in the real world your opponents fight back and do different things than they do in the books. In video poker, however, once you understand the strategies, the machines deal fairly and it’s a matter of grinding it out. In video poker, at least, reading books can teach you almost everything. In other forms of gambling, maybe not so much.
I never met Alan Woods, and I won’t, because he’s dead now. He was a horse player in Hong Kong. I know several of the guys who were there at the same time he was. It seems strange to me that betting on the horses, using computerized systems, is the way to win the most money at gambling. Some of these guys have hundreds of millions of dollars. The racetrack takes such a big cut, it doesn’t seem like there would be that much more for the winners. But there is. Which also tells me that if you don’t have a GREAT computerized system, you’re not going to do well with the ponies. Not only are you fading the 17% or so the track takes, but you’re up against some really very skilled players with very large bankrolls. Betting horses is only extremely profitable if you’re the best at what you do. If you’re not the best, or close to it, it’s the way to lose your shirt the quickest.
Mike Svobodny, backgammon player, was always an inspiration to me. In met him in the early 80s at the now defunct Cavendish West, near Los Angeles, and he would regularly play, and often beat, the best players who played there. I would watch some of those matches (I was never close to being good enough to seriously challenge him) and I would marvel at Svobo’s gracious charm whether he was winning or losing. For other gamblers, losing seemed to bring out the worst in their personalities — and some of them got very ugly when losing. Mike was always pleasant to everybody. It was easy to see that this served him well as a gambler and in other aspects of life. It was another thing altogether to be able to emulate him.
At the end of the Doyle Brunson interview, Doyle quoted Benny Binion : “If you got talent, Las Vegas is the land of milk and honey. If you don’t, it’s a burial ground.” (page 292). I agree. I’m now using that quote in my “Secrets of a Video Poker Winner” class.
Munchkin did well putting these interviews together. It’s a remarkable group of gamblers — and the questions he asked elicited interesting answers. That’s why I’m so excited about having him on the Gambling with an Edge show. He knows a lot of gamblers I don’t, and his questions will bring out the best in our guests.