Our guests this week are Professor David Schwartz, and Anthony Curtis. We talk with David about his new book Tales From the Pit. The book contains interviews with about 20 different people that have worked in the casino industry, doing everything from dealing to casino management. Then we talk with Anthony about various things happening around Vegas, as well as some reminiscences about Peter Griffin.
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Since you talked about your intro at the end of this podcast, wanted to make sure you heard another blog’s (You Can Bet on That) version of your old intro : )
http://youcanbetonthat.com/100-one-hundred
Wherever you recorded this episode, it was the best audio since you left the radio studio. Strongly recommend you continue to record episodes this way.
I loved “being a fly on the wall” listening to Richard and Anthony go off script… great stuff
I had forgotten about Ron Saccavino’s newsletter. He would be an amazing guest for the show.
He also had a book out about dealers in the late 1990’s
P.S. whatever happened with the Blackjack movie Richard had some involvement with?
Glad you enjoyed it. If you like stories of old Vegas check out our last episode with Terry King, and next week we have Billy Baxter in the house.
As for the movie they are still tinkering with it. They have been working on it for many years and just can’t seem to let it go.
With regard to the listener question in this show – the fellow who was down to a single $100 chip with $300 already on the table, and asked about doubling 10 v 7 (I think it was 7):
Essentially, this is a question of “Should I pass on a good bet now, if losing it will prevent me from making a better bet in the future”, because
a) doubling 10 v 7 is a “good bet”, but if he should spike a 3 on one of his other hands,
b1) doubling 11 v 7 is a “better bet”, that he might not be able to make and
b2) he would also want to “rescue” another 16 if he caught another 8, and he wouldn’t be able to do this either.
There is a related question, “Should I make a BAD bet now, if LOSING it might prevent me from having to make a WORSE bet in the future”. David Sklansky took this subject up in “Sklansky on Poker”, and provided the math behind his answer to the question. I would think that much of his answer to this second question could be applied to someone who was trying to answer the first question discussed on GWAE. David’s discussion was written in the context of tournament poker, but I would say that the hand of blackjack described by the GWAE listener had the same element of “elimination” as a hand of tournament poker. See page 104.
I’ve gotta say I definitely miss the old intro. I am aware it was much longer than the current intro, but I would rather fast forward past the few seconds the current into plays than fast forward through the old one. There was something about the old intro that put me in that mood for GWAE and quality AP discussion.