Gambling With an Edge - guest Eric Raskin author of The Moneymaker Effect

The guest on the show this week is Eric Raskin. His new book is called The Moneymaker Effect about the World Series of Poker of 2003 where Chris Moneymaker won the main event.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Andy Bloch #3

The guest on the show this week is Andy Bloch. Andy is a very well known professional poker player, and a former member of the MIT blackjack team. We talk about the upcoming WSOP.

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Gambling With an Edge - Learning to Count Cards.

We have no guest this week. We continue our series on learning games from scratch. This week we discuss how to go about learning to count cards.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Ed Miller #6

This week's guest is Ed Miller, poker author and player. Our topic this week is how to learn to play winning poker starting from scratch.

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Ben Affleck & the Vegas casinos

If your friends and family know you are interested in blackjack, then I'm sure by now you have been emailed, texted, and facebook tagged with articles about Ben Affleck being backed off at The Hard Rock in Las Vegas for counting cards. Ben's problems started a couple weeks ago when, according to Radar Online, Game Protection Manager at the Wynn and Encore casinos Rob Olivetti sent out an email to the other casinos in Las Vegas saying that Affleck was moving his money with the count. Ben, this is called "getting fliered." Welcome to my world.

A few days after  this flier went out Affleck was playing at the Hard Rock. He was surrounded by security, and barred from ever playing blackjack again at that property. I have a few questions.


Dear Hard Rock,

This story has received international attention. It is in over 100 newspapers, and numerous TV shows. Do you think that people reading this story are more likely or less likely to want to visit the Hard Rock?

Do you think there is value in having Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner in your casino? I hear that people like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian are paid 6 figures to show up at Vegas nightclubs. How much would your marketing department  be willing to pay to have them play for a few hours?  So what if you said to him, "Ben, you are obviously a very good card counter, and we'd love to let you keep playing, but we can only let you spread 1-5 on this double deck cut in half. So if he plays 2 hands spreading from 2k to 10k he is making $6,000 per hour. Is it not worth $24,000 to have Batman and Elektra in your casino for the evening? That is his win rate if he doesn't make any mistakes. If he plays perfectly. Remember this is a guy who uses chips to help him keep the count. Now betting that much he may win or lose $300k. If he wins your marketing people get the headline..

Ben Affleck wins a MILLION DOLLARS while partying like a Rock Star at the Hard Rock!

(we all know you're going to inflate it)  And if he loses you get

Ben & Jennifer party like Rock Stars at the Hard Rock.

And Ben, what a wasted opportunity. Have you not read the stories about Don Johnson winning $15 million? If you had just hooked up with some real pros we could have got you more ev than Don Johnson had.  I shudder to think what you could have won with the right people behind you.

Gambling With an Edge - guest Jeffrey Compton publisher of CDC Gaming Reports

Our guest this week is Jeffrey Compton, the publisher of CDC Gaming Reports.  

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Richard Marcus, author of American Roulette part 2

This week our guest is Richard Marcus. Richard was a casino cheat, and tonight we will be talking about his book American Roulette. This is the second part of our interview. Part 1 can be heard here - Part 1

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