Mr. Lucky is James Swain's latest novel about Tony Valentine, former Atlantic City cop turned professional "grifter-catcher." Masterfully adept at spotting scams intended not only to beat but to cheat the house, it's Tony's business to identify the scammers who have somehow fooled the casinos' own security. From his home in Florida, Tony works for casinos around the world, often without leaving the comfort of his own house. For example, he receives video feed from gambling dens in Macau via his broadband Internet connection in order to identify a scam in action and tell the casino's security team both who is cheating them and how. In a world where gambling may well be the #1 spectator sport, especially with the current raging interest in poker, Valentine isn't hurting for work. Everybody looks for an edge against the house; some just go further than others, and that's where Tony comes in.
Like Swain's earlier books, such as Sucker Bet, Loaded Dice, and Grift Sense, Mr. Lucky focuses on Valentine's efforts to catch someone who appears to have crossed the line. Swain himself spent years immersing himself in the world of gambling and sleight-of-hand in order to understand and explain card trickery (he's written three non-fiction books on the subject). As such, he manages to do two things in this book: first, he draws upon his experience to create a diverse group of intriguing characters full of nuance and shadow; second, he weaves a compelling narrative while revealing the secrets of many scammers.
The magicians I've known always say that when they show someone how a trick works, the first reaction is always a mixture of surprise and disappointment; the person can't believe how "easy" the trick is. In his Sherlock Holmes stories, Arthur Conan Doyle would have Holmes astound someone with his quick "deductive reasoning" about them. But when Holmes would tell them how he learned such things (i.e., not from some psychic power but rather by making educated "guesses" based on an examination of physical evidence), they would routinely dismiss his talent as some sort of parlor trick.
So it is with casino scams and card trickery; a trick that seems so amazing at first blush often ends up seeming rather pedestrian. But that's actually the point of it in a nutshell: sometimes, it is easy to fool people, even those who are on their guard. Still, simple scams are also easily spotted by those who know what to look for. More complicated scams involving large "gangs" of cheaters take much more effort to unravel – and that's where "Mr. Lucky" comes in.
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1 - Stephen Katz
The Fallacy of Online Poker Gambling
by Stephen Katz
Online poker is rapidly becoming one of the most popular gambling games at gambling websites on the internet. The main reason for this popularity is the belief that it is a game of skill in which money could be won. This belief is a fallacy. Skillful play will never help gamblers to win money at online poker because winning money at online poker is impossible.
Online poker is a game of skill only to the extent that skillful play would allow gamblers to lose their money slower. Money could temporarily be won in the short-run. In the long-run though, the gambling "house" which operates the gambling website, will permanently win all the money from all of the players. With a fast played game such as poker, the short-run quickly becomes the long-run when playing enough hands. Each hand played whether winning or losing any particular hand, slowly disintegrates the bankroll of every gambler. There is not anything that gamblers can do to save their bankrolls except to never play online poker.
The top poker players in the world do not play poker at gambling websites. Some top poker players may say they do only because of getting paid for endorsements. These top poker players know they can beat the other players, but that they cannot beat the house. There is not anybody on the face of this earth who can make money playing online poker. Even the world’s best poker player will never be good enough to overcome the "rake" which is the house cut from each pot.
"It takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master" is a phrase used by some gambling website promoters to describe the poker game of Texas Holdem. This phrase is true when playing against other poker players if there is not any rake. But this phrase is false for online poker because of the rake involved. Gambling house promoters know this phrase is false for their poker. Yet they keep parroting this phrase to fool you into thinking that even though you keep losing money at their website, that one day you could "master" Texas Holdem and then start making money. This phrase for online Texas Holdem should be corrected to truthfully state, "It takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to lose money."
Here is an example of how the gambling house will always win all the money from all of the players. Five players sit-in on an online poker game each with a $20 bankroll for a total at the website table of $100. Let’s say the average pot is $10 and the rake is 5% or 50 cents per hand. Let’s say 200 hands are played which does not take that long. After 200 hands, that 50 cents rake per hand totals $100 which is the entire amount that all of the players started with at the website table. Of course not all of the players go broke at the exact same time and fresh money can come into the game. But sooner or later each gambler will eventually lose their $20 bankroll every time without exception. If bringing in $20 more, that will also eventually be lost. Every amount brought in will eventually be lost through continued play. Those are the facts in a nutshell. Any honest mathematician, statistician, or numbers expert who understands the game of poker, would not dispute the example in this paragraph.
Now knowing that money cannot be won playing online poker, here are three more nails in the online poker coffin so that this complete waste of your money, time and life can be buried:
1. How do you know the other online poker players are real? You could be the only real player at the website table with the rest being software program players which would be programmed so that you could not possibly win even in the short-run.
2. How do you know the cards are a randomly dealt deck? You would eventually lose your money anyway even with a randomly dealt deck. However some gambling houses do not want to wait that long to fleece you out of your money. The cards could be rigged in any which way to assure that you will lose quicker. They can easily rig any hand. For instance you could have four kings on the flop but a software program player gets a fourth ace at the river to beat you.
3. How do you know a gambling website can be trusted with your bank account and credit card information? Without your knowledge, they can easily clean out your bank account and max out your credit card anytime they wanted. After they do this, even if locating them in their country of origin and getting them hauled into court, they could just falsify some computer records and claim that you gambled away the money. It is highly unlikely that a judge from their country is going to rule in your favor.
There are a good number of dishonest gambling websites out there just waiting to steal money from you. But even if you did happen to find the most honest, forthright, respectable gambling house that exists, it still is a money fleecing business which would be most happy to financially destroy you. Do not give them the pleasure no matter how nice their website appears to be. Do not give them the pleasure no matter how friendly their promoters seem to be. Do not give them the pleasure for any reason.
These gambling houses along with their slick marketing campaigns are very clever at trying to influence you into gambling. Do not believe any advertising or information from gambling websites or other sources which state or imply that money can be made playing online poker. Do not let them fool you but if they have, then permanently delete their money fleecing software from your computer.
You have a choice to follow the guidance of this article or play online poker. Playing online poker will cost you money and quite possibly a lot of money. You may get addicted to it even if believing that could not happen. It very well can happen. Unfortunately, getting addicted to online poker has happened to many people. But even if never technically getting addicted to online poker, isn’t it foolish to play a game in which losing your money is a certainty? Losing money is not only true for online poker, but for all other gambling games on the internet. There are not and never will be any exceptions. You are absolutely, positively, guaranteed to lose your money. Those are the facts. Do not allow gambling promoters or anyone else to convince you otherwise.
Please make the right choice, the smart choice and the necessary choice to never play the money losing game of online poker or any other online gambling game. Keep your money in your bank account where it belongs. Your money does not belong in the bank account of a gambling house.
Stephen Katz
Stephen Katz is the author of Gambling Facts and Fictions: The Anti-Gambling Handbook to get yourself to stop gambling, quit gambling or never start gambling. If interested, please check out the website for our new book at http://www.gamblingfactsandfictions.com/ which details the realities and consequences of gambling.
2 - Eric Berlin
Great stuff, Bill -- your reviews read like well constructed prose.
I've seen amateur magicians at work, and it is amazing that their stock in trade boils down to lightning-quick agility and timing.
3 - Scott Butki
I'm reading this book currently. It seems hokey and cliched at times but I can't stop listening to it on tape so I guess that's a good sign.
4 - Scott Butki
This book got much better in the second half. I may still write up my own review on it.