If you are reading this, odds are that you are interested in casino gambling.
An argument can be made that many of us would like to be gambling all the time. But, considering so many other important things in life – friends, family, earning a living, watching sports on TV – we can’t always be in action. While out of action, though, it makes sense to be thinking about action, learning about it, listening to other people talking about it.
At least that is the way I see things. Along those lines, I make the case that there are certain podcasts that should be listened to, YouTube shows that are must-watch offerings and influencers who we all need to follow. After all, their informative views and highly experienced guests can help to take our gaming to the next level. Or at least they will keep us entertained for a while.
Considering that right now is a bit of a golden age for this sort of thing, here is a totally biased guide to what I think is most worth checking out.
Blackjack Advisors – Videotaping the Action
Viewable on YouTube, under Blackjack Advisors, this is an amazing thing to watch. While Blackjack Advisors’ crew of advantage players give free tips on card counting – explaining how a true count is derived from the running count and warning to avoid games with inferior rules – their main focus here is surreptitiously videotaping themselves card counting as part of their blackjack strategy.
Watching the videos, we thrill to the wins and losses, always rooting for the former. With added audio, they explain what they are doing and why. We sometimes see the players putting on outfits that can provide camouflage and subterfuge. But those gambits don’t always work, and we get to witness the back-offs as well.
Other times, expert card counting is not enough. Though the counts go high, desirable cards fail to come and chip stacks collapse. But like all successful advantage players, the folks on Blackjack Advisors do not let negative variance get to them. They keep playing, keep counting and keep aiming for the big wins. More often than not, their diligence at the game pays off.
If this article interests you, keep reading. Alternatively, explore other topics like roulette strategy and craps strategy.
Gambling With An Edge – Expert Interviews From Guys Who Know
Hosts of this podcast, the pseudonymous Richard Munchkin and Bob Dancer, are not only good interviewers who can wrangle strong guests. But they are also serious advantage players in their own right (hence, the bogus names).
Dancer is a master at exploiting video poker. When it comes to beating casino games, Munchkin has pretty much done it all. He authored the book Gambling Wizards, which has him talking to people who include sports betting genius Billy Walters and the late horse racing hot shot Alan Woods (Woods played a major role in devising the first system for beating the ponies via computer model).
Though Gambling with an Edge airs only sporadically – Munchkin also solos it on his podcast called Life’s a Gamble – the archives of Gambling with an Edge (on Apple Podcasts) deserve your attention. You’ll find deep diving chats with Kelly Sun (she made headlines around the world after beating casino for tens of millions of dollars at baccarat), Darryl Purpose (one of the world’s most skilled at card counting and other methods for beating casino games), an advantage player who goes by the name Mr. Doppy (he’s so sharp that he has actually beaten the lottery), and the professional slots player who IDs himself as CS.
Not only will you be entertained by these shows, but you will leave with increased knowledge and the inspiration to become an advantage player yourself.
Vegas Matt – Gambling Without an Edge
Part of the reason why Stephen Matt Morrow, a wealthy real estate investor, moved to Las Vegas was because he liked to gamble. He did well enough at his profession that he could afford to play games with negative equity, absorb the losses and enjoy the comps.
Then one night in the casino, he hit a royal flush on a video poker machine. His son whipped out his iPhone. He captured the win and Morrow’s celebration. For kicks, they put it on TikTok and the views rolled in.
One night later, they added video of a loss and it attracted even more eyeballs. Tout de suite, the Vegas Matt show was born. These days, accompanied by a posse of sidekicks and pals, Vegas Matt gets videotaped gambling on poker machines as well as at baccarat, blackjack, and occasionally craps. The videos air on YouTube.
Matt plays for big money and loses a lot more than he wins. But don’t feel bad for him. He has over one million followers on YouTube and gets paid handsomely for bringing them to the site. His remuneration is a percentage of the profits realized from commercials that air with his videos.
How profitable is the enterprise? Profitable enough that a key member of his crew who goes by the name WBG (it stands for World’s Biggest Gambler) gave up a winning career as an advantage player to participate in Vegas Matt’s casino-losing adventures.
“I don’t have time to beat the casinos,” WBG told me when I interviewed him for my book Advantage Players. “This is more fun and more profitable.”
Gamblers & American Gambler Book Club – Gambling Writer on the Right Track
David Hill, a top-notch gambling journalist and author of The Vapors (a chronicle of the one-time betting scene in Hot Springs, Arkansas), has two podcasts that are both excellent and available on Spotify.
Gamblers was a two-season deal that took a closeup look at advantage players. Hill’s journalistic chops are on full display for that one. As if he’s writing high-flying articles for top notch magazines, he hangs out with successful APs.
Catching them in their elements, he lets listeners in on their lives and their plays. He zeroes in on poker great Phil Galfond, the punk rock horse bettor Emily Gullickson gin rummy genius Michael Sall and the blackjack assassin Gina Fiore.
More recently, Hill spun up American Gambler Book Club in which he interviews gambling scribes about their favorite books. Peter Alson – whose memoir The Vig, with its fitting subtitle Confessions of an Ivy League Bookie, is a fantastic read – chats with Hill about Lowlife, which chronicles the underbelly of 19th century Manhattan, a place where gamblers routinely wagered on bear fights.
Richard Munchkin chats up The Big Player, a blackjack classic. And I was honored to join Hill for a conversation about my favorite gambling title: the mold-setting Fast Company.
Check this out and you will surely be stocking your bookshelf with great reads.
