I’m always surprised that gambling never pops up on any of those “multiple streams of income” articles people love to read.
Dollar-a-point backgammon or $3/$6 small stakes poker is pretty low risk. And, it’s easier to learn than day trading or crypto-investing. Plus, many ventures ultimately boil down to “gambling by any other name.”
Quick example: With Internet marketing you’re essentially “betting” on your paid Facebook ads (and sales letters) outperforming what you’ve spent on them.
Additionally, gambling is a great intellectual hobby.
It tests your math skills, understanding of psychology, and emotional resilience. There’s nothing more fun than calculating your opponent’s move, then mentally outflanking him for a massive victory.
If you’re looking to enjoy “The greatest indoor sport” (as Dwight D. Eisenhower called it), here are some excellent books to get started.
The Education Of A Poker Player
The perfect “Poker 101” title. This book is well-written, entertaining, and easily one of the most engaging “how-to” books I’ve ever read.
The author, Herbert Yardley, is basically real-life James Bond. A professional gambler, cryptographer, and founder of “The Black Chamber” (a precursor to the NSA). The Education Of A Poker Player is both a book on playing cards and a great collection of short, non-fiction stories.
Yardley shares his best poker stories (including a high-stakes bet turned fatal and a head-to-head match against Nazi spies) while also explaining the fundamentals for a variety of different card games.
The book covers Draw Poker, Hi-Lo, Seven-Card Stud, and more.
Unfortunately, The Education Of A Poker Player was written before the Hold’em boom, so there’s no information on it. But, the other advice was great. I often use the book’s 5 Card Draw advice verbatim. And it works consistently.
If you’re interested in poker, this is a wonderful book.
Backgammon For Blood
A highly entertaining title with some hilariously over-the-top writing (“[Backgammon] is a gladiatorial sport… these men were going for the jugular!”), this is a fun book from an era when writing a how-to guide on hustling board games was still okay.
Of course, hyperbole isn’t the only thing this book has going for it.
Backgammon For Blood is a genuinely good book. The author, Bruce Becker, does a good job explaining the game, detailing his aggressive play-style, and presenting the odds and probabilities that govern each decision.
Despite the heavy use of math, Backgammon For Blood is still a fun read. Mostly thanks to Bruce Becker’s melodramatic writing style
A good strategy guide for any board game enthusiast.
Sharp Sports Betting
Most sports betting titles are thinly veiled sales letters for prediction software or services.
This book is not.
Sharp Sports Betting, by Stanford Wong, is all about using math and probability to pick winning outcomes. As the author says:
In order to make money betting on sports, you must either have information that is not being used by the betting public, or you must have a superior ability to process the information that is public.
What interested me most was the number of people who simply wager money based on emotions. This is stuff like betting on a sports team because it matches your Zodiac sign, or picking a consistent loser because “they’re due for a win.”
Of course, Sharp Sports Betting is much more than a “mindset” title.
There’s a lot of math formulas in here, dealing with everything from how to calculate a good wager to determining the exact probability of a specific event happening using Poisson distribution (a statistical model that’s awfully handy for determining prop bets).
I got a lot of value from this book, and have fun wowing family and friends whenever I correctly predict the outcome for football games.
Well worth a read.
Five Weeks To Winning Bridge
I actually bought this book for two reasons. The first is that I like playing bridge and wanted to improve at it. The second? This is an excellent example of how to name an information product.
The front and back cover do an excellent job selling you on this book (there’s even a call to action urging you to turn to the first page), making it a great addition to any swipe file (especially if you’re selling eBooks anyway).
As far as content goes, Five Weeks To Winning Bridge delivers.
The author, international bridge champion Alfred Sheinwold, divides the book into 35 chapters. Read one a day, and you’ve mastered the game within just five weeks.
Best of all, Sheinwold starts with the complete basics (Chapter One: “If You Have Never Played Bridge Before”), making it a very accessible title.
Bridge is a great game with a lot of complex strategy to it, and it’s a fantastic tool for exercising your brain. Warren Buffet even claims that it helps him think tactically and make investment decisions.
If you want to learn how to play, then read this book.