A month ago I received a gift of the book "Blackjack the Smart Way" with its audio book "Preparing You to Win", and I just want to pass along how great Richard Harvey's system is. (In fact I've just ordered a set to give as a birthday present). The book is easy to read and understand. I like his sensible approach to money and bet management. Also, unlike other books on blackjack it has a lot of illustrations that make things very clear. Now I'm winning consistently; before, I had trouble putting together a winning streak. I'd win one day and lose on another. It's much more fun now that I know what I'm doing. The audio book is a good way of reviewing in your spare time what you read. In addition, it talks about the "Circle of 13", Harvey's own invention, which really helped me understand the math behind the game.I have already used it to win some hands that I might otherwise have lost.I really surprised a dealer a couple of times by making unorthodox moves based on the "Circle of 13". When I won, he replied how lucky I had been, but I knew it wasn't luck.

A must read for any serious poker player, this small book is absolutely the best collection of common poker tells. Highly recommended!

This is an amazing book. It's so entertaining and easy to read you don't even realize how much you're learning. The author asks questions I'd never even thought of, then he answers them so clearly and logically that I had no trouble absorbing the information. I've read a lot of blackjack books and was never really clear on the whys behind some of the recommendations. With this book, now I know what all the others were talking about.

I have seen an advance copy of the "The Official U.S. Casino Chip Price Guide" by James Campiglia and Steve Wells and I was very impressed. I will only use this new book from now on.

Here you have a book that lets you in on the secrets of the language of gambling. No other book has ever been published that contains such a comprehensive glossary, from the funny to the bizarre, to the informative. Royer's book is the only one of its kind. For more than 15 years, Royer spent countless hours sifting through thousands of words, terms, expressions, slangs, and other sayings as they apply to casinos, casino games, and the literature of casino gambling. Finally, Royer selected the most universally applicable series of such terms and expressions, as they specifically apply to casino games, casinos, and casino gambling.

Every reader of every book ever written on or about casinos and casino games will benefit by reading Royer's book. Royer's Gamble Talk book is the perfect companion for any book about casinos, casino games, or casino gambling. No matter what the readers choose to buy as their book of choice about casinos and casino games, this book by Victor H. Royer provides them with the knowledge of the terminology used in all such books.

Additionally, Royer also includes new and traditional casino games, presented in an easy-to-understand format, allowing any reader to immediately gain enough knowledge to play any casino game.

How great is this? Three of my favorite casino games--slots, video poker and roulette with 101 tips each for better play.
Also, I now have the 'low-down' on freebies--comps.
These booklets are my constant companion at every casino visit.
Thanks for the tips!

I always wanted to know about every game in the casino, but did not want to learn by losing my money. this book got me started and made the gambling reaxing because I had a concept of what was going on.

In the 160 pages of Casino Games Bill Friedman presents all one needs to know to master the usual casino table games. The blackjack section presents the best playing strategy short of card counting. Craps is graphically explained in the clearest fashion--the rationale for and the method of "taking the odds" are presented in crystal-clear language and illustration.

Many books discuss in an amusing way gambling lore. Some present the most fundamental facts of table games in hyperbolic language. Friedman's Casino Games is all that one can know, and all one ever needs to know. Classic!

This book explains the science and mathematics of "Wager Value" like no other. After reading this excellent book you will understand why the secret of handicapping is NOT determing the horse most likely to win and then betting on that horse (and you will learn Dick's number one rule... "no value, no bet"). As a student of probability I found this work top notch and consider it one of the most overlooked handicapping books ever published. ...it is worth every penny.

A. D. Millington's "The Complete Book of Mah-Jongg" is by far the most comprehensive, lucid and readable book on the classical Chinese version of the game I have found. I recommend Millington for thoughtful, complete organization of material, thoroughness of presentation, wealth of detail, and engaging writing style.

Millington deals exhaustively with the form of the game as played earlier in the 20th century in China, and then places into historical/developmental context the rule variations and other current national forms of the game as dealt with by such authors as Strauser & Evans, Kanai & Farrell, Eleanor Whitney, David Li, Dieter Kohnen, and Thompson & Maloney. Many of these authors deal with the Chinese form of the game to a greater or lesser extent (Li's book is also devoted to it), and Millington is even cited in bibliographies. Millington's discussion, however, fills in gaps and answers many questions that one may still have after reading these various other authors (not only questions in regards the Chinese game, but also about Western versions).

Millington's introductory chapter alone is worth the price of the book, dealing as it does with the intellectual challenges of Mah Jongg play, its similarites and differences to other great games like Bridge, a rationale for pursuing the form of the game as played in China in the second decade of the last century, and a discussion of what should actually constitute the "ideal form" of the game to play.

Preliminaries and procedural elements of play are dealt with step by logical step. A most comprehensive and readable catalogue of rules is provided and later cross indexed in tabular form. Scoring is cogently but thoroughly explained. A chapter on the elements of luck and skill and the interaction of these elements in successful play is both delightful and informative (points mentioned are, however, developed much further in E.N. Whitney's strategy discussions in "A Mah Jong Handbook"). Information about tile design, forms of counting sticks and other accessories, and very detailed discussion of procedural variations within the Chinese game itself are all also presented.

In addressing issues of Mah Jongg's philosophy and symbolism and its historical development Millington provides a vivid account of Chinese culture, key persons in its evolution in China, an account of the entrepeneurial Americans who first introduced the game to the West, and abundant arcana about early "proto-Mah Jongg" games that finally coalesced into the standard game based on the 144 tile set.

Millington's magisterial evaluation of variant forms that have developed since Mah Jongg was first introduced to the West in the 1920s convincingly argues for the superiority of the classical Chinese game. This evaluation provides a wealth of detail illustrating how variations of play have actually changed the fundamental character of the game as well.

Upon completion of this volume the reader will not only understand the Chinese game in much greater depth, but, having gained a deeper cultural, historical, and scholarly context for understanding other versions - Japanese, Richii, early and "New" American, British - of the game, the reader/player will be ready to adapt to these other forms of the game with greater understanding, fluency, and ease. Millington's case for the classical Chinese form, however, is made with such sagacity, clarity, and brilliance that other versions of the game pale before the brightness of its exposition.