Gambling books

[GETT1NLOTS]

Inspired by a thread on a rival forum I thought I would ask what gambling books you lot own, want and / or recommend. Also which are stinkers.

I bought two books today.

Lay, back and think of WINNING - Guaranteed winning systems for the betting exchange - By Nigel Paul

The definitive guide to BETTING EXCHANGES - by racing post expert series.

I do make lots of bets on Betfair but I'm no expert on the finer workings so I thought I would give these a try.

Are they any good?

I would have bought Seens book if Borders had got it in but alas it was nowhere to be found. I suppose Joe's book is one I should get too.

One book that is shite is Play Poker Like the Pros - By Phil Hellmuth. I made the mistake of getting that last year.

[GETT1NLOTS]

Actually - thinking about Joe (seeing as no one wnats to answer my super Gambling Books thread whatever happened to him? I think he went to a PL race meeting about a year ago (I'm sure I saw his photos up) but I never see him post anywhere nowadays.

He beat me in a hot or not thread too. Naturally I was in the top 3 and Komp was down near the bottom.

[Hippy Dave]

I didn't enter, as the marks only went up to 10.

Haven't really bought many gambling books.

"Tournament Poker and The Art of War" which was excellent, if a little pretentious and repetitive. Basically it applies the teachings on Sun-Tzu to poker.

And a couple of books on horse racing by Nick Mordin which are a must for any serious horse punter. I'd love to get back into backing on the horses, but I have to do it properly if I do if at all, and for me that means several hours a day which I can't do now.

[CJ Mars]

Lay, back and think of WINNING - Guaranteed winning systems for the betting exchange - By Nigel Paul

Didn't like this very much. It's tradeing more than anything else. Some good points but a lot of it requires you to be sitting in front of a computer screen and seeing where the money is and isn't going in order to trade in and out of positions. An easy read.

Joe's book is pretty heavy on the maths but its very good on bankroll, stakeing and money management. Haven't seen him post anywhere in ages no that you mention it.

Been trying to get the RP guide to the exchanges. The sports book was pretty good.

The Geoff Harvey books are both good espeically "succesful football betting".

[GETT1NLOTS]

Originally Posted by CJ Mars

The Geoff Harvey books are both good espeically "succesful football betting".

Yeah I have heard that recommended elsewhere. Definately on my list.

[Oddsfellow]

Been building up a library over the years on betting, football and racing books. My favourite ones are

Succesful Football Betting By Paul Steele. Explains systematic approaches to football betting backed up by various stats. My one criticism of this book would be that he does not evaluate each system by profit only by percentage of results right which i dont feel tells the whole story.

Racing Post Definitive guide to sport. I own all three of the RP titles and this is by far the strongest. The piece from the Coral odds compiler is a good insight and probably the highlight of the book. Did not really gain anything from the Betting Exchange book and feel it is aimed more at the novice than anything else.

Inisde Track by Alan Potts. The best racing book out there. Potts was a reknowned professional gambler in the 90's and in this book he details the concepts behind his betting activities. Explains quite clearly how the public conception of a pro gambler being a fly by night chancer is totally mstaken and what it really takes to make a living.

Be a succesful punter by Clive Holt. In this book holt details the much praised original Fineform system. For me it shows how quite often the simple things can be quite profitable. Before the days of Neural Nets this thing was cutting edge and still holds its own today.

Others with an honurable mention would be Betting for a living by Nick Mordin, succesful matched betting by Geoff Harvey, Against the odds by David Lee Priest, Value Handicapping by Mark Cramer and Dark Secrets of the Turf by John White.

Lay Back and Think of Winning was done before the days of the Betfair API. Whilst some of the theories still apply you have to be that much sharper now to make a living trading. Unless you are long term trading the stress levels can be extremely high too. When the market is moving against you and you need to lay off just to cut losses let alone make a profit.

[Khartoum]

Got a fair few myself mostly racing.

Value Betting by Mark Coton used to go over this again & again when I got this. Lent it to my cousin never seen it again - always thought this was a great read at the time.
His One Hundred Hints for Better Betting was OK.
Agree with Betting for a Living by Nick Mordin - excellent read.
Both the Potts books were good reads. Think I just find it interesting when someone has the bollocks to say fuck it & have a go.

I love going to the races, but I'm not really a horsey person so pretty useless at detecting fitness & backward types etc. so got a couple of books Winning Look by Mordin again & Watching Racehorses by Geoffrey Hutson both fairly interesting.

Last book I bought was an American book Six Secrets of Successful Bettors - good read looking at some of America's top gamblers & how they go about their business.
Think with a lot of these books they all come in from different angles but suppose like all gambling books they all stress to make it pay KNOWLEDGE, BANKROLL, MONEY MANAGEMENT & DISCIPLINE.

All the best, Khartoum.

[Run Dmc Vs Pat Nevin]

Worst gambling book I own is Gambling On Goals by Graham Sharpe (Billy Hills PR guy.) There's no advice on picking winners or making money, it's more a history of football bettng in Britain. It could have been an interesting read, but he's far too obsessed with bigging up William Hill all the time. When he tells stories of big wins he follows it up by saying stuff like: "Well if he'd had the nouse to just walk over the road to William Hill he would have picked up an extra £400 on that bet." Really winds you up after awhile.

I've got to stick up for Phil Hellmuth's Play Poker Like The Pros. It was the first poker book I bought a couple of years ago. It gave me a pretty simple (if slightly boring) strategy to start with and allowed me to get into the game without losing too much dosh. I know you can pick up most of the stuff in there for free on the net, but it's far from the worst place to start for a novice poker player.

[crowie]

Got the Betfair books on Sports Betting and Exchanges. I found the Exchanges one a wee bit samey to the Sports Betting one, still a decent read though.

Have the Geoff Harvey ones mentioned above and the Paul Steele one. Think I also have a Bill Hunter one called Football Fortunes as well. All worth a read.

[Danq]

Got those 3 as well like Paul Steeles the best . Got Spread Betting by Andrew Burke , quite good gives a rundown on every sport for spread betting , i had a cousin who done well on spread betting on horseracing , his fav bet was selling favs in bad weather , into footy now , worth a read.

[Swooperman]

'Game Set & Matched' by Iain Fletcher a damn good read & pretty helpful on the trading side of things. Written with Betfair in mind & I was put onto it through someone posting on my system on PL......Merlin possibly

Fletcher is an ex pro cricketer so obviously it interested me but theres other sports covered as well. Well worth it

[Oddsfellow]

Talking of books if anybody wants a free electronic copy of Malcolm Boyle's The Art of Bookmaking then signup here

http://www.aboveallodds.com/amember/...price_group=-1

I have no affiliation to this site but if you do use it please use a hotmail email or something cos soon after your inbox will get filled with crap.

If you want the book but dont want to signup pm an email address and i will send it across.

[GETT1NLOTS]

Lay Back and Think of Winning was done before the days of the Betfair API

Whats the Betfair API? And how did it change things Odds?

[Oddsfellow]

The Betfair API in a nutshell is the ability to place bets in a fraction of a second as opposed to the traditional 4 second delay.

Pre the API days by the time a trade had been submitted to the system the price had moved. The downside is that there are now very sophisticated automated systems that make it very hard work to trade successfully.

[IrishTW]

Today I read "Get Rich Gambling in Double-Quick Time" by a Mr Martingale - highly recommended.