A lot has been happening at GBC here in the past weeks, I thought I would take some time to tell you all about it.

Most recently Richard Orlyn, author of No-Nonsense Craps visited sat down and had a few laughs with Howard for our podcast. They were so busy yucking it up they hardly talked about the book (practically the only new thing on craps since Craps 101, by Michael Skaff PhD which came out earlier this year). Dr. Skaff also appeared on our podcast.

It is interesting to note the synchronized arrival of the both of these fine, independently-produced works on a game, the popularity of which seemed to have been floundering. I wonder if a Craps Renaissance is brewing.

 

Or not... Time will tell, however we always welcome new books to our shelves especially on topics that don't get a lot of that kind of action. We'll happily be stocking a new title on roulette before you'll know it: Killer Roulette by Carl Sampson. Keep a weather-eye our for that one, or drop us a line if you want to be on our new arrivals monthly newsletter list. There is a sign-up form on our homepage (GamblersBook.com), or email me (mf@gamblersbook.com).


It seems I never found a chance to tell you all about a visit from Des Wilson, for the purpose of ensuring we had enough copies on-hand for him to autograph at our booth at the World Series of Poker. Des has some serious writing skills, no doubt left over from his days in public affairs & journalism [wikipedia] ) and it shows in both his previous book (Swimming With the Devil Fish) and his current Ghosts at the Table.  Mr. Wilson; affable, intelligent, engaging & energetic can be seen here with me in our warehouse (at right in the above & below photograph). You can tell which of us appreciates the unexpected paparazzi-like attention from one of our booksellers.

    

Our podcast engineer, Bill Coveny just posted what I believe is our longest podcast interview to date: Mike Caro came by the store and spun a few tales for us, sometimes nearly interviewing Howard! It was a blast to have him in and to hear some great stories.

Click to listen, already. Don't make me beg. Fine I'll do it: I'm typing on my knees. The first person who can get 3 of his friends to email me (mf@gamblersbook.com) & tell us what they think of the podcast will get a signed copy of Mike Caro's updated Winning Secrets of Winning Poker. Game on.

    

In the 1960 classic, Chance, Skill, and Luck John Cohen offered, "the assumption that a quantitative technique can act as a substitute for an adequate psychological hypothesis, or can generate [one] ... has led to ill-conceived and premature attempts, doomed to failure, to quantify the human personality without any effort to understand it's true nature". Ouch. Good thing The University of Alberta Computer Poker Research Group aren't trying to quantify the human personality, merely destroy one of the last things flesh-and-blood humans are good at: Poker.

R. Colin Johnson writing for EE Times claims "humanity was dealt a decisive blow by a poker-playing artificial intelligence program". I won't dispute it directly, though the program named Polaris and developed by , did not exactly pull off what I would call an overwhelming victory.

Here's more:

The key to Polaris' poker prowess last weekend was a tactical shift in midstream designed to prevent humans from exploiting perceived weaknesses. Add to that, Polaris learned from experience."

"There are two really big changes in Polaris over last year," said professor Michael Bowling, who supervised graduate students who programmed Polaris. "First of all, our poker model is much expanded over last year--its much harder for humans to exploit weaknesses. And secondly, we have added an element of learning, where Polaris identifies which common poker strategy a human is using and switches its own strategy to counter. This complicated the human players ability to compare notes, since Polaris chose a different strategy to use against each of the humans it played," Bowling said.

If, as was recently wrote in a forum, it is true that "Polaris is already such that it could crush almost all human opposition, and has been that way for about a year",  the poker world may be ready for a shift from the now-popular "player type" concept given heavy analysis in books such Harrington on Cash Games Volume 1 & Volume 2. In the face of a supposedly unbeatable player, is there any room for loose/tight and passive/aggressive? That would certainly be a batteries-included comedy if attempts to codify insightful theory for poker had a crippling effect on the state of the poker art.

Maybe this isn't such a big deal after all, though. One reader of the Overcoming Bias blog claimed the games Polaris played were limit hold'em. I don't know if that is true, based on this description from StoxPoker:

That would, however, certainly affect the game dynamic. How is Polaris  designed to respond to all-in bets? It sounds like the differences between these match-ups were extensive enough for non-believers to be able to say that it 'wasn't real poker, anyway'.

A few thoughts regarding what other factors could even the playing field (is it uneven, and in favor of whom? I can't tell!):

• I couldn't help but notice that there didn't seem to be any cash involved in these games, I want to see the computer adjust to a short-stack (if can play weak enough to allow that )
  
• After that, it's time to start playing tournaments. If, as theorized in Arnold Snyder's (great book) Poker Tournament Formula 2, the different "phases of a poker tournament", require different strategies, then Polaris is our "man" to test every angle, until the viewing public is sickened by the ridiculously impervious strategy developed or all theories are debunked!
• Apparently some form Polaris (built into the bestselling Poker Academy software) is available through Download.com,
  

To end on a light note, this whole saga reminds me of the classic Onion piece, Modern-Day John Henry Dies Trying To Out-Spreadsheet Excel 11.0. Cheers!

Posted by Fig

    

One of our employees asked us if we could sell his personal copy of David Hayano's Poker Faces on our ebay account. It's up on ebay right now (search for item # 150269982648. There are other copies of the same book up for auction but they are buy-in-now listings and the cheapest is $175 while the most expensive is $400. Our person listed  This is the actual link for the book: http://cgi.ebay.com/POKER-FACES-by-DAVID-HAYANO-Classic-1st-Ed-NR-nice_W0QQitemZ150269982648QQihZ005QQcategoryZ378QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem but it's so long and cumbersome that you might just want to search for the Item number: 150269982648

If you're a poker fan, this is a book you'll want to have. It has a starting bid of $49.99.

Posted by Intruder

    

That's my advice and, no, I didn't  misspell 'steele'. I'm talking Phil Steele's College Football Preview, the number one magazine for early, accurate, time-saving information on college football teams. I don't bet the pros because the bookies have way more information on them than I do and on top of that, they know how I (and most every punter) am going to dive into the game. That's how he sets his line. With the colleges it's a different story. So many teams, so little time to study all of the and then decide which way the bettor will go, the bookies hope they don't miss something. (But they usually do.)

Good thing they don't read this magazine because this is where I get an early-season edge. Here's where you can find myriad facts that can make or break your decision to bet on a team. Take the TCU Horned Frogs, for instance, where 75% of the roster can bench press 400 pounds! With 47 returning lettermen, 15 of them starters, Steele thinks they will be favored in most of their games and are capable of winning the Mountain west title this year.

So what do you get for each team? First there's an overview and projection for every position and for the coaches; there's Phil's Forecast; there's the projected starting lineup for offense and defense; you get the top newcomers to the team; the schedule with home field edge and schedule difficulty rating; a game by game info line; the stadium record; 2007 stat leaders; the coach's record, bowl appearances and results; a statistical wrap-up for the last six years (offense and defense)   and for 2007 and finally, wins and losses for the past five years with spread info .

So if you want to start prepping for this year's college battles, this is the place to start.

Posted by Intruder

    

Speaking of California Split, you should also know that even in the year 2008 the acclaim it has received from so many has earned it a cover on STOPSMILING 's special issue on gambling. Of course we're carrying it (it's $5.95), so add it to your next order already! Not sure about it? Need me to talk you into it? Jeez...

First off, Stopsmiling is a great mag, you can tell because it's a little hard to find in the stores. You ought to just subscribe, but that's a side point. We were consulted in the production of this special gambling issue and owner Howard Schwartz contributed (what else?) but his favorite thing in the whole world: Gambling Trivia! You can check out the questions & answers online. Here's some of the other things in this issue:




INTERVIEWS

• The tribute to California Split features interviews with ELLIOTT GOULD and screenwriter JOSEPH WALSH, along with an essay on Robert Altman by JONATHAN ROSENBAUM
  
• Writer and Deadwood creator DAVID MILCH
• Actress and poker player JENNIFER TILLY
• Poker player PHIL LAAK
• Author MARTHA FRANKEL
• Racetrack announcer TOM DURKIN
• Writer NICK TOSCHES
• Harlem kingpin NICKY BARNES

ESSAYS & MORE

• PETER ALSON on teaching poker to Natalie Portman for the film My Blueberry Nights
• STEVEN CRIST of Daily Racing Form on gambling odds
• PATRICK SISSON on slot machines in Prague
• RICHARD STRATTON on drug smuggling
• A talk with STEPHANIE IZARD, winner of Top Chef
• Alex Abramovich talks to BOOTS RILEY
• Stories from screen legend NORMAN LLOYD

STOPSMILING official site: stopsmilingonline.com

--Fig

    

Joseph Walsh, a longtime friend of Gambler's Book Shop is the creator of the legendary movie California Split (widely regarded as the best and most authentic movie about gambling and gamblers. Joseph (above right & below left) has just released a new book titled Gambler on the Loose, bringing the reader back to pivotal and memorable moments in his life and career, now available through Gamblersbook.com


Hang on tight to hear more about the book, we'll have an official book review from Howard any day now, and the astute & well-traveled among you will recognize the picture on the top-right is from this year's World Series of Poker Gaming Life Expo, where we recorded an interview with Joseph Walsh. That will be posted along with many other interviews on our podcast archive page and iTunes listing.

Learn more:

• Buy Gambler on the Loose from us at Gamblersbook.com
  
• Internet Movie DataBase: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071269/
• Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Split
• P.S. You didn't hear it from me, but supposedly California Split is available through NetFlix®

--FIG

    

Category: World Series of Poker

We had a great time at this year's World Series of Poker Gaming Life Expo, I'll post details about all the author signings & happenings soon!

-Fig

    

It's official! Gambler's Book Shop has solidified its presence at the World Series of Poker Lifestyle Show. This is the annual event where vendors of various gaming-related product can show off and sell their wares to folks passing through the doors of the Rio Casino on their way to watch (or participate in) the high-stakes tournament action.

Look for us at Booth #420 where we'll have some of the top-rated poker books, videos and software, some video poker books and software tutorials and perhaps a few items about football wagering.

Good news about the show this year is that more than a dozen poker-playing authors have committed to dropping by and signing autographs. Bad news is that we won't know when they'll be free to do so. Good news is that as soon as someone can commit to a time, we'll post it at the booth.

So if you're planning to be a spectator from July 3-6 drop by Booth 420 and look for a couple of surprise deals, some discounts, and more .

Posted by Intruder

    

Dave Cinch is a clever writer so steeped in poker culture that he is beginning to embody it in the form of "Poker's Journalist". In The Poker World According to Cinch he has created a very worthwhile read. As he told me by email:

In my bones, I believe the book doesn't lack for imagination or entertainment value. I'm guaranteeing that. However it is not the instructional or rote mathematical/statistical approach that some desire.

The well-known Alan Schoonmaker, PhD (search for his name on our site to read about his own excellent books) gets an Editor credit for the book, in which you can read about "Fraulein Omaha" and "Marijuana Slim" in "Characters and Gambleros", learn about the "Da Cinchi Code" in "Cinchisms".

I get the feeling the over-one hundred page facetiously named "Play and Angles Study Section" section is perhaps my current favorite because I haven't finished the final section on "Cinch's Special Probability".

Through all the stories Dave tells in this book, all his observations and insights on the game and it's players you are treated to some ferocious writing. He's really got book-writing chops, and this book is expert at recreating "the moment", and what is was like to be there at the table when these memorable were born.

If a set of tales similar to (but funnier than) those happening at card tables around the world can be this engrossing, it makes me wonder how we can leave the ground level of the game and get a God's eye view of poker. Dave Cinch has an infectious voice in this book, one can only hope that our self-proclaimed "Poker Journalist" can pick up the threads of time and connect the dots for all readers and become "Poker's Historian".

---

It wouldn't have been very nice of me to make everyone wait until we can read & digest it, so I listed Joe Navarro's follow-up to Phil Helmuth Presents: Read'em and Reap on our site without any details: What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-Reading People. Everyone (hopefully) knows that we read each book that comes in so we can write a description that (hopefully) will tell you whats really so good about a book, not just what the press piece on the back of the book says.

A quick flip through the book shows still more of what made his previous book so popular: updated concepts and insights into our bodies' tells, illustrated throughout. I remember reading somewhere that for 84% of people, visual learning is their 1st or 2nd most effective learning type, so I won't be surprised if with What Every BODY is Saying even readers with a ailing enthusiasm for reading can pick this book up and begin immediately to know what to look for in the set of non-verbal communications that we normally call body language.

Just like Read'em and Reap, it's a wonder how they distilled Joe's 25 years of service, and his PhD in psychology into an accessible and lightweight volume. It's very professionally written and produced, as you can tell by looking at the comprehensive index.

For me, the most intriguing chapter (unfortunately one of the shortest), is Detecting Deception, wherein he advises the reader,

"...you must realize your impact on the actions of a suspected liar...How you ask the questions (accusingly), how you sit (too close), how you look upon the person (suspiciously), will either support or disrupt their comfort level. ...it negatively intrudes on the interview. First and foremost, unmasking liars is not about identifying dishonesty, but rather it is about how you observe ... others in order to detect deception. ...it is about the collection of nonverbal intelligence. The more you see (clusters of behavior), the more confidence you can have in your observations, and the greater chances for perceiving when someone is being untruthful."

Joe Navarro has written over 20 books, and is an incredible talent. Sadly he is so popular, he is on assignment and won't be able to visit our booth during the World Series of Poker Gaming Life Expo from July 3 - July 6 (more info in that soon!).

Posted by Fig