No comments about HOW TO PLAY ROULETTE, CHEMIN DE FER AND BACCARAT.

2 comments about The Basics Of Winning Baccarat.

1. This book only teaches you the rules and nothing about how to win in baccarat. It deceptively set you up for purchasing the more expensive $20.00 book instead, so why did I need to buy this one.



2. This book is terrible. A complete waste of money. Luckily I bought it used and didnt pay full price. Nothing in this book to help you win or give you any strategies at all. Skip it.

No comments about Baccarat (Universe of Design).

5 comments about Beat The House: Sixteen Ways to Win at Blackjack, Roulette, Craps, Baccarat and Other Table Games.

1. The systems really work, that's why I gave it 5 stars, but it's too full of syrup to be a really enjoyable read.



2. I had gotten this book from the library about 6 years ago. After running it through the paces of a computer program, I did find that his systems do work.
   The systems are based on what goes up, must come down. Well, in real life, that is not always true, at least in your bankrolls time frame. You must use money management. Also, I have found that you MUST run several progressions at the same time. It helps you ride out the ones that have gone a bit long losing.
   I found his talk about poss. rigged casinos a bit dated. This was also written before online gambling, which would have been nice. He mentioned several times about the minimum table limits being too high, but they aren't too high online. Too bad those games were avoided because of this.
   His talk of God and other things eternal I thought was well done, and did not go on. Plus, you can skip right over it to the systems. Would like to compare notes with others sep2034athotmail.



3. The author takes the old D'Alembert system (he doesn't even spell it right)and lists various bet choices in casino games where you can try it. What's remarkable is that he recommends NOT trying many of the variations he suggests in the book. He then goes on to admit that this system, which has been proven over and over to fail (like any other progression), actually doesn't work in a real casino, and then tries to blame casino cheating! That, combined with his religious rantings that have nothing whatever to do with the subject at hand, lead me to seriously question this guy's grip on reality. In fact, one wonders why someone who is so worried about Satan and evil is encouraging gambling in the first place. His "Mathematical Analysis" sections contain neither math nor analysis. Send me your money instead and I'll recommend much, much better books.



4. This book looks interesting at first but after reading and re-reading it and studying and testing the various systems offered I can honestly say the book is worthless and you will lose a lot of money if you try Lembeck's systems at a casino, which the author admits he doesn't even do himself. Furthermore his assertions of "rigged" tables and that "you must stay invisible" and hop from table to table to place each bet are as ludicrous as his systems. The casinos have enough of a mathematical edge to all their games that they have no reason to rig anything, and I personally have sat with pad and paper at the roulette and baccarat tables hundreds of times taking notes and openly playing systems in full view of the players, the dealer, the pit boss and eye in the sky; short of using a computer or cell phone, the casinos could care less what you do at the roulette and baccarat tables because they are not worried about you beating them with a system, at least that has been my experience where I gamble in CT.



5. I bought this book based on its claim to provide mathematically sound analysis of gambling games, based on stock market strategies.
   
   Reading it led me to the conclusion that the author does not have even rudimentary knowledge of probability, expectation or house percentage. His "analysis" consists of doing sets of 100 rolls of dice on his kitchen table!
   
   He then goes on to the inescapable conclusion (to him) that the casinos are "cheating", since his schemes don't work there.
   
   I was so disgusted that I took the time to complain to the publisher, and ended up corresponding to the author himself, who repeated those claims. I even took the time to do a trivial analysis of his "half-peak" system, together with some extensive computer runs, just to show him how bad the systems are.

No comments about So You Wanna Be a Gambler: Baccarat.

No comments about Playboy's Guide to Casino Gambling: Craps, Blackjack, Roulette, and Baccarat.

2 comments about Winning Baccarat Strategies: The First Effective Card Counting Systems for the Casino Game of Baccarat.

1. This book is far too technical with computer decisions and very little help when i"in the trenches".The counting required is strenuous and I quit using his system when the deck was player favorable and the cards, in their random mix, failed to produce. a player could handle 2-3 shoes before burnout. The casino edge includes player burnout which causes stupid bets. Thats why the dealers change every 20 or so minutes. I have beaten bacarrat only when I anticipated the unexpected, a tie.



2. This book is a great SUPPLIMENT to other baccarat books, such as John May's Baccarat For the Clueless (a misleading title for great book) or Frank Scoblette's book on baccarat, the title which I have forgoteen but it has something to do with "attacking" the game. To get back on track, this book goes over possible counting strategies and various other good info, albeit in a technical manner, it concludes that although good situations do come up and card counting at baccarat can tell you when they do, it is simply not worth it. Even with the best counting system, you can barely pull a dollar an hour in expected value, so it's really not worth it, especially since games like blackjack can give you a helluva lot better edge. But if you want to learn some cover games to avoid heat and know more about the math of the game, this book is great. Get John May's book for a history and other methods besides counting for beating this game. I gave Winning Baccarat strategies 3 stars instead of four or five, is not because it's short, but because there is a section on ESP as a form of advantage play, which I find completely rediculous. But it's a good addition to your library, and although it's a bit stiff [money amount] it's the only book with a counting system and math and the rest of it.

1 comments about Facts of Baccarat.

1. Taught me everything I always wanted to know about baccarat but was afraid to ask. Now when I watch the high rollers I know whats going on. Sometimes I find a Mini Baccarat game and play $1 bets - and win, thanks to this little gem of a book!

5 comments about Beating the Casinos at Their Own Game : A Strategic Approach to Winning at Craps, Roulette, Slots, Blackjack, Baccarat, Let It Ride, and Caribbean Stud Poker.

1. Beating The Casinos At Their Own Game is a book you should consider if you'd like some help playing at the casinos. It's a well, written and nicely illustrated 278-page gambling guide with instructions for most of the games you'll find at any casino. The author, Peter Svoboda, knows his math because he has the credentials: a degree in both mechanical and civil engineering.

   You'll find casino basics in chapters 1 and 2 including some history, odds of winning and losing, what the casinos do to get you there, the house advantage, advice on managing your money and when to quit. And if you have a gambling problem, Peter will direct you to the right place. Chapters 3 through 13 list rules of the ten most popular casino games, with playing strategies and some betting systems you can try. The illustrations will help you learn the games and the math listed will explain the odds and probabilities of winning.

   Peter includes some known strategies for Craps, Roulette and Baccarat. So, if you're inexperienced at any of these games, you can take an expert with you to the casino. Peter also presents some of his own winning systems.

   If you've never been to a casino, but think you might want to try some of the games offered, I'd recommend studying this book before you enter. It has all the basic playing information you'll need to improve your chances of winning...




2. This is the first review I have written on Amazon. I felt compelled to write this to keep unsuspecting people from purchasing this book. I do not know the author, I am not an author, and I have no interests in whether this book does well or not. I am simply giving my opinion.

   Simply put, my problem with this book is that it is full of incorrect statements and poor advice which completely ignores probability theory. For example, on roulette, Mr. Svoboda actually says, "The house will always have a 5.26% edge, but you can increase your winning probabilities by playing it smart." What?!? When I read that, I knew he had a very weak grasp of probability theory. It is impossible to change the odds in roulette; they are fixed. You are always at a 5.26% disadvantage, no matter what your betting strategy is. Period. I suggest you run away from any book that asserts otherwise.

   The surprising thing is that in several parts of the book, Mr. Svoboda agrees that the casino has an advantage over the player in the long run. However, to overcome this, he recommends that players play in the short run! I couldn't believe that an engineer, and someone who supposedly understands mathematics and probability, would actually write such completely incorrect information. True, in the short run you may win, but odds are that you will lose. The percentage disadvantage you face does not change.

   Over and over, Mr. Svoboda asserts that his strategies increase your chances of winning. How can you increase your chances of winning if the odds against you are fixed? For example, after several pages of detailed and complex tables and charts, Mr. Svoboda admits that his craps betting strategy gives the house a 2% advantage. Yet he still advocates following his strategy, saying that you just need to know when to walk away when ahead. What he fails to mention is that you will be behind more often than you will be ahead.

   In games of chance and independent trials (such as craps, roulette and keno, to name a few), the house has a fixed percentage advantage over the player. This is a proven mathematical fact. There are no betting systems or strategies whish can change this percentage advantage. The only thing a player may do is bet slowly and bet the minimums in order to decrease the rate at which he loses. Gambling at these types of games should be viewed as paying for entertainment, not investing, as Mr. Svoboda suggests.

   Casinos love people with systems. Why do you think companies choose to spend $1 billion to build a new casino? Because they know that system betters will come in and lose more than that. Casinos exist because they make money for their owners. I had thought that with the advanced level of gaming theory available today, that books which advocated incorrect probability theory would become a thing of the past. Then I read Mr. Svoboda's book and realized I was wrong.

   On the plus side, the book does clearly state the rules of the games and the odds of winning. It has very pretty and colorful charts and tables. As a rule book, it is very good. However, as a strategy guide, you are much better off ignoring this book. Mr. Svoboda's assertion that "this book will help you learn how to level the playing field...and gain a return on your investment" is false. This book does not tell you how to even the odds against the house. The only return on investment you will get by following the advice in this book is negative.




3. I browsed through this book at the local bookstore. All I can say is don't take any pointers from this guy. He says before placing bets on "any craps", you should wait until the die hasn't produced craps for atleast 18 rolls???? He says after this the probability of any craps showing is 88 %. What is this all about? The truth is the odds of rolling craps is the same (11 %) regardless of how many times it's been rolled in the past. If you already own this book, I suggest you take your loss and throw it away.



4. Once I picked up this book I knew immediately I would breeze through the explainations easily. The text was well done and very readable = the charts, graphs and diagrams all came at the right time. The tid-bits about Mr Svoboda's experiences were fun to read, But.. most of all I was able to acquire a grounded knowledge of how to approach the games at any casino! Can't wait for the next book to come out from Mt Svoboda!! His knowledge and skills at communicating the nuances and the details of each game were very evident! Fun and easy lessons!!



5. I bought this book before heading to Vegas mainly because I wanted to brush up on the rules of blackjack. I was only going to have 4 hours there so i didn't want to waste any time getting ready to play. I found the second chapter and other sections that describe how things work in casinos (where to get your chips, what hand signals to give the dealer, etc) useful in keeping me from wasting time when i got there. The rest of it was worth reading to learn the rules of the games and to get me thinking about probabilities.

   Unfortunately, the logic's not always there and sometimes the data are wrong.

   Some examples:

   In the roulette section, he recommends that if you are going to bet on a single number, you should pick one that hasn't shown up in the past 20 spins. This, after explaining how a lot of people keep gambling on the faulty premise that if something hasn't happened in a while, it's likely to happen, and after describing bias in roulette tables, which would make a number more likely to re-appear if it HAS appeared multiple times before.

   In the blackjack section, I re-calculated the probabilities for each of the tables that he has in there, and while most of his numbers are right, some of them are off by as much as 5%. True, my numbers could be wrong, but since i wrote a computer program to do it (meaning that it did it consistently for each test), why would it be right for all but one value in the table? More likely, they are hand-copying or editing errors.

   I wrote software (yes, i'm a geek) to play the game, implemented his suggestions one by one, and played 100,000 hands with each to see what kind of improvement each one made. The fact is, if you play your hand just like the dealer (hold at 17+, hit below), you will win 48% of the time, lose 43% of the time, and push 9% of the time. If you implement all of his strategies, you will win 48% of the time, lose 43% of the time, and push 9% of the time (yup! exactly the same!). What's important turns out not to be how you play the game (in most of the strategies, you are trading busts for losing hands and vice versa), but how you BET. Using his doubling and splitting strategies lets you hang on to your money much longer before going broke (sometimes twice as long). In the blackjack section, he doesn't spend much time talking about betting.

   Lastly, and this applies to blackjack again, he claims that the casino's main advantage in blackjack lies in the fact that "the players must choose before the dealer whether or not to draw more cards." While it's true that you could play a lot better if you could see the dealer's cards, that is not what gives the casino the advantage. Remember, the dealer is basically a human machine -- it hits at < 17, holds at 17+. The dealer does not have the benefit of seeing EITHER of your cards, so that can't be the advantage. The casino's real advantage is that the player has one more losing condition than the dealer has. That condition occurs when both the dealer and the player bust. Other than that, if the player played exactly like the dealer, they would both do exactly the same. You cannot overcome this handicap. If you play conservatively such that you do not bust (which is where most of Svoboda's recommendations lead you), the percentage of hands you lose because the dealer has more points than you will go up.

   That's about it for now. Just wait till I read the other chapters, though!

4 comments about Winning at Casino Gambling.

1. A very good read. Will make you a better casino player if followed! Will also increase your winnings.



2. This book is about developing a winning philosophy for gambling. While it does include some strategic tips for playing casino games, the book does not set out to teach you how to play. Instead of focusing on the rules and strategy for individual games, it teaches money managment and how to maximize your chances of leaving the casino with more money in your pocket than you brought in. Lyle Stuart is an acknowledged gambling expert, and he offers up his own experiences in playing and watching casino games. Even though there is a bit too much self-congratulations throughout, his stories are entertaining, and he does a good job of explaining complex odds to the layman. This is a very useful book for anyone who has a basic understanding of casino play.



3. Who better to get advice about gambling than the man that casinos go to to learn how to protect themselves? Several time baccarat champion and casino advisor, Lyle Stuart has done it again.

   Lyle tells you which games to play and which to avoid like the plague. He gives odds and tips on how to win at the casinos and more importantly walk away a winner.

   He also entertains you with true stories of winning and losing millions in hours. If you only read one authority on gambling, Lyle is your man for honest, straight forward advice about casinos, gambling and not losing your shirt.




4. This book is an excellent memoir of one man's life in the casinos (in this case publisher Lyle Stuart). Well-written and engaging, the only reason it does not get five stars is because there is no mathematical way of beating games such as craps, baccarat, or blackjack (without counting, which is not covered in this book). Still, if you don't know how to properly gamble in a casino, this volume will help you. Very good!