5 comments about Million Dollar Video Poker.

1. As a professional gambler and gambling book writer (Casino Gambling for Fun and Profit: Second Edition), I can say that Dancer is the premier VP strategist and player on the scene today, and this book represents the success he's earned for hard work involved in the thousands of hours he's sat before the video poker screen. (He is also an excellent dancer.) I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
   J. Edward Crowder, Ph.D.



2. As an experienced VP player, I'm rating this book just as a fun read -- something to kill time while on your way to Vegas, Reno, or AC. I just wanted to know more about Dancer's life and what propelled him to decide to be a professional gambler. This isn't about agreeing or disagreeing with his methods -- just a fun read to see how a professional player got where he is today. Think of it on the level of admiring a film director alot and wanting to read about him/her -- you're probably not going to go out and make a movie, but you enjoyed hearing about his/her life.
   
   I've sent a couple of these books to friends of mine who also play VP and they loved them.



3. Even though he won over $1 million in a five-month period, he had to put most of his winnings back into the machines in order to win the next big jackpot. Mathematically his strategies are probably perfect, but that doesn't put money into my pocket. I've played video poker using his strategies and I lose every time. I guess if I had a bankroll of $80,000 to spend I would eventually win a jackpot, but then what's the sense if I win a jackpot of $40,000 when I'm already down by $60,000??!!! The book is a nice story about his life while earning a living at video poker, but his real earnings these days are from the sale of books, strategy cards, and video poker CDs.



4. Thought this was a how to book to playing video poker. Instead it was the author bragging about how good he was at the game. Boring!!!!!!



5. This is not a book on playing strategy. It's more an autobiographical account of how the author extracted over a million dollars from the casinos. Many of his tactics are described in great detail. The really amazing thing is that anyone would be so candid about his personal life and the things he's done, and how he rationalizes doing things that many people might consider unethical, immoral or perhaps even illegal. One sentence on page 170 is especially revealing: "I'd had a lot of people work with me, get mad at me, and want nothing more to do with me." He seems to delight in being disliked.
   There are many good recommendations, such as learning a game thoroughly before playing it and continuing to practice on a trainer program so that your skills don't deteriorate. I especially liked the section titled "The care and feeding of slot hosts." Flattery and gifts (bribes) will get you over a lot of hurdles.
   On the very first page of the text, Bob shows his disdain for less than perfect players. Consider a Jacks or Better hand containing a suited J-10, an off-suit King, and two low cards, one of which may or may not be a flush penalty card. The "best" play when there is no penalty card is the J-10 (highest EV by 0.01). I could go into a mathematical analysis discussing how infrequent such a decision occurs, and how frequently there is a penalty card, thus making the K-J the best play in the vast majority of cases, but Bob would come back with dozens of other trivial situations. Therefore, I'll simply point out that several respected analysts have shown that a penalty-card-free strategy comes much closer than 0.01% off of perfect play, and even my easy-to-follow Precision Play rules come within 0.01% of the game EV. That's less than one dollar (a cheap cup of coffee) on $10,000 action, not just on the example type of hand, but the total for all penalty card situations. That may be important for the 50 or so truly professional players (Bob's estimate), but the rest of us would probably lose more expected gain through playing errors and reduced playing speed when trying to follow perfect strategy.
   In spite of Bob's insistence upon perfection in playing strategy, he says he never uses a mathematical risk of ruin calculation. He uses the "3-to-5 royals rule" instead. For example, for a game with a $1000 royal, he is happy with a $3000 to $5000 bankroll. On Deuces Wild that figures to a modest 7.4% to 21% risk of ruin, but on Double Bonus Poker (one of Bob's favorite games), it's 61% to 74%. Most serious players would feel that he is often playing way over his bankroll. A few pages later he says, "...I learned that one pro had lost $80,000 on the [$5 15/10] Loose Deuces play at the Frontier. Wow! I had no idea that a loss of this magnitude was possible." A quick run with the Sorokin formula reveals a 39.5% probability of losing an $80,000 bankroll on that game. $80,000 is four royals. So much for the "3-to-5 royals rule." I might risk a few hundred dollars with a 40% risk of ruin, but not $80,000.
   To be fair, however, we must acknowledge that Bob doesn't play where his advantage is only about 0.1% on the game itself. Slot club rebates, comps and promotions add a lot to the expected value, with a corresponding reduction in risk of ruin. Still, I would want to estimate the total value to me of such amenities and incorporate that into a mathematical risk of ruin calculation.
   As he has done so often in the past, Bob goes out of his way to criticize others' work, and the facts be damned. On page 41, he says, "I'd picked up Dan Paymar's 8th edition of Video Poker Precision Play. His Jacks or Better strategy was an eye opener. It was considerably more complex than Wong's, but, as I learned as I went along, full of mistakes. Still, it gave me added insight. In a footnote in one of Paymar's appendices, he'd written that you should hold a suited high card-10 over two unsuited high cards unless there was another card suited with the high card-10."
   That's apparently his best example that my strategy is "full of mistakes," but the error is entirely his. The footnote in question can be none other than note "m" on page 57. Quoting verbatim from that edition, "`Honor-10 suited' means A-10, K-10, Q-10 or J-10 of the same suit. Don't hold a suited 10 with an ace if the jackpot is less than 940-for-1, and don't hold a 10 with any honor if any discard is the same suit or a straight card." Nothing at all is said of two unsuited high cards in this note, but in the hand rank table to which it refers, "Two honors (unsuited)" is just above "K-10, Q-10, J-10 suited." How does Bob interpret this to say that a suited high card-10 should be held over two unsuited high cards? Moreover, his error was pointed out to him when he wrote the same thing several years ago.
   On page 125 he says, "... Jokers Wild is an extremely difficult game to play.... Paymar's [strategy] was probably the best and I estimate it generated a return that was still at least .25% less than perfect." Actually, unless you're trying to be as perfect as Bob, Joker Wild is much easier to learn than Double Bonus, and an independent expert has determined that my hand rank table comes within 0.02% of perfect. Bob's "estimate" was off by more than an order of magnitude.
   On page 175 Bob says, "Today, Dan Paymar's Video Poker Optimum Play... is currently the best book on how to play video poker on the market." Thanks for the compliment, Bob. It's too bad you were unable to resist the temptation to say that it's full of errors. You wrote a long harangue (your word) on those "errors" several years ago, and I showed that altogether they added up to less than 0.01% of the total game EV. Jazbo Burns confirmed that, using his proprietary strategy analysis software.
   It's a minor point, but many places in the book Bob refers to a payoff as, for example, 800 to 1. I'm surprised that Anthony Curtis didn't edit this to the mathematically correct 800-for-1 (the "1" is not returned with the payoff). The difference is small on a royal flush (but still large if you view small errors as Bob does), but on a pair of jacks there's a 100% difference between 1-for-1 (returning your bet, which is just a push) and 1-to-1 (a real win of an amount equal to your bet, as on a winning craps pass bet).
   In summary, Million Dollar Video Poker is a very important book for anyone considering doing business with Bob, as it gives great insight into his ethics and morals. It is also important for anyone intent on becoming a professional gambler, no matter whether your game of choice is video poker, blackjack or anything else. Perhaps the most important lesson is that Bob spent several years learning how to take advantage of every potential opportunity, during which he made far less than he could have earned in a regular job in spite of admittedly stealing from the casinos (page 88). If you are not up to the task, the book will hopefully dissuade you from the attempt.
   By far the most valuable part of the book is the final chapter, "Winning is a Process, Not an Event." These four pages give the best advice I've ever read for a wannabe professional gambler. If you buy the book, do it for this section.
   The goal of making big money playing video poker boils down to a lot of hard work that would likely have yielded even greater rewards in a productive endeavor. And it's getting even harder as the casinos learn to structure promotions to be less vulnerable to pros.
   On page 210 Bob says that Deuces Wild is much more fun than Jacks or Better. I consider it very significant that this is the only time in the book where he says anything about video poker being fun. But don't despair; you can still have fun playing video poker as a skilled recreational player and supplement your income without all that work if you start with the strategy book that Bob recommends.

5 comments about Threats of the Galaxy (Star Wars Accessory).

1. I've just started playing star wars TRPG and this book is very usefull for those starting out.



2. This book, Threats of the Galaxy, is a great addition to the Saga edition game. It provides over 100 stock characters, a couple of new character trees and a couple of vehicles. So, is this product for the just gamer who is always a character and never a GM, probably not. Because it is for the most part characters, the everyday player won't find much use out of it.



3. I'm a fan of both the Star Wars Saga Edition, and the new 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons. I picked up the new 4th Ed material including the Monster Manual (MM) before picking up Threats of the Galaxy (TotG, a Star Wars "Monster Manual"). Unfortunately, the quality of the two could not be further apart. While I understand the intent of the authors of TotG, I certainly feel that they could've borrowed much more heavily from the style and layout that the MM offers to the GM. The layout isn't nearly as tight, and the lack of pictures for the NPCs is glaring when put side by side. The way the MM displays each race, giving you information and tactics for every iteration of that monster really helps the GM in crafting tactical, intelligent, believable enemy NPCs. TotG does none of this.
   
   TotG also intersperses actual game mechanics throughout the NPC entries, instead of compiling this into a "New Game Mechanics" section at the end. This requires the reader to hunt and peck throughout the whole book to find that game mechanic that now wants to be used. Bad layout! What makes this most frustrating is that since the book was released in May of '08, the authors must have had access to what was being produced for 4th Edition, and could've seen the improved layout and incorporated it into their product. Either this is a horrible lack of communication, or a horrible oversight of WotC's product management. I'm obviously not suggesting that they should've updated Saga Edition to 4th Edition, but layout and tactics is not a 4th Edition game mechanic. It's just good sense.
   
   While I plan on using TotG as a reference, I am certainly going to have the MM right next to it, trying to cross-reference Star Wars NPCs with similar monster tactics and powers in the MM. It's a pain for the GM that the TotG authors could have alleviated by taking a look around at the new direction RPGs at WotC are taking.



4. Threats of the Galaxy is the first of the many great sourcebooks for the Star Wars RPG coming out this year. The Threats of the Galaxy sourcebook is the ultimate source for all villians in the Star Wars Universe: Darth Maul, Stormtroopers, Crime Lords, Gamblers, Dark Jedi, and all other creatures of the galaxy, including NPC that can aid PCs: such as Jedi Knights, Jedi Masters, and other characters. Much like a Monster Manul for D&D, Threats of the Galaxy is a perfect selection of NPCs and enemies to go through with both PCs and GMs.



5. What "Threats of the Galaxy" provides is tons of character types and a few creatures and droids for your characters to beat up and dispose of. You could think of this as the Monster Manual for the Star Wars universe. GMs will find this to be very useful for their campaigns. However, there isn't much help for scaling the levels of NPCs or creatures, so you'll still have to bit of work. Also, there isn't much support for creating your own characters or creatures. You'll have to hunt and peck for types of characters that will be able to match the levels of the characters in your campaign. It's a bit of inconvenience, but the characters that are in this book are very solid.

5 comments about Knock-Out Blackjack: The Easiest Card-Counting System Ever Devised.

1. This is a good book if you want to become a casual card counter. If you are planning on quitting your job and becoming a professional blackjack player, you would certainly need more than this, but the "Johnny (or Jane) Weekend" player that just wants to not get killed by the casino should read and study this book. My favorite part of Vancura and Fuchs's system is the fact that there is no need to clumsily estimate how many decks are left and divide that number into the running count to obtain the true count. K-O Blackjack is a mathematically sound counting system which involves much less effort and study than even the Hi-Lo system. Highly recommended!



2. This system will not work.
   
   Let's assume your playing in a 6-deck game. This system has you start your running count at -20, with -4 or higher as the "key" (The point at which you bet high). Using the KO method, after all of the decks are counted through the count will be +4. Does anyone else see the flaw here? Let's say you have a count of -3. This system tells you to bet high (Even suggesting 10 betting units!). But think about it, if a deck completely counted through will end up at +4, then there's a better chance that you'll be drawing low cards, meaning the dealer actually has the advantage. Put simply, if you use this system YOU WILL BE BETTING HIGH WHEN THE DEALER HAS THE ADVANTAGE. If I'm wrong then correct me, please. But I believe this is a very faulty system. If you win anything using it, count it off as luck. Eventually it will ruin you.
   
   This book explains other counting systems as being near impossible for the average person to learn; even explaining how difficult the Hi-Lo system is (Bull). The Hi-Lo system is still the easiest effective counting system (Explained well in Wong's "Professional Blackjack") with the Omega II being one of the most powerful (Beautifully explained in "Blackjack for Blood" by Bryce Carlson). I highly recommend either one of those two systems.
   
   There is a note in this book about the notion of blackjack books being put out by casinos to sort of sabotage counters with false tips. I believe this may very possibly be one of those books. Avoid, avoid, avoid.



3. If you are an amateur, which you probably are if you are reading this, stop reading right now. Get out your credit card and order this book.
   
   I ordered this book a little over a year ago, and since then I am 8-1-1 in my last 10 casino visits. I am UNDEFEATED (too many games to count) in local private games with low table limits, which are fairly common here in this college town. This was all after practicing card counting for 30 minutes per day for about a month.
   
   This is the most effective simple system you can learn to use. Forget about hi/lo. Knock-Out is an unbalanced system, which means there is no need to keep a true count. This is extremely valuable in a casino environment when you have cocktail watresses grabbing you every 10 minutes and the guy beside you won't shut his trap. Order this book, get a deck of cards, print off the strategy tables and go to work.



4. I usually don't write reviews, but I decided to on this one, because there are some reviews that are idiotic. So, let me share with you my experience. Not only have I read this book, I have actually USED the system. Not only have I used this system, I have also used Hi-Low, and Hi-Low OptI. This book specifically tells you why he wrote it from the beginning, and mentioned all the ins and outs of the count. It is well written, and if you have IQ over 50, you'll understand it. Now the real story.
   
   Basically unbalanced count was developed for the "real" world. Why, try Hi-Low OptI count for 8 hours at a packed casino. Try going there 8pm on friday night, and see if you'll find a table with 3 players only. LOL. You won't. Hi-Low OptI is very draining on your mental fatigue, I doubt even 20 year pros can keep doing it for that long. What they have to do is, do it for an hour and move on to another casino, or table after break. Same with Hi-Low, although easier, it is mentally taxing. I actually sat at a same table ($15) and played for 8 hours straight using KO. It's taxing, but not so much as balanced system. That's what it is designed for.
   
   The book comes out telling you that it's not good as balanced count system, but by miniscule fraction! BJinsider did a great article (i think it's newsletter 29 - free) that showed how KO, Red7, BlackA did against Hi-Low on a 6-deck. Hi-Low was .68% gain, vs .67% for Red7, .65% for KO and .63% for BlackA. The great thing is you don't have to take his word for it. You can download some of these testing softwares or buy it, and run the test yourself, and you should get a similar results.
   
   Now, the final point. All these statistics for counting are using A LARGE # of hands played, to minimize noise and get the actual true "worth" of the system. Remember, you have to play over million hands to actually see these results. .65% is little over 1% advantage over the house. You ain't going to make thousands consistently playing 500-600 hands a week. That why there was the mit "TEAM". They main objective is to get as many hands played possible (they also cheated little using team work, but we'll leave that for another day). If you can get 45-60 hands/hour, you can probably play 10-12 hours/day with break in between. that's like 600 hands avg a day. You have to play 7x600 = 4200 hands. 4200x50 = 210K hands. Do that for 5 years, and maybe you'll stiff 6 figure gain. You want a LIFE like that? (exaggerating little bit, but you get the point)
   
   So, what I'm trying to say is KO is a GREAT system for casual players, as this book was written for. It's also a good system for pros, since it's similar to Hi-Low in returns. Don't expect to leave the casinos with a whad of cash, if you're lucky it can happen. I once made over $2k playing $15 table in 2.5 hours. So, it's possible with KO. But you gotta be lucky too. Because I've also been busted couple of times too ($400 max each session). It's over the long haul he's talking about. Oh, unbalanced system becomes more accurate as deeper you penetrate the deck, so don't go crazy early on. wait for 3-4 decks to be gone, so each deck you'll only have 2 or 3 chances to bet big. That's still good enough if you get lucky, since odds are with you. I played many shoes that I didn't even get to bet big, it's ok. This is the grind. Big spreads are best, but can get heat, so learn some stealth from this book or other books. Go there to have fun, make some money if you are lucky, just don't expect to be rich unless you plan on 12h x 7d x 50wks x50yrs BJ life. Hope this helps.
   
   Edit: I forgot to add this tidbit, since I mostly play AC and they only have shoe games. But for 1 or 2 deck games, I'd recommend learning the Hi-Low as you want more accurate count then. But for shoes games KO and Red7 is just as nice.



5. I bought a copy of this book 10 years ago, and have won money at blackjack almost every time that I *diligently* followed this system.
   
   And...you must practice, practice, practice to be successful!

5 comments about Easy Origami.

1. i got this for my 6 kids and they've used it so much, the pages are falling out.



2. I like this book because the pictures and instructions were very clear. The difficulty of each piece is labeled. It is a good book for teaching children the art of Origami.



3. This book had several origami projects that every single student I had could be successful at. Good instructions. Very pleased.



4. I brought two of these books for my son and they were both easy to use and alot of fun.



5. This is a good starter book as it claims to be.. but as I leafed through it I realized that anyone who has had even some remote experience with origami or paper crafts will find this book ... perhaps too basic.
   
   I was hoping for at least a couple of more 'exciting' or slightly advanced projects at the end of the book, but the book stays simple till the end. Also, paper with both coloured sides looks better even for some of the basic designs.
   
   Other than that, it offers exactly what it says on the cover.

5 comments about Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy Gift Set.

1. Well some say that Lord of The Rings is the best Fantasy series ever written.
   
   Well I am sorry, but Dragon lance is the TRUE lord of the rings.
   
   this books (that I read back then in the 80's ) are true fantasy novels.
   simply great, the characters, the complexity of the plot, is something that should turn into a movie as soon as possible.
   
   it is sad to see today that people are so in love with Harry potter, I suggest to those kids to read the series who started it all.



2. This series is very similar to Lord of the Rings, however it has many things that are not found in Lord of the Rings. The descriptions of places and people are detailed in the effect of what we would notice in real life. There are some good and unique points in the story line but the characterizing is too similar to Lord of the Rings to suite my taste. But if you have read Lord of the Rings, you will see some similarities that may make this series not quite as interesting as others that are more unique. But I think this series is worth the read.



3. The basic storyline, although not particularly inspiring or memorable, is entertaining and absorbing. To their credit, the authors have attempted to give their world color and texture and have likewise attempted to give some depth to their characters. Unfortunately, they aren't really good enough writers to pull it off. Descriptions of places tend to be gaudy, garish, and implausible. Their effort to create emotional depth in their characters manifests itself in gross, oversimplified ways, resulting in unbelievable, one-dimensional characters. For instance, the hero of the series, Tanis Half-Elven, struggles with his mixed parentage. Okay, well and good. But the authors failed to give him any other personality traits, so Tanis' responses, to everything from being attacked by a dragon to be offered a cup of tea, are limited to absurdly overblown fits of racial angst. A for effort, C for execution. Similarly, the dialogue between characters is unfailingly forced, contrived, and comically melodramatic. At times, I find myself wondering whether English is perhaps not the authors' native language, as they seem to frequently employ words which don't fit the context, suggesting that they either don't understand the meanings of the words they're using, or simply have adolescent stylistic tastes.
   
   Still, I've come to realize that one cannot expect Tolstoy in the fantasy genre (although I keep hoping that one day a serious writer will undertake it). And, for a trash novel, it's makes for a decent read.



4. Let me start by first outlining the conditions under which I endeavoured to read the Dragonlance Chronicles.
   Relatively recently I developed an interest in the Fantasy Genre and thus decided to explore its various sub-genres; immerse myself in Fantasy's myriad "worlds".
   So, having done some preliminary research on the internet, and diligent perusing in my local Borders bookstore, I came to appreciate the fundamentals of the genre: Sword & Sorcery Vs Epic Fantasy; the 1960s and 1970s Vs the 1980s; biblical length trilogies Vs Short story masters etc etc.
   My introduction into fantasy began with Stephen Donaldsons 'Chronicles of Thomas Covenant'. The first trilogy, though controversial and much debated by the genre's enthusiasts, I found to be superb. Soon, however, the intricacy and scope of "Epic" fantasy faded into the pretentiousness and monotony of unnecessrily LONG books.
   Having felt that I had strayed too far in one direction, I next turned my attention to the other end of the spectrum.
   Fritz Leiber's 'First Book Of Lhankmar', though extremely well written and undeniably witty, rang too hollow for my taste. Robert E. Howards legendary 'Conan' stories, though hinting at something amazing in numerous stories, I found too "pulpy" nonetheless. I tried reading 'The Lord of the Rings', and twice got halfway through, but I just couldn't finish it.
   At last I came to understand what it was I wanted out of Fantasy fiction:
   1) I wanted a world I could immerse myself in, withouting drowning in unnecessary details.
   2) I wanted a darker, more realistic treatment of characters and characterization.
   3) I was willing to follow a trilogy or long series, provided that each successive novel was not a repeat of the original.
   
   So, having read the 'Dark Elf Trilogy' in its entirety (Forgotten Realms), I decided to give 'Dragonlance' a fair chance even though
   a) The cover art I found to be quite off-putting.
   b) I was worried the books were more for children than adults
   and
   c) I have a great dislike for all things elven and dwarfish.
   
   I must be honest, I only got halfway through the first volume of the 'Chronicles','Dragons of Autumn Twilight', before I just couldn't go on. The reasons are as follows:
   
   1) The characters are terribly mono-dimensional and cliche beyond description. Consquently the dialogue, in which it must be said the story drowns, is as captivating as watching drying paint. I became so adept at predicting EXACTLY what a character would say that I began to wonder if or not I was psychic.
   2) Cliches, cliches, cliches. The story died of cliches.
   3) It seemed as if Hickman and Weis deliverately tried to make the story as trivial as possible. But, there is a clear difference between banality and light-heartedness. The authors simultaneously sell this book as Epic and grand, yet they emphasize the happy-go-lucky nature of the characters and plot.
   
   In the final analysis I must advise against purchasing the 'Dragonlance Chronicles'. This book is not for adults. End of story.
   
   Thankyou for your time.
   



5. I've been reading fantasy for 30 years and gaming for 25 years, so I'm not sure how I made it so long without reading what I thought was a classic fantasy series. I don't know if my expectations for these books were too high, or if I waited too long to read them and they're oriented towards a younger audience, but this is some of the most disappointing writing I've encountered in quite some time.
   
   I really wanted to like Dragonlance, but the writing was incredibly simplistic and most of the characters too one-dimensional. Time after time, solutions to problems simply appear out of nowhere. It's not quite deus ex machinas, but it's close.
   
   Perhaps I've been spoiled by the intricate plots and rich characters of Robin Hobb, George R.R. Martin, and Robert Jordan, etc., but I almost didn't make it through. I did finish the trilogy as the storyline does improve a bit towards the end, but, with the benefit of hindsight, I wouldn't have chosen to read them.
   
   As such, I can only recommend Dragonlance for younger fantasy readers or those gaming in the Dragonlance world.

5 comments about Hold'Em Poker for Advanced Players (Advance Player).

1. 
   I was constantly breaking even before getting this book on online poker sites. After reading it, I took nearly all of the guesswork out of my playstyle and recently just bought a new guitar entirely with winnings.
   
   I recommend this book to anyone who already considers themselves decent at poker and already has good intuition as to spotting how others play to determine what they have... or don't have. This book will not probably help you with those things. This book is best for those who are already good at poker but either have their game strategy wrong or off a little.
   
   The best part of this book is it makes it much more easy to spot poor play from other people at your table and thus allows you to profit hugely from that.



2. I really am not a fan of the reviews, but I feel that I have the obligation to recommend this book because if you read it, you will understand better the others players' game, and the best of it you'll get a big edge over them.



3. Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players is simply the best single volume study of Hold 'em as it is played today that I have ever read. It is endlessly informative, rich in detail and illustrations, complex in its treatment of complicated concepts, and insightful in every important way. It omits nothing of any importance to the game.
   
   The book begins with a consideration of general starting hands requirements, adjusted for playing style, position, etc., and follows through on the play of each, as well as general considerations for each type or class of hand, and its relation to the innumerable factors impacting expectation or the play of other. Once this analysis is dealt with, Sklansky deals with a whole series of more individual or isolated cases or concepts and miscellaneous topics. The important details considered are too many to list here; Hold 'em played well is an enormously complex game, and Sklansky addresses it from every angle.
   
   Sklansky's writing style is very dense. He does not blather on about his personal experiences, drop names, or chat; he instructs in the style of a particularily dry math or statistics professor. He is direct, thorough, and exhaustive (sometimes exhausting). You will not read this book in one sitting and become a professional caliber player. You need to play, then return to the book and read much of it again; upon doing so the reader will find, again and again, that now he finally really understands some new concept. It is a work of extremely subtle and complex analysis.
   
   Nobody playing Hold 'em for money today can do without this book.



4. This book is extremely good for gaining a solid foundation of Texas Hold 'em. I read it on and off for around 6 months and realized that while I learned some valuable lessons and picked up important bits of information I need to read it over and over again to truly take in everything that is being said. For me it is like a good movie that you see once and figure you saw it all only to watch it again and pick up something new, then a while later watch it again and see even more that was missed.
   
   I highly recommend this book for students of the game. This is essential reading if you want to compete seriously. Even if you think you know it all and the book makes sense, read it carefully and understand that many serious players have read, re-read and learned significantly from this and the other classics. It will help your game.



5. Primarily for LIMIT HOLDEM not for no limit (which is my prefernace). This wasn't clear in the descriptive text.
   Excellent for Limit PLayers, but essentially a very different game than "NO LIMIT". For No LIMIT POKER you can do alot better than this.

1 comments about Psychology in Action, Study Guide.

1. The book that I purchased was in excellent condition and was mailed out to me very quickly. I really appreciated the promptness of the order, especially since I have heard stories from friends that they have waited weeks for products. I am very pleased to let everyone know that this seller was great to work with.

5 comments about Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street.

1. An insightful look under the hood at the factors affecting the money making process.
   With a lot of very interesting stories, from the mob all the way to Nobel prize winners on Wall Street, it shows the latent traps that can destroy the bankroll of investors, gamblers, and poker players.
   
   Any investor (or gambler) needs this book or he will risk losing his bankroll!



2. Having just finished Poundstone's book on Gaming the Vote, I was hoping for a book equally as interesting. Although this book was worth reading, and there are a few aspects from it that I will put into practice, I did not walk away wanting to quote it on a regular basis like I did Gaming the Vote.
   
   It gives an interesting historical overview of various scientists involved with gambling and the stock market, and it reviews the concepts involved. These parts were interesting, but truthfully not fascinating.
   
   The sections about Murder Inc, Boesky, Millken, and the junk bond collapse were much more interesting.
   
   In short, it is an interesting book and worth reading, but there are many other books I'd read first...



3. This is a nice look into the past systems of betting. Also nicely written and gives a good understanding of the Kelly formula. Was not quite what I thought it would be but was a nice book.



4. This book is a concise look at the evolution of formal investment theory, with continual contextual references to its ties to gambling and to organized crime. It also is a hilarious and insightful history of gambling from the Bernoulli's in the 1700s through the hedge fund traders of the late 1990's.
   
   The author devotes over 50 pages to notes and the index. This was appreciated since I wanted to look up more about so many of the anecdotes he included.
   
   Mr. Poundstone poignantly describes the downfall of high-flying firms such as LTCM, where the investment wizards went from the darlings of Wall Street to the dredges of the investment community in large part because they were so clever; and they started to believe they were infallible.
   
   One LTCM road-show presentation was held at the insurance company Conseco in Indianapolis. Andrew Chow, a Conseco derivatives trader, interrupted Scholes. "There aren't that many opportunities," Chow objected. "You can't make that kind of money in Treasury markets."
   Scholes snapped: "You're the reason - because of fools like you we can." (Page 281)
   
   Warren Buffett marveled at how "ten or 15 guys with an average IQ of maybe 170" could get themselves "into a position where they can lose all their money." That was much the sentiment of Daniel Bernoulli, way back in 1738, when he wrote: "A man who risks his entire fortune acts like a simpleton, however great may be the possible gain." (Page 291)
   
   He also points out the real world flaws in some theoretically appealing scams. The St. Petersburg Wager seems mathematically correct; yet it overlooks a vitally important constraint (pages 182-184). Another is the unfounded weight we unconsciously give to historical returns, as evidenced by his retelling of another Warren Buffett story:
   In a 1984 speech, Buffett asked his listeners to imagine that all 215 million Americans pair off and bet a dollar on the outcome of a coin toss. The one who calls the toss incorrectly is eliminated and pays his dollar to the one who was correct.
   The next day, the winners pair off and play the same game with each other, each now betting $2. Losers are eliminated and that day's winners end up with $4. The game continues with a new toss at doubled stakes each day. After twenty tosses, 215 people will be left in the game. Each will have over a million dollars.
   According to Buffett, some of these people will write books on their methods: "How I Turned a Dollar into a Million in Twenty Days Working Thirty Seconds a Morning." Some will badger ivory-tower economists who say it can't be done: "If it can't be done, why are there 215 us?" "Then some business school professor will probably be rude enough to bring up the fact that if 215 million orangutans had engaged in a similar exercise, the result would be the same - 215 egotistical orangutans with 20 straight winning flips." (Page 314)
   
   The author follows the lives of a few major contributors to investment theory, information theory, and betting theory: Claude Shannon, who invented Information Theory and paved the way for the digital computer age; John Kelly, who developed the formula for gains with no possibility of ruin; and Edward Thorpe, who built upon these findings and beat the roulette wheels, the blackjack tables and the investment fund managers.
   It's a fast read - only 329 pages before the notes and index. I highly recommend it!



5. Book was more than I expected. Tied in many stories dating back to the early 1900's and the beginning of AT&T. Excellent read, very entertaining and well researched.

3 comments about Learning Autodesk^® Maya^® 2008, (Official Autodesk Training Guide, includes DVD): The Modeling & Animation Handbook.

1. it is a great reference book!! I'm a student at animation major.. this is helping me all the time.. Also you can use this book for learning the software by yourself.. it is explaning and then give you assignments so you can understand the lesson well..
   
   good luck!!



2. This is the ideal guide for those who want to perfectionate his or her modelling skills. Extremelly usefull step by step tutorials. Highly recommened. Another score for Autodesk!



3. This is a really cool learning guide. It is geared a little more towards people who have a basic understanding of the Maya universe. If you have never used maya at all, it may be a little confusing. I suggest playing with the interface and going through the "Getting Started" lessons included with the Maya software before getting into this book.. The dvd contains support files for the lessons in the book. It would have been nice if it had some video reference. The pictures in the book aren't the best guides, so unless you understand the text, you may find yourself using more creative freedom to complete the models than actual tutoring. Still, it is a great reference and gives you all you need to create some complete models to practice building and animating. Hope this helps.

5 comments about True Vision: Authentic Art Journaling.

1. I have to say right up front I am one of the artists in this book. But aside from that I am really enjoying this book. There are so many layers to it. You can enjoy it for the eye candy factor alone....or you can look at it as a place to go to inspire you in your own work. I am at the moment looking at certain pages as a challenge. I am going through the book with my journal turned to the "ideas" page and jotting down new ideas I want to try. LK is an amazing artist. I am always blown away by her work. She has a great artist's eye. I think this books is aimed at journalers who are more to the visual journaling side rather than say a scrap booking artist but the cool thing is that there is so much cross over influence now. The lines are blurring and this is good for all artists. Great job LK and thanks for including me.



2. For those that do not know what ART JOURNALING is all about, then this book will certainly help to define the subject.
   
   If you are a beginner or even a mid-level Journal writer (or artist), I think that this book will come in very handy.
   
   L.K.Ludwig gives a wonderful introduction to this special subject, in the first few Introductory pages.
   
   Then, Ludwig follows-up the definition of "Artistic Journaling" by explaining how to use her book. For example, on the right hand side of each page, the author gives "prompts" to stimulate the reader's imagination. Then, inside a highlighted "box", the author gives TIPS on how to expand on each theme.
   
   Also, on the bottom of some of the pages, the author gives more prompts (as fill-in the blanks) to the get the readers' creative juices going.
   
   Along with all these "prompts" and "tips", each page shows these beautifully executed Journal pages by actual artists... All colorful and highly detailed.
   
   Also, Ludwig categorizes the main chapters into the following: relationships, the written word, current events, places, spaces, self-explorations, spirituality, dreams, etc.
   
   Therefore, this book by Ludwig will not only show some inspiring examples of Journal pages created by actual journal writers, but then Ludwig also gives the reader all the pre-requisite starting points in order to get the readers' creative juices going.



3. Maybe it's because my copy is from the second printing, but I didn't find the glaring editing mistakes another reviewer was appalled to find. I noticed a typo or two but that was the extent.
   True Vision packs a hefty punch. It will appeal to a mixed audience. There are basic and innovative prompts (on every other page) geared to those just discovering the world of art journaling, or making a leap from traditional scrapbooking to a deeper and/or more complex style. The written material is excellent. L.K.'s observations are thought-provoking and her instructions detailed, which will please everyone. She's collected a smashing selection of illustrative pages from the diverse journals of 3 dozen artists working in a wide array of media/styles. There are in-depth interviews with Katie Kendrick, Bee Shay, Traci Bunkers, Loretta Marvel, and Julianna Coles, artists who have made their names on the strength of their journal pages alone.
   In addition to specific techniques like inkjet image transfers and blind contour drawing, there are sections on developing personal 'symbols' and journaling on subjects of global impact. L.K. included a Vision Deck, a set of word prompt cards to spark any art journaler's creative fire.



4. True Vision is an excellent resource for journal artists. The open-ended prompts and ideas are geared toward more experienced art journalers. The book is well organized with interviews with some of the artists: thoughtful questions and answers.
   
   A great addition to your library if you love journaling.



5. I highly recommend this book. It is packed with loads of interesting material to inspire any budding artist. It has some amazing wonderful work from artists and is full of information and techniques for you to try out. The book also has interesting ideas and prompts written down on the right hand side of each page spread.A well set out book easy to read and awesome pictures of artwork.