Michael Kaplan is a journalist based in New York City. He has written extensively on gambling for publications such as Wired, Playboy, Cigar Aficionado, New York Post and New York Times. He is the author of four books including Aces and Kings: Inside Stories and Million-Dollar Strategies from Poker’s Greatest Players.
He’s been known to do a bit of gambling when the timing seems right.
Nobody likes losing money to casinos. But most of us put up with the financial beatings, accepting that they inevitably happen when you risk cash in games where the other side has the best of it. Some of us find legal ways to turn the tables. Maybe we card count or hole card or seek out lingering bonuses on slot machines.
Back in the day, being a casino dealer meant learning to shuffle cards in specific ways – with all kinds of artful riffles and passes – that were unique to different casinos. There were special cuts and reshuffles and a variety of techniques employed to make the cards as random as possible when they were dealt.
Bet a little to win a lot might as well be the mantra of every gambler. However, saying it and doing it are two completely different things. Short of winning the lottery or getting insanely lucky at the World Series of Poker, how does that life-changing score drop into your lap?
Gamblers playing casino games at an advantage love to camp out at the tables. They slowly make their money, hand by hand, as they deploy winning strategies that have them operating with an edge at games like blackjack, three card poker and even slot machines.
Unfortunately for them, casino bosses do not share their enthusiasm.
In the United States, the outcome of the presidential election, which will be decided on Nov. 5, is expressed primarily by people voting. In Great Britain and other jurisdictions around the world, it is expressed by people betting.