There are at least as many variations of poker as there are cards in a deck. Yesterday the game most favored by professional poker players was Texas hold'em. Today it is hold'em's close cousin, Omaha. By far the most prevalent form of poker in Europe for the past two decades, Omaha is now enjoying a tremendous surge in popularity in the United States, thanks largely to its reputation as an action game. In Farha on Omaha, Sam Farha, the world's greatest Omaha player, and Storms Reback, a noted poker writer, offer simple tips that will help transform those new to the game into winning players. The authors provide strategies on how to beat the three most popular forms of Omaha--limit, eight-or-better, and pot-limit--in both cash games and tournaments. Sam Farha, one of the best professional poker players in the world, is best known for having finished second in the main event of the 2003 World Series of Poker. He plays in the biggest cash games in the world, including regular stints in the famed Big Game in Las Vegas. He has won two gold bracelets at the World Series of Poker, in the $2,500. Pot-Limit Omaha event in 1996 and the $5,000 Omaha High-Low Eight-or-Better event in 2006. After playing at the highest stakes in the world for nearly three decades, he has earned a reputation as one of the greatest Omaha players on the planet. Now for the first time, he shares with readers the inside secrets of how to beat not only the legions of amateurs flocking to this hot "new" game but accomplished professionals, as well. Providing practical advice and advanced strategy tips, and discussing specific hands from his victories at the World Series of Poker and high-stakes cash games in which millionsof dollars were on the line, Farha on Omaha promises to turn beginners into winning players and winning players into champions.

This "raucous retelling of the life of a consummate gambler, grifter and quintessential American character" (Kirkus Reviews) introduces Alvin "Titanic" Thompson (1892-1974), who traveled with golf clubs, a .45 revolver, and a suitcase full of cash. A terrific read for anyone who has ever laid a bet, Titanic Thompson recaptures the colorful times of a singular figure.

When you think of 'gambling' you might think of Vegas casinos, betting shops and football flutters but the risk of gambling is embedded in numerous corners of popular culture that many of us consume. By considering the concept of 'soft gambling', No Dice asks how we could possibly link the Pokemon Trading Card Game with gambling. Can we compare Netflix to a night at the theatre? When does fictional gambling within video games go too far with their infamous loot boxes? Does such risk affect everyone or are socio-economic divides driving further inequality? No Dice explores the messy world of gambling and risk that we encounter regularly, from childhood through adulthood, considering if it is worth the risk and if we even know what risks we might be taking.

Why is there a twelve on the cover of this blackjack book instead of the usual twenty-one? No blackjack author in their right mind would put a hand of twelve on the cover. Glen Wiggy did--he is full of surprises like that. Part how-to manual, part memoir, 1536 Free Waters and Other Blackjack Endeavors--Finding Profit and Humor in Card-Counting chronicles Wiggy's amusing experiences while playing blackjack during more than eight hundred casino visits from January 2001 until June 2008. It also introduces blackjack card-counting in a fun and easy-to-learn format.

In addition to the everyday casino patrons, starving puppies, angry pit bosses, French doughnuts, talking sea gulls, and 1536 bottled waters make unforgettable appearances in these entertaining stories tailored for casual blackjack gamblers. For players pursuing the game for serious profit, Wiggy also presents practical tips on

- Aspects of blackjack basic strategy- Fundamentals of card-counting- Techniques for managing money- Dangers of greedy gambling behavior

Unlike most blackjack strategy guides, 1536 Free Waters and Other Blackjack Endeavors won't teach you how to "kill" the dealer or make a living playing the game. Instead, you'll learn basic strategy and introductory card-counting skills that give you enough confidence to approach the table with a positive attitude and reasonable expectation of winning. Plus, you'll learn what to expect from the cards and the wonderfully strange people and places you may encounter. Enjoy the ride.

"Undoubtedly, the most enjoyable blackjack book I've read in my twenty years as the editor of a gambling publishing company. It had me laughing out loud."--Deke Castleman, editor for Huntington Press

Read more at www.blackjackstories.com.

Learn how to play and win at the game of poker Chiapelli's Live Poker Strategies, a book written for novice and experienced players alike, features live poker games like Seven Card Stud, Omaha, and Texas Hold'em. Understanding the fundamentals of heavily popularized and celebrity-studded games of poker doesn't have to be an impossible or difficult feat. Written for the average person, this unique book is guaranteed to both entertain and educate any player worldwide. Included are modern, easy-to-follow illustrations on winning poker hands as well as new topics that often go unaddressed such as gaming etiquette, online poker, and poker room environments across the United States. With a no-nonsense approach that is sure to guide beginners and even the most experienced players into success, this book will prove to be the most beneficial one of its kind. Advocating good entertainment and responsible gambling, Chiapelli's Live Poker Strategies book is a must read for people of all ages Larry Chiapelli is an experienced poker player and owner of a successful floral nursery called Gramma's Gardens in Troy, Michigan. In addition to boosting his family business, Mr. Chiapelli plans to travel more by playing poker across the United States and around the world. Publisher's website: http: //sbpra.com/LarryChiapelli

Learn how to play and win at the game of poker Chiapelli's Live Poker Strategies, a book written for novice and experienced players alike, features live poker games like Seven Card Stud, Omaha, and Texas Hold'em. Understanding the fundamentals of heavily popularized and celebrity-studded games of poker doesn't have to be an impossible or difficult feat. Written for the average person, this unique book is guaranteed to both entertain and educate any player worldwide. Included are modern, easy-to-follow illustrations on winning poker hands as well as new topics that often go unaddressed such as gaming etiquette, online poker, and poker room environments across the United States. With a no-nonsense approach that is sure to guide beginners and even the most experienced players into success, this book will prove to be the most beneficial one of its kind. Advocating good entertainment and responsible gambling, Chiapelli's Live Poker Strategies book is a must read for people of all ages Larry Chiapelli is an experienced poker player and owner of a successful floral nursery called Gramma's Gardens in Troy, Michigan. In addition to boosting his family business, Mr. Chiapelli plans to travel more by playing poker across the United States and around the world. Publisher's website: http: //sbpra.com/LarryChiapelli Author's website: www.ChiapellisPoker.com

The Eastern approach to Feng Shui practice is timeless while from the Western perspective it is timely. Feng Shui is Chinese in origin while the casino game of craps is American in design. For the first time in print, the author advocates the use of this Eastern approach to enhance the player's chances of winning at casino craps. No book to date has addressed the influence and role of Feng Shui in craps or the subject of craps and Feng Shui together.

The book has an affluence of new material heretofore not published, such as the concept of the Circle of Chi, the flow chart of Feng Shui concepts, which eventually leads to a craps table, the statistical validation of the number 7 coming out more often, after a die accidentally falls off the table, dice presetups, medical tenets germane to the Yin and Yang concept, Feng Shui of selected casinos, and much more.

The superstitions that thrive at a craps table are presented with humor and insight. Learn about Chi management that is as pivotal as money management in augmenting one's chances of winning at craps.

He played in casinos around the world with a plan to make himself richer than anyone could possibly imagine -- but it would nearly cost him his life.

Semyon Dukach was known as the Darling of Las Vegas. A legend at age twenty-one, this cocky hotshot was the biggest high roller to appear in Sin City in decades, a mathematical genius with a system the casinos had never seen before and couldn't stop -- a system that has never been revealed until now; that has nothing to do with card counting, wasn't illegal, and was more powerful than anything that had been tried before.

Las Vegas. Atlantic City. Aruba. Barcelona. London. And the jewel of the gambling crown -- Monte Carlo.

Dukach and his fellow MIT students hit them all and made millions. They came in hard, with stacks of cash; big, seemingly insane bets; women hanging on their arms; and fake identities. Although they were taking classes and studying for exams during the week, over the weekends they stormed the blackjack tables only to be harassed, banned from casinos, threatened at gunpoint, and beaten in Vegas's notorious back rooms.

The stakes were high, the dangers very real, but the players were up to the challenges, consequences be damned. There was Semyon Dukach himself, bored with school and broke; Victor Cassius, the slick, brilliant MIT grad student who galvanized the team; Owen Keller, with stunning ability but a dark past that would catch up to him; and Allie Simpson, bright, clever, and a feast for the eyes.

In the classroom, they were geeks. On the casino floor, they were unstoppable.

Busting Vega$ is Dukach's unbelievably true story; a riveting account of monumental greed, excess, hubris, sex, love, violence, fear, and statistics that is high-stakes entertainment at its best.

A history and analysis of gambling in the United States from bingo to state lotteries to Indian gaming and the rise of Las Vegas, this book reveals how we have become a nation of gamblers and what the future holds for the gambling industry. From the colonial era to the present, Americans have enjoyed a love-hate relationship with gambling. It is a pastime that has gone from sin to recreational activity, and an industry that has moved from control by organized crime to management by executives with MBAs. While gaming is one of the nation's fastest-growing industries, Barker and Britz predict that this process will slow or stop in the next century as the result of market saturation and unknown social and economic effects which loom over the glitz, glamour, and action.

Providing the latest information on the nature and extent of legalized gambling in the United States, this study examines why we gamble and how the relative impact of the activity differs in certain segments of the population. Legalized gambling is, at best, problematic behavior with both good and bad consequences. State-sponsored gambling, both in the form of monopolistic lotteries and in tribal casinos, does to some extent call into question the proper role of the state or tribal nation in promoting a potentially harmful activity among its citizens. States that have looked to legalized gambling as a source of economic salvation may soon experience difficulties as gambling venues multiply and unregulated Internet gambling becomes more widespread.