The best casiono books

Traders often ask me for a book that will teach them the nuts and bolts (pricing models, volatility, the Greeks, spread strategies, etc.,) of options and I always recommend this book. When I was learning options, the Natenberg book hadn’t been written and although there were “good” books on the topic, Natenberg is truly the gold standard for options traders.

As opposed to another “teach me how to trade” book, Hedge Hogs is the entertaining cautionary tale of Brian Hunter and his failure to manage risk at Amaranth (one of the largest commodity trading hedge funds until its demise in 2006). The book also showcases the trader that was “generally” on the other side of Amaranth’s bullish bets in natural gas, John Arnold of Centaurus Capital. Although this book won’t help you develop the casino paradigm as a speculator, it teaches valuable lessons of modelling for liquidity risk as well as not allowing a single opinion (namely, that natural gas would go up in 2006) to bankrupt you.

The four areas of a Las Vegas casino where you’d be likely to find the most professional gamblers would be the poker room, the blackjack pits, the race and sports book, and the video poker machines. Bob Dancer is one of the most successful video poker pros ever. He’s written numerous books on the subject, has put together highly-profitable video poker teams, and is widely recognized as the game’s top expert. This is his story about how he came to Las Vegas with $6,000 and within six years had won $1 million from playing video poker. Video poker is one of the most overlooked areas of professional gambling and one of the most accessible to players starting with a small bankroll.

This novel was written by two sweet authors who live not too far from me and they have a wonderful sense of humour. It’s an intriguing mystery that is worthwhile picking up! They also have another series called the Dorothy Dennehy Mysteries and I have designed those book covers as well!  

This is a novel based on Frederick’s own gambling addiction on the Mississippi riverboats. Ray and Jewel Kaiser love to gamble, until a fun night out becomes a compulsion. They find themselves showing up at the Paradise casino all hours of the day and night, becoming intimate with the employees and escalating their bets. After visiting the area, I knew the scenes in the casino ring true and the dialogue is so on point, that you root for Ray and Jewel even though in the back of your mind you know the house always wins. 

One of the best ways to understand the psychology of trading is through storytelling, seeing it through someone else’s eyes.

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator tells the story of Jesse Livermore who is considered one of the best traders to have ever lived. 

This book helped me understand the emotional gravity of what I was getting myself into. The book shares Jesse’s journey from starting in bucket shops to cornering the cotton market, to going broke and coming back and going broke again! 

If you’re going to get involved in trading, you need an understanding of not just the strategies but the emotions involved in trading. Reminiscences of a Stock Operator grabs you, sucks you in, and gets you feeling some of the emotional highs and lows that Jesse went through, and what to avoid.

If there’s anything I like as much as pirates, it’s heist stories. The excellent follow-up to the amazing Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas rang every one of my bells by taking our favorite thieving bastards Locke and Jean to sea, under the command of a strong, brilliant female captain, Zamira Drakasha. And she’s not just a woman pirate – she’s a middle-aged, Black single mother, running her ship and being the best pirate any denizen of the high seas could aspire to be. Lynch caught a good bit of flack for this character, but I was delighted. You will be, too.

Bukowski had a unique perspective on the world, and anyone who has read his work would most definitely agree. This book, which is a collection of some of Bukowski’s greatest pieces in my opinion, has a way of resonating with you on a personal level. Whether it be gaining a newfound perspective on the animals that scurry around our yards, or of a gambler wasting away in a casino on a Monday afternoon, Bukowski has a knack for bringing up the world’s problems in a way that is both depressing and humorous at the same time, while also giving peeks at his wit and charm as well.

Mark Douglas’ book focuses on practical tools and techniques to counter the gambling mentality that typifies speculative trading. He focuses on a more rational, math-based approach to participation in markets as a speculator. Although I was already a successful trader by the time I’d read Mark’s book, it reinforced that the tools and techniques I had developed to dampen emotionalism in the markets were sound.

The Heart of Redness is set in a rural Xhosa village on the Wild Coast of South Africa—a pristine environment threatened by a casino and hotel development. I used to visit this area on holidays as a child and was captivated by the rural way of life, tribal huts, unspoiled beaches, and dreamy lagoons. Mda is a master at capturing the beauty and romance of that coast through his evocative prose. The novel also presents a sober warning about the fragility of these environments and how easily they can be destroyed by unscrupulous development.

This is a book made from a screenplay that tells the story from behind the felt. As a croupier you can always tell if an author knows their stuff. Stepping behind the table as a dealer Jack Manfred a rejected author becomes enmeshed in his new job. He intends to write a novel about this fascinating world of casinos. As a writer myself I can relate to his need to tell his story. London dealers are considered the gold standard in the casino world. Their intense training thins the herd. I know because my husband learned to deal at an upscale London casino just like Jack. Ray also went to The Grecian Grill an all-night Greek restaurant in the West  End after his shift. That touch of authenticity gave Croupier my stamp of approval.

I love Hiaasen’s humor and down-to-earth boy characters. In Flush, Noah is the adult in the father-son relationship. Normally I wouldn’t go for this in a story: Dads should lead by example, even in fiction. But I recognize that in real life that’s not always the case. Hiaasen’s YA novels are clean adventures that often include strong female characters, a solid moral (in this case preserving our environment), and make me want to read them again and again. I know some want to know how readers “feel” when they read a book. Not me. I’m more interested in the adventure and solving the puzzle (who is the bad guy and will he get caught?).

As a blackjack dealer I have watched compulsive gamblers for most of my career. I have always said, “It’s hard to walk away from a winning streak, even harder to leave the table when you’re on a losing one.” A familiar tale that sums up the life of Brian Malony. He became hooked on the glitz and glamour of Caesars in Atlantic City. Most people will play until they lose all their money. Brian did that and then embezzled more money from his employer a major Canadian bank. A must-read story that tracks the progression of his addiction.

A smart, quick-witted civil war widow is forced to make her way in 1867 Chicago, but nobody listens to an unmarried young woman unless she has a tough, gun-toting ex-rebel soldier as a partner.

They have a case to solve, and she uses a professional name, Mrs. Paschal, so nobody connects her with the former in-laws who are trying to stop her from receiving her dead husband’s estate. Loved reading about 19th Century pre-fire Chicago, teeming with corrupt politicians, gambling parlors, and bawdy houses of ill-repute.

Also, someone is trying to murder Quinn Sinclair, aka Mrs. Paschal. Can’t wait to read more from Jeanne Matthews.

The author, a former casino executive, exposes the industry’s “comp system,” through which casinos give away more than a billion dollars in “complimentaries” every year, as an enticement to get people to gamble. Although the book appears to be aimed at amateur gamblers looking for casino freebies (room, food, booze, show tickets, etc.), the information in this book has been devoured by professional gamblers at the highest levels because it reveals the inner workings of how players are evaluated and rated, with tips on how to look like you’re betting more than you are, how to look like you’re losing when you’re winning, and basically how to look dumb when you’re smart. I personally made a lot of money from the information in this book.

Casinos often bring to mind noirish characters set in stories riddled with vice and violence. The Davis Way Crime Capers are riddled with serpentine plots exploding with quirky characters in hilarious situations. Set in a Biloxi, Mississippi, casino with a smart, edgy heroine hired as a security expert, Davis Way is constantly embroiled in saving the casino, its employees, and her small-town friends and family from more disasters than a tornado in a trailer park. Archer’s distinct voice brings humor to the pages of a byzantine mystery that puts her heroine through the wringer. Likable, smart, and sassy, I thoroughly loved Davis Way from Pine Apple, Alabama. The other characters are engaging and the plot is superbly crafted. Double Whammy is the first book in the series and my favorite.

Bad Blood is edgy, fast-paced, and thoroughly entertaining. Cora Kenborn and Catherine Wiltcher create pure magic together, giving readers two characters whose hate-fueled lust heats up the pages while war and dissent brews around them. It’s a well-balanced storyline that flows perfectly. The romance and mafia elements played really well against each other. There was humor and action and fantastically written dialogue.

The author, a columnist, wrote these family stories as an homage to his bigger-than-life mom Patty while she was battling cancer. Told with heart, laugh-out-loud family anecdotes, and love, always love, Saalman brings you into an unforgettable midwestern world of then and now, although even the modern-day Indiana stories echo with “yore” to my more urban ears: his parents’ solid working-class values, their casino date every Saturday night, Patty’s job as the hostess of a diner. Ultimately, she would outlive her death sentence by five years.

What is it like to be a thief? I picked up Ghostman after writer Barbara Ehrenreich (Nickel and Dimed) joked on Facebook that the book taught her how to rob a casino. This exciting story does that and much more. The protagonist is forced to untangle a caper gone FUBAR and then disappear without a trace. Through multiple twists and backstabbings, readers learn the fine points of pulling off grand thefts and long cons, the tricks and trials of becoming a permanent “ghost.” The information is offered seamlessly, with no jarring breaks from action or characterization. In my opinion, there’s never been a better heist novel, though its sequel, Vanishing Games, comes close. (Sadly, Hobbs died when he was only 26, leaving behind no additional manuscripts.) 

The tagline says it all – “Whoever says crime doesn’t pay isn’t doing it right.” Pubbed in 2015, this book is often compared to Ocean’s Eleven as it contains the same main elements: the con artist and his experienced crew, the girl, Vegas. What’s opposite is the focus – this book emphasizes plot over character. While I love this book’s complex con-within-a-con, Billy Cunningham is not particularly likable as a main character. If you enjoy Vegas’s dark side, this book and its two sequels, Bad Action and Super Con, are for you.