By the Playbook #1

Hi guys. I plan on adding some content here with my personal reviews of gambling literature. I won't be reviewing any strategy books, mostly I'll be sticking to gambling memoirs.

My first review is of Josh Axelrad's Repeat Until Rich.

Most gambling memoirs fall into either of two categories. The first is the Advantage Play memoir where we follow the adventures of an AP as he wins large sums of money from the house. The other type, and almost complete opposite, is that of the degenerate, addicted gambler who cannot control his downward spiral into hopelessness.

Repeat Until Rich makes a great first book to review because it actually fits both categories.

***Spoiler Alert***

In 1999, Josh Axelrad had already dabbled briefly into card counting with the conclusion casinos simply made it too difficult. Then he runs into the card counting team named Mossad. The team is real, the name is not. Mossad is a cool name for a card counting team (MOSSAD is the name of the Israeli secret service) and their view is to fight the casinos, not take backoffs and trespassing laying down but to keep invading the territory. It's a war and all's fair (as long as its not illegal).

At first, Josh is given demeaning roles in the team and relegated to the back-burner. As seems to always happen in life, an opportunity arose for him to prove himself when he's trying to take heat from the real team and winds up with a huge TC. He wins a ton of money and suddenly is trusted as a full counter.

For the second part of the book, we follow him on his exciting adventures winning $700,000 for the team (his cut is not specified but from the hints I estimate about $200,000 was his personal profit.) This is where the real meat of the book is. Everything is moving all excellent when September eleventh comes along and suddenly transporting hundreds of thousands of dollars becomes dangerous -- thanks to government crackdowns where money is confiscated driving on the road or at the airport through TSA.

The team leader gets married and retires for a picket fence life and the team dissolves quickly. Seeing the end of the road, Josh gets a book contract for his adventures based on a few paragraphs of synopsis. (As a writer, myself, who can't get his books published it is really frustrating when someone gets published and hasn't even written anything yet - such is the insanity of the publishing world.) Upset with the knowledge he now has to write and has never done so, Josh finds internet Poker as a distraction from his duties and so begins the third section of this memoir. We follow Josh down a painful descent of degenerate gambling where even when he comes close to winning back severe losses, he drives forward only to lose it all again and worse. He makes excuses (his upfront money from the book deal will bring him back financially only for him to lose that as well) and while recognizing his problem, he refuses to admit he needs help.

Thanks to a book called Born To Lose, about the compulsive gambling of its author, Bill Lee, Josh finally admits himself into Gamblers Anonymous. His adventures there are sad but interesting as none of the members afflicted with bad life gambling choices believes Josh could have won at gambling -- to suggest as such is to lie about living in a fantasy world.

Only Josh has actually done it -- and still wound up losing all his money. Not a very convincing argument.

Josh seeks a happy ending (for his book, no dirty minds allowed here) and finds it in his finishing the book. Although broke, (he squandered all the books payments on his addiction) nonetheless, he has accomplished something few can boast of, a professionally published book on store shelves (or at least on Amazon) everywhere.

Josh's prose is unique and descriptive. He keeps humbly dismissing his writing skills while it is abundantly clear he is very talented. He does mention he had help but there is no discerning to what extent that help formed the book.

Repeat Until Rich is an exciting adventure with the anti-climactic road of problem gambling giving a sober ending to the proceedings. If you are an AP who is or knows someone who simply takes all their hard-won money and gives it back to the casino, then this book is great exploration into the mindset of those people and a hard won lesson in how to finally overcome an unexplainable addiction for people who by their very skills should know better.

I wasn't expecting this book reviews from Darkoz! This is good!

Quote: darkoz

people who by their very skills should know better

'tis a strange thing to comprehend indeed [the phenomenon in the book]

Quote: odiousgambit

I wasn't expecting this from Darkoz!



'tis a strange thing to comprehend indeed

I was making reference to an AP who uses his skills to earn money at the casino only to then lose it back by playing another game unskillfully. Such was the case with the author of Repeat Until Rich.

I still believe AP is the way to go for many people including myself. I earn a living off of it, but I actually know a close friend who earns a decent amount as well and then loses more than half back on the slots. I keep telling him to just go home and watch Netflix when he's done AP'ing but he always stays.

He once told me playing slots was better than sex for him. Ouch!

Quote: darkoz

I was making reference to an AP who uses his skills to earn money at the casino only to then lose it back by playing another game unskillfully.

I got that.

I went back and made things clear, we misunderstood each other.

double posting

Good review Darkoz.
I would like to think I would be one of the smart ones, that would walk away a winner, but in reality, I am sure I am one who would end up giving it all back, in the name of entertainment.

In the review you said he got into internet poker, but then in another post, you write that he gave it all back to the casino. Of course any slot play, and table game play he did give back to the casino. But if he lost a major portion in internet poker, then he was really just playing a game where his skill did not match that of his opponents. Poker is definitely an AP for those who know their game, and can get into games against lesser opponents.
Again, thanks for the great summary.

Josh's story was definitely unique. Showed a different side of things that you don't normally see or read. The thought that came to my mind is that it is hard enough to be an AP under 'normal' circumstances without adding the impossible element of addiction to the mix. The decks is already stacked heavily against you, with little room for error.

I was fortune enough to have talked back and forth with Josh for a number of years (through email) although it's now been a couple years since I have heard from him. Like the book, Josh is a very unique and if I might say fascinating guy. I hope he is doing well.

He posted here for a very short time a few years back.

Quote: RaleighCraps

Good review Darkoz.
I would like to think I would be one of the smart ones, that would walk away a winner, but in reality, I am sure I am one who would end up giving it all back, in the name of entertainment.

In the review you said he got into internet poker, but then in another post, you write that he gave it all back to the casino. Of course any slot play, and table game play he did give back to the casino. But if he lost a major portion in internet poker, then he was really just playing a game where his skill did not match that of his opponents. Poker is definitely an AP for those who know their game, and can get into games against lesser opponents.
Again, thanks for the great summary.

Quite true Raleigh,

In the book, after losing so much in internet poker, he finds a different site with different poker games and rules, where he seems unbeatable. Then out of boredom he goes back to the first site and once again hemorrhages losses. Something about the inferior rules caused him unable to beat the opponents on this site (and I recall there being some scandal about site cheating that may have broke after the publication of this book?). His inability to quit the game he was losing is indicative of a compulsive gambler.
Even if the house didn't actually get the bulk of the money, it was playing an inferior game uncontrollably in the casino.

Great Review and book. I actually interviewed Josh Axelrad in this thread:

https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/off-topic/general/17029-interview-with-josh-axelrad/