Books and Movies about gambling

Hello there!

A lot of people ask me what to read, what movie to see and I propose you to post you favourite book or movie about gambling (or not as you wish) and can send than this link to all who need it.

For all the sensationalism and creative liberties taken, I really like Bringing Down the House and Busting Vegas. Probably the funniest gambling book I've ever read is 1536 Free Waters and Other Blackjack Endeavors.

As for books that actually educated me about gambling? There's just too many to list.

Quote: Minty

For all the sensationalism and creative liberties taken, I really like Bringing Down the House and Busting Vegas. Probably the funniest gambling book I've ever read is 1536 Free Waters and Other Blackjack Endeavors.

As for books that actually educated me about gambling? There's just too many to list.

Thanks for your answer! I didn't read this book and I am very grateful for your recommendation.

1536 is a great read, but don't expect to learn much. It isnt an manual on gambling, its the story of one mans strange odyssey into the world of advantage play and the lifestyle.

Billion Dollar Hollywood Heist by Houston Curtis, the movie Molly"s Game about private high stakes poker games revolved around which included Hollywood greatest celebrities.

The only books I’ve read about Gambling are Michael Craig’s The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King, which I found them very entertaining and incredibly intriguing story of many things happening in the plot, I recommend it. Of course, I haven’t read others because I spend my time reading other categories like the Divergent saga or Hunger Games. It is very interesting to see what other recommendations I can get around to add to my reading collection. Thank you.

Quote: Carvillmon

The only books I’ve read about Gambling are Michael Craig’s The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King, which I found them very entertaining and incredibly intriguing story of many things happening in the plot, I recommend it. Of course, I haven’t read others because I spend my time reading other categories like the Divergent saga or Hunger Games. It is very interesting to see what other recommendations I can get around to add to my reading collection. Thank you.

Regarding Andy Beale. I remembered when I was playing 30-60 Hold'Em at the Bellagio, he sat down in my game. Total fish, had no clue who he was but knew that he stepped up from playong 15-30. Next day I heard he was in the 80-160 game with a list a mile long to get into the game. I personally watched him make a side bet with an action player that I knew who was known for playing tournaments who was also in the game. They used a freaking penny for heads or tails for a rack of chips which was $2k, it may have been for two racks. Been so long I can't remember exactly but I know it was for at least a rack. Penny rolls off the table and goes underneath the table. Everyone had to get up from their seat to see how it landed. I believe Andy lost and said that was fun! Fast forward, he's playing $20k-40k hold 'em with a million dollar freeze out taking turns playing against a select number of high limit poker players who comingled their own money to come up with the million. Back during those days, maybe only 1 or 2 players had enough money to risk 1 million by themselves so this is why they all pooled their bankroll and took turns playing against him. The poker dealer I was dating at the time was dealing the final down where he took them down to the felt. He had a photographer come by and take a picture of him with a million dollars worth of flags (5k chip) on the table. My girlfriend said it looked like snow.

I don't think I have a favorite book. I've enjoyed too many to be able to narrow it down to just one.

Here's a few of the better ones from my collection:

Ship It Holla Ballas!: How a Bunch of 19-Year-Old College Dropouts Used the Internet to Become Poker's Loudest, Craziest, and Richest Crew by Jonathan Grotenstein & Storns Reback

The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King - Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time by Michael Craig

Positively Fifth Street - Murders, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker by James McManus

Molly's Game - From Hollywood's Elite to Wall Street's Billionaire Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker by Molly Bloom

The Man with the $100,000 Breasts and Other Gambling Stories by Michael Konik

Ghosts at the Table - Riverboard Gamblers, Texas Rounders, Internet Gamers, and the Living Legends who made Poker What it is Today by Des Wilson

Blood Aces - The Wild Ride of Benny Binion, the Texas Gangster Who Created Vegas Poker by Doug Swanson

Alligator Blood - The Spectacular Rise and Fall of the High-Rolling Whiz-Kid Who Controlled Online Poker's Billions by James Leighton

Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People by Amarillo Slim

Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids - How a Gang of Geeks Beat the Odds and Stormed Las Vegas by David Kushner

Telling Lies and Getting Paid by Michael Konik

Raising the Stakes - True Tales of Gambling, Wagering, and Poker Faces by Sean Chaffin

Straight Flush - The True Story of Six College Friends Who Dealt Their Way to a Billion-Dollar Online Poker Empire by Ben Mezrich

For Books: Casino Royale (Ian Fleming, 1953) is great. It is not fully focused on gambling, but the major plot point is for Bond to bankrupt a Soviet agent who is using Soviet funds to gamble (and hence expose him) over a game of baccarat (the most recent movie version changes the game to Texas Hold Em). This is the first James Bond book, and is excellent, and very gambling centric.

The movie is good as well, but not so much as a gambling movie (the poker scene is pretty absurd).... But, it is a solid action movie.

A good gambling focused movie that is a classic is: The Sting (1973).

Big thanks to you, guys, for recomendations!

As for me I love to watch movies a lot and my gambling favs are: 21, Mississippi Grind, Croupier, The Gambler, Casino, Rounders, Molly's game.

As for books I read a lot of literary, scientific and professional literature, also some poker books. Now interested in Check-Raising the Devil.

Quote: billryan

1536 is a great read, but don't expect to learn much. It isnt an manual on gambling, its the story of one mans strange odyssey into the world of advantage play and the lifestyle.

So it's just with a gambling enviroment but not actually about gambling? I mean not even strategies?

"Beating the Wheel" by Russell Barnhart was a very enjoyable read

the story of how a few players throughout history beat the wheel and won huge sums of money - thru bias and visual prediction mostly IIRC - I think he detailed one incident of cheating

I think there were at least a couple of stories in the book where it really wasn't known how they won