In Reading Gambling Can Work

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

There are I think about four types of reader a writer on gambling games  (as opposed to a writer who tries to teach you how to play one) has to satisfy at exactly the same time.

One: The Professional player

Two: The Wannabe Professional Player. Whose dreams are hampered by real life and a lack of talent.

Three: People who dabble in such things as online poker but have no dreams of taking things further.

Four: People who have absolutely no idea of the rules of Poker etc and still wont after they've finished the book. People who think risk is an extra sweetener in their cup of tea but who are intrigued by this world need the writer to be like a nursery teacher leading a bewildered infant into a different world before guiding them out again into their bright safe inside the box existence (and nothing wrong with that. Boxes are secure).

I think you can guess which category I fall into. Being World Professional Poker Champion...no I'm only kidding on that one. .....as I think I've mentioned before my poker face is one of extreme panic wondering what the hell to do next.

But the point is that being ignorant in card games does not matter. As long as the writer is a good translator into what is going on then we the ignoramases can join the ride.

I liked Victoria Coren's autobiography, For Richer,For Poorer, in which poker takes a major role but on finishing I'd no more idea of it's rules let alone a desire to participate. On watching The Cincinnati Kid as a teenage boy my ambitions had nothing to do with what happened on the table,more in being as cool as Steve Mcqueen and having a torrid love affair with Ann Margaret (both in which I failed miserably).

And having finished Breaking Vegas I can add Ben Mizrich to the list of writers where the reader without any knowledge is given a helping hand whilst I'm sure the other categories of reader mentioned earlier are just as happy too.

This book tells the story of how a group of mainly young people were able to win money from the blackjack tables in Vegas through various systems and the "response" of the casino world to their success.

It must be stressed that this is a gambletainment and claims to be nothing else, It will not give you deep insights into the human condition unless you're such an innocent to be surprised that people will seek to get money from casinos with full proof systems and the casinos will do everything in their power to stop you. But if you just sought to be entertained then I would recommend it highly.

Wikipedia suggests that some of the characters are composite and that some of the events are not facttually accurate. Looking at their list I don't believe this matters here. Films/TV does this all the time. The important point is that the central character is not composite and the main storyline/events are not questioned so I don't consider it an issue.

And now I'm going to make myself a cup of tea before going to bed...with added sweetener.

Until the next time.

In Which I Watch Penybont FC - Goytre Utd FC

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Saturday. The weather is awful. At it's best it was a fine persistent rain with a light to heavy wind. At it's worse it was a heavy persistent rain with a light to heavy wind. Only an idiot would want to go out and watch Welsh league football in this weather.

Well.....two thumbs pointed towards this guy.

My first thought was to go to watch Ton Pentre, the team I've decided to own (and when I say "own" I mean with a group of other people for a £10 annual subscription - though quick digression not sure when I'll be able to do this as work and a necessary trip to see my mother near Epping means that this is likely to be some time in October). However they were away at Afan Lido which is in the Port Talbot area. Though I had a rough idea how to get there discretion was the better part of valour given that it was not the sort of weather to drive somewhere when you weren't one hundred percent certain of the way.And (another quick digression) it didn't later on seem as wimpy a decision as it first appeared given that Newport County had postponed their game because of the weather.

So the decision was simple. I'd take the walk (in the rain) to watch Penybont FC play Goytre Utd FC. Wasn't bothered by the fact that wife/daughter were going to be by themselves alone. After all they were going to watch that evening and Saturday/Sunday nights until December a group of celebs dancing so it seemed to even itself out.

To emphasise the point about the weather this is the view from the stands a few weeks back when Penybont FC played a pre season friendly with Newport County AFC

And this from roughly the same spot was the view on Saturday.

Look No Mountains

Though very early in the season Penybont had problems. In the sixteen team division Wales League (to be precise the Nathaniel Car Sales Welsh League Division One) they were fifteenth with just one point. Their opponents Goytre were in eleventh position with three points. Trouble with being in this position early in the season is that if there are no victories then things begin to fester and a turnaround, though not impossible, is more difficult to achieve.

Furthermore I was at half time told by a father of one of the Penybont players that a key striker and centre back were injured which was another problem they had to face up to.

As the first half went on I had the theory that somebody from Goytre had been doing homework on their opponents if only because they seemed to floating cross after cross into the Penybont box and yet like a bunch of athiests the home team didn't appear to know what to do with them. The men in white just dominated the half. Much to the annoyance of a man well to the left of a (well filled) stand who couldn't contain himself once a rare Penybont incursion into the Goytre half.

"Finish!" he shouted. They unfortunately didn't. The young men behind him revealed him to be "Chippy's dad". His son also playing for Penybont He would shout something else in the second half. Chippy's dad wasn't feeling chipper that afternoon.

In the thirty second minute Goytre scored. A corner met by an untroubled header. One nil. They doubled it after forty five minutes. A free kick also from the right met by an untroubled header. Quite nearly a Goytre groundhog day moment.

Incidentally before I forget I claim to be the first person to read a Ben Mezrich book during the breaks of a Welsh football game. Nothing, especially in a day like that could remind you of Las Vegas more.

History is made

More aquatic action

A word of praise for the match officials. At least they didn't look as if they'd spent the previous day in junior school like those for the Ton Pentre - Penybont game. Look at the assistant referee in this photo. Bald and looking older than my fifty two years on this planet and yet there he was, running around as if he had no care in the world (hope he's not younger than fifty two!).

The second half was basically a dead game. Penybont FC clearly tightened up in the back but apart from one opportunity they didn't seem capable of scoring until very late in the game. That came when the Penybont number ten scored from a free kick. If I understood the conversation behind me correctly the goal scorer was Chippy. For the record I didn't notice, though wasn't deliberately listening, to any utterances at that moment from Chippy's dad.

It was however too late. Goytre had won and taking the overall performance into account had deserved their victory. Judging purely on this one game you can see at the very least mid table respectability.

For Penybont however this seems like worrying times. I've seen three matches (one being a pre season friendly) for this season now and they are not the secure team of the past. In all of these games they conceded the first goal (in the Ton Pentre/Goytre matches two) and so the struggle for victory becomes ever the greater.

They need a win....fast.

Until the next time.

Football:In Secret and In Fantasy

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Finished the book Tales From The Secret Footballer by The Secret Footballer. The first thing that needs to be said is that I've not read the original  I Am The Secret Footballer  by the secret soccerista. However what this sequel seems to be is some sort of mixture between gossipy autobiography, more personal accounts and his opinions on various aspects of the game that his experiences have led him to.

Given that this is it's selling point the worst parts were the gossip. There was no tale that surprised me. Secrets but no revelations. Of course the secret that could change all of this is the one our author keeps to himself. Names. Players,clubs,managers and of course him, one detail is studiously avoided I presume at the insistence of lawyers. It makes this aspect, for the reader, unsatisfactory

But the Secret Footballer is an intelligent man. His opinions are far more deeper than you would normally expect from a sportsman and the chapter on depression is worth a read by itself. If I was to give it a mark out of ten it's that chapter that pushes it to a seven.

So the library books are now read and the earliest I can possibly change them is Monday. Which means I need to get a new book from the great unread which turns out to be......

Breaking Vegas - Ben Mezrich

This is one of those books where a geek takes on the gambling house at Vegas. This time though the game isn't poker but the less sexy blackjack. Bought this book many years ago attracted as I was by it's cheapness being ex library. Didn't know about the rules of blackjack then and I still don't now. But that doesn't matter. I've found that not knowing the rules of say, poker, doesn't harm your enjoyment of  the game if the writer can tell a good story. Victoria Coren being an example of this.

When I was looking through the great unread to get the next book to read I noticed a few fantasy football books (the football here being of the American variety). Realising that the Premiership season was just a week away I suddenly thought I'd give it a go. Have tried it before. Rarely with success though. Only once,in the nineties, did it go surprisingly well thanks to Alan Shearer,a few Manchester United defenders and Dennis Wise (very quickly here I'd noticed - not analysed - that every other goal Chelsea scored at that time was either by, or assisted by the minuscule saged one).

Anyway I've made no pretence of winning for this team picked from the Daily Telegraph's Fantasy Football. Wanted to go as random as possible. Originally I'd thought of going all Dice man but that didn't work out because too many players were not assured to be in the first eleven. So instead I've deliberately picked a team that consists one player from the top eleven teams from last season with two exceptions. One is West Ham because I've a superstition that picking any man from the team I follow turns their form to mush (it's happened - trust me). So in this case I've deliberately picked a player from the team that came twelfth - Swansea City. The other is that just for fun I've picked one player outside that first eleven/twelve so another higher placed team was dropped completely.

The team called of course Sopra La Luna (which means over the moon in Italian) is:

Butland - Stoke City

Bellerin - Arsenal

Lovren - Liverpool

Stones - Everton

Morgan - Leicester City

Toure - Manchester City

Sigurdsson - Swansea City

Willian - Chelsea

Tadic - Southampton

Defoe - Sunderland

Ibrahimovic - Manchester United

The missing team here is Tottenham

No player is going to be changed whatever happens unless they are for whatever reason out of the team. In these circumstances he will be replaced by a player from that same club.

As I said before this team won't win. I will however have the comfort of knowing that it will beat at least one person who picked a team through logarithms and computer programs

We shall see how well it does. I'll probably be looking at it properly every Tuesday.

Until the next time