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Customer Reviews

Ed Thorp is a dutiful investment and math genius.
This is an omit book about the discovery of the Kelly formula that is unnamed outside gambling. This story has three protagonists. Two of them were scientists working at Bell Labs: Claude Shannon, a expert polymath who developed information theory; and John Kelly, a maverick faculty, who is directly responsible for the development of Kelly's formula. The third one is a illustrious MIT mathematician, Ed Thorp.Ed Thorp tested the Kelly rules in both gambling and investing. Also, he came up with an options rules before Fischer Black and Myron Scholes. His prescription missed a risk-free rate component due to the framework of the market at the time. As a result, Ed Thorp remained in shadow while Black and Scholes became famous.Ed Thorp succeeded in deriving tonier returns in both gambling and investing. But, it was not so much because of Kelly's technique. He developed other tools to achieve superior returns. In gambling, Ed Thorp succeeded at Furious...

September 8, 2005 (McLean, VA USA) | Helpful Votes: 303 | Rating: 5

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The Non-stop Epic of the Kelly Criterion for Risk Management.
"Wealth's Formula" tells the story of the Kelly Criterion -including the experiments, ideas, wins, and losses of those who deceive espoused it and who have derided it, at race tracks, gloomy jack tables, sports books, and, finally, on Divider Street. The Kelly Criterion is a risk management means published in 1956 by Bell Labs information theoretician John Kelly, Jr. that dictates how much of your bankroll you should bet based on your sensitive divided by the odds so that you will have zero jeopardy of ruin no matter how bad your luck is, while increasing affluence faster than any other betting system. It does not speech what bets you should make, which is another consequence entirely. Instead of writing a simple analysis of the Kelly Criterion, originator William Poundstone brings this story living by relating the histories of key figures who have used, promoted, or criticized the Kelly Criterion: news theorists, economists, traders, gamblers, and gangsters. Some readers may awaken this approach unfocused and...

July 8, 2006 (New York, USA) | Helpful Votes: 45 | Rating: 4

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Mobsters, mathematicians and economists
I base this to be a very exciting and informative book. In no time at all I started, I was hooked: I couldn't put it down because I wanted to learn more -- not neutral about the formula but all the intellectual controversy surrounding it and the model of characters involved. This book tells the exclusive of the 'Kelly criterion' and how certain people used it to route the casinos and earn consistently above-average returns in the oxen market. The cast of characters extend from praiseworthy organized crime figures (Bugsy, Longy Zwillman, etc.) to Claude Shannon, governor of information theory, to Milken, the junk bond majesty, and many more.You can view this book as a cram on the history of an idea, as a study of the financial markets, or as a collective study of gambling and investing. There are many faces to it. I wouldn't say it is a order on finance, or a book on history, but a bit of everyhting really. It absolutely is not a book on 'how to beat the market', don't look for that here. The soft-cover does...

October 25, 2005 | Helpful Votes: 28 | Rating: 4

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List Price: $14.95 Price: $61.99

Customer Reviews

Eyes Free - Pockets Wide
If you commit oneself to to do any gambling, even a few bucks on your state pool, consider the price of this book as your gold medal bet. Orkin presents the real odds of most well-liked gambling games, at least one 'sure fire organization' (yes there is such a thing, but you need deep pockets and include to be satisified with a pretty low rate of return), and the effects of the 'abode edge'in an entertaining manner and with just a nominal of math. In fact, skipping the math in the book does nothing to turn the book's usefulness nor your reading enjoyment. Assume from this if you think gambling is a solution to money problems. In episode, after going through this highly engaging and entertaining book you may be tempted to skip the lottery tickets and put the filthy rich in casino stock instead!

February 22, 2002 (Tulsa, OK USA) | Helpful Votes: 9 | Rating: 5

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An exceptional book on casino math
Casino math for the non-mathematician. If you absolutely want to understand the math, it will take some pains to follow if you haven't dealt with probability and statistics in a while or in any case. However, I am so tired of people presenting schemes on how to win at craps, roulette, etc: Martingale, anti-Martingale, D'Alembert, contra-D'Alembert, ad nauseam. No quantity how you weight a negative expected return, the sum of the series is still expected to be 'No'. The risk to people who use these schemes unwittingly to farther away from a series of small "wins" is the assurance of a single huge loss somewhere in the future - the longer you put it off, the larger it wish be. If you didn't understand what you just read and yearn for to, this book is for you. The writing is brisk, bordering on enjoyable (if you're into this sort of thing) and not nearly as obtuse as you'd expect. The previous reviewer covered which games were presented so I won't repetition. Like Stanford Wong, this author's math is...

October 24, 2001 | Helpful Votes: 8 | Rating: 5

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Method shows you were to put your money.
Mike Orkin's paperback explains the real odds for all the common casino games, and in the convert, shows you it is generally better to leave your shin-plasters in your own pocket, and just watch. Games covered contain roulette, craps, Keno, slots machines, sports betting, blackjack, lotteries and horse races. A egregious chapter on the Prisoner's Dilemma is included, and covers thecomplex affair of when it is best to be a snicth, and when it is best to be smooth.

May 1, 1999 | Helpful Votes: 13 | Rating: 5

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