Calculated Bets
This is a book about a gambling system that works. It tells the story of how the author used computer simulations and mathematical modeling techniques to predict the outcome of jai-alai matches and bet on them successfully - increasing his initial stake by over 500% in one year! His results can work for anyone: at the end of the book he tells the best way to watch jai-alai, and how to bet on it. With humor and enthusiasm, Skiena details a life-long fascination with computer predictions and sporting events. Along the way, he discusses other gambling systems, both successful and unsuccessful, for such games as lotto, roulette, blackjack, and the stock market. Indeed, he shows how his jai-alai system functions just like a miniature stock trading system. Do you want to learn about program trading systems, the future of Internet gambling, and the real reason brokerage houses don't offer mutual funds that invest at racetracks and frontons? How mathematical models are used in political polling? The difference between correlation and causation? If you are curious about gambling and mathematics, odds are this book is for you!
Stats for nerds
5recommend
9mentions
9people
2009–2024years
56% recommend44% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Nice little book about betting, risk, math and computer programming.
https://www.amazon.com/Calculated-Bets-Computers-Gambling-Ma...
- "Calculated Bets" by Steven Skiena is a pretty good read if you're interested in this stuff.
- Also interesting is the book "Calculated Bets: Computers, Gambling, and Mathematical Modeling to Win" which talks about one man's quest to beat the odds at Jai alai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jai_alai) by modeling the game and the players. It's a fun, humorous and technical book.
http://www.amazon.com/Calculated-Bets-Computers-Gambling-Mat...
- I greatly enjoyed his eccentric and opinionated book 'Calculated Bets' on writing an automated system for betting on jai alai (although the story petered out rather lamely when the grad students he relied on to write and maintain the code left and he couldn't run it any more).
Sadly jai alai seems to be dying out - otherwise I would have been tempted to have a go myself.
- I'm looking for books that discuss neat topics in math or the sciences which are oriented around computer experimentation.
One examples of such books are The Computational Beauty of Nature. Another is From Calculus to Chaos. A third I've recently enjoyed is Daniel Ashlock's book on evolutionary computation.
I also tremendously enjoyed Steve Skiena's "Calculated Bets", which discussed his use of mathematical modelling to gamble on jai alai with real money.
Any other suggestions?
No dry theorem-proof-theorem-proof-lemma-proof stuff like the kind I suffered through in college, I tried reading that in my spare time outside of classes and I failed miserably.
- > it looks like even jai alai is corrupted by gambling
You may be joking but for those who are not aware betting has been prominent in jai alai since the thirties.
CS Professor Steven Skiena has a book about it: https://www.amazon.com/Calculated-Bets-Computers-Gambling-Ma...
Related slides here: https://www3.cs.stonybrook.edu/~skiena/talks/talk-jaialai.pd...
Excerpts from the book: https://www.jai-tech.com
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