Review of The Casino Answer Book
- Title:
- The Casino Answer Book
- Author:
- John Grochowski
- Publisher:
- Bonus Books
- Date:
- 1998
- ISBN:
- 1-56625-107-9
- Pages:
- 237
- Price:
- $12.95
May 15, 2001
I believe that one of the most appealing aspects of casino gambling is
the mystery that surrounds it. I also believe that the reason for
mysteries is so that one might understand them. In The Casino
Answer Book, syndicated columnist John Grochowski tries to
answer some of these mysteries, specifically about blackjack, video
poker, and roulette.
The book contains about twenty chapters which can be divided into
three sections, each of which covers one of the casino games mentioned
above. Each chapter is a multiple-choice quiz with 20 or so questions
on the specific topic. The reader is invited to test their knowledge
of these casino games by taking the quiz and reading the detailed answers
as they go along.
The material Grochowski presents on these games is accurate. Occasionally,
I find it to stray close to being misleading, for example in the blackjack
card
counting section or information about betting progressions in roulette.
However, even in controversial sections the author's claims are factually
on target and Grochowski is never disingenuous, although the subtitle
for the book, "How to Overcome the House Advantage When You Play
Blackjack, Video Poker & Roulette" walks awfully close to this line.
At the same time, no really deep mysteries are revealed either. Frankly,
the vast majority of the material in this book can be found in the
first part of Steve Bourie's excellent annual series, American
Casino Guide, and that which can't is explained in more detail
in many other books, like Dan Paymar's Video Poker: Optimum Play
or Stanford Wong's Blackjack Secrets. The casino novice, or
the casino regular who has had their head in the sand, might come to
learn a significant amount from this book, but once one has breached
the threshold of being willing to study the literature to understand
these games, I would encourage them to go a little further than this
relatively shallow treatment of these games.
Of course those casino novices who might have very short attention
spans would, indeed, benefit from reading this book. At the same
time, little of the theory of these games or over-arching views
can be stated in a book of this
format, and therefore, I don't think it would be as beneficial to the
reader as one might at first expect. For example, someone who
takes the quiz on correct strategy for full-pay Double Bonus video
poker can determine whether they understand the strategy correctly
or not, but I do not believe that 20 questions on this topic is
an adequate substitute for a strategy card. This is
especially true for folks who don't know where to find such a formal
strategy, and these people are likely the very target audience of the
book.
Even though
this reviewer is undoubtedly more familiar with these topics than
the target reader, I was a bit chagrined to find that there was no
information in The Casino Answer Book that I had not read
elsewhere. Because of this reason and because of the superficial treatment
I really can't recommend the book to any
audience. The casino information junkie will be bored, and the
casino novice would be better served by reading other sources. Of
course, the book does, at least, "do no harm" to the reader, and
in the gambling book market that's not faint praise, but ultimately,
it's not enough for me to make a favorable recommendation.
Capsule:
The Casino Answer Book is a fairly trivial treatment of
the games of blackjack, video poker, and roulette in quiz format. While
the information it contains is factually solid, this format is not
the right one for novices to understand some of these games, and
it doesn't have enough depth for the casino veteran. While one will
not be harmed by reading through this book, that's not enough for
me to recommend it.
Click here to return to the index of reviews.
|