Play by the book

The expression takes on a totally different meaning when you think of it in terms of gambling. Be it sports betting or casino-type gambling, there’s no substitute for a book full of good betting tips to nudge you in the right direction. It can even work as entertaining in-flight reading or an ice breaker, but the influence it will have on your game needs to be curbed by your own feelings and your views on gambling.

Even the most elaborate guide to gambling would have people swearing it doesn’t work for them. That’s not necessarily because it’s bad, it’s just because it doesn’t fit with their playing style. No matter how well you teach a typically aggressive poker player how to play defensively, he won’t get as good results as he would with a good aggressive or offensive strategy. That’s simply because he wouldn’t be able to see himself winning as much at first, wouldn’t see the results coming in as quick as he’s used to and the strategy would eventually falter and fail. The same way a sports better that usually relies on deep research to decide who to bet on will never have a lot of success trying to shoot from the hip and bet on feeling alone.

So finding a book that’ll help you succeed in the gambling or betting world is a matter of letting it come to you. The right book for you is out there, it’s just a matter of finding it – even if it takes a little trial and error.