John Gollehon is a prolific gambling writer, having written over a dozen books on the subject, many of which have sold quite well. In A Gambler's Bedside Reader Gollehon collects 60 of his favorite anecdotes in one place, most of which previously appeared in another of his books. Each of these stories is short and pithy, relating in a light manner some lesson that the author has learned over his many years as a gambling aficionado.
The stories run the gamut from blackjack, horse betting, baccarat, slot machines, and the author's favorite casino game, craps. The stories take place in various casinos from Las Vegas, to Reno, to Atlantic City, to the innumerable Native American casinos that have sprung up across this country. While a number of these stories are merely meant to entertain, many of them contain some bit of gambling advice that the author wishes to pass along to the reader.
Unfortunately, most of Gollehon's "best" advice about gambling is just plain wrong. Gollehon advocates streak betting, that is, waiting until a machine or table starts paying the players and then raising one's bets, trying to ride the wave of good fortune. Unfortunately, as more serious authors have explained time and time again, this is not a path to long term success. The boundaries of a streak are only apparent after one has come and gone. A dice shooter, for example, is just as likely to make a pass if they immediately sevened out on their last hand as they are if they've been making passes for an hour straight.
Some other advice isn't very good either. For example, on video poker Gollehon decries "Double Bonus" machines which replaced regular "Jacks or Better" machines at a familiar casino. He dislikes the fact that while quads may pay more on Double Bonus machines, the fact that two pair only pays 1 for 1 (rather than 2 for 1 as in Jacks or Better) makes it a bad deal. However, as sophisticated video poker players know, if both machines are "full pay", the long term payout from near perfect strategy for Jacks or Better is around 99.5%, but for Double Bonus, it's over 100.15%. While full pay Double Bonus is far more volatile, as long as I have the bankroll for it, I'd much rather play that game than Jacks or Better, wouldn't you?
Some of the stories are kind of fun, but even at his best, Gollehon isn't as entertaining as, for example, Michael Konik in his two books, The Man With The $100,000 Breasts and Telling Lies and Getting Paid, which are both collections of a few (albeit longer) good gambling stories, so I'd definitely recommend reading those books before Gollehon's. Good books in this category also include Richard Munchkin's Gambling Wizards, Al Alvarez's The Biggest Game in Town, and Dick Odessky's Fly on the Wall. In fact, there are many books which I feel are far more entertaining and don't contain flawed gambling advice. I've read far worse and less enjoyable books than A Gambler's Bedside Reader, but given the large number of truly entertaining books available, a person would have to be quite widely read before I believe it would make a great deal of sense to invest time in this book.
Some of Gollehon's stories are entertaining, but it is my opinion that there are too few that are compelling and too many which contain bad advice that I cannot recommend this book to a wide audience. There are many light books on the topic of gambling which I feel are far superior to A Gambler's Bedside Reader. A prospective reader could certainly do a whole lot worse, but one would have to read for a long time before they'd have to.
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