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Many books were examined in the
bookstores or libraries, but we selected only a
small number that we felt represented the full
range of material in terms of quality and game
topics.
Results
The analysis was completed in a three-stage
process. First, we went through the books to
examine the information. Specifically, we were
looking for examples of accurate and inaccurate
information in the books. Second, we gathered
these notes together into broad categories,
which described the general type of information
and misinformation that we found. The list of
material was gathered in a bottom-up manner from
the source books, which was filtered through our
understanding of the nature of probability,
randomness and gambling economics. Third, we
used our notes to catalogue the type of
information found in each book. The information
categories are listed below.
Information categories
Accurate information (see Table 1)
Rules: How to play the games. The discussion of
the rules of play range from one or two lines to
complete chapters detailing each possible play
and the consequences of each choice. Most of the
books have a good description of the rules of
the game and how to play it.
Money management: Several books have detailed
descriptions on how to manage money while
gambling, others discussed it only briefly.
Typically, this material gives rough guides to
determining bet size in relationship to the
amount of money the player has brought to the
game. In some cases, the book describes
mathematical rules to determine one's bets. Some
of the items discussed budgeting the gaming
session in relationship to how much one can
afford to lose.
Probability: Several books have good sections
describing the nature of probability. Some do
this in the form of a chapter; other have little
bits of information scattered throughout the
book. The former is most often found in general
books, such as the Idiot's Guide, and the latter
often in books on poker.
Discouraging myths: Some books have sections
discouraging the belief in myths or erroneous
beliefs about ways to beat the odds.
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