Risk of Ruin

Jeff Ma was a member of the MIT Blackjack Team. He told his story to the writer Ben Mezrich, who wrote a book titled "Bringing Down the House." The book was later made into the movie "21" which starred Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, and Jim Sturgess.In addition to blackjack, Jeff talks about his career in tech where he has focused on using data and analytics to create value.Note: an earlier upload contained a claim that the Patriots were caught filming opponent practices. That has been correcte...

Matt writes the blog "Miles Earn and Burn" which stands alone in the credit card space. He has no ads on the site, and he writes about advanced strategies that don't make it into the mainstream travel blog world. The post that got me interested in having Matt as a guest said basically: go to your local credit union and see if there's anything that you might be able to profit from. In the advantage play world that would be called scouting. In the manufactured spend world it's known as probing....

Mr. Doppy became an advantage player hustling the video poker game Ultimate X. Since then he's gone after online sports books, credit card points, and also a state lottery.Mr. Doppy's Twitter account: https://twitter.com/MrDoppySupport the show links: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YTMUqap_Z0D9832cOl5wYxUs16Byr6xx-iAZzrRL3VU/editEmail the show: Risk of ruin pod at gmail dot comFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/halfkelly

Kyle Boddy is the founder of Driveline Baseball, which promises data driven performance training. He is best known for training pitchers in baseball. Prior to his career in sports Kyle was a professional gambler. On this episode he tells stories about exploiting online casino bonuses, as well as shuffle tracking, and playing poker.Driveline Baseball: https://www.drivelinebaseball.com/Follow Kyle on Twitter: https://twitter.com/drivelinekyleBlackjack Shuffle Tracker's Cookbook: https://www.ama...

Andrew "Bert" Black is a co-founder of Betfair, which is the world's largest betting exchange. He recounts his life in gambling, coming up with the idea for Betfair, and how they managed to win the P2P betting war in the early 2000s. Bert's horse farm: https://www.chasemorefarm.co.uk/Bert's Twitter: https://twitter.com/berttheboldEmail the show: riskofruinpod@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter: @halfkelly

Richard Munchkin and Darryl Purpose are career advantage players. Over the past 40 years they've teamed up to win millions of dollars from casinos. In this episode they recount some of the war stories and also offer reflections on the nature of teamwork.Darryl Purpose's music website: https://darrylpurpose.com/Richard Munchkin / Gambing With an Edge: https://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/gambling-with-an-edge/category/podcast/Earlier episode of Risk of Ruin featuring Richard and Darryl: https://pod...

Jason Strasser is the co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Caption Partners. While in college Jason became a high stakes poker player and was making $100k/month before he left competitive poker for Wall Street. Today he generates his edge trading options, looking for one-off events where the volatility of the options are mispriced by algorithms.Follow Jason on Twitter: https://twitter.com/strassa2Email the show: risk of ruin pod at gmailFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/halfkelly

Evan Tindell is a former poker player and now is the CIO of Bireme Capital. He talks about how he got into the market, and also his value investing based process for finding investments.Follow Evan on Twitter:https://twitter.com/evantindellBireme Capital Blog Post on Meta:https://www.biremecapital.com/blog/pounding-the-table-on-metaRisk of Ruin Podcast Newsletter:https://riskofruinpod.substack.com/Email the show risk of ruin pod at gmail.Follow the show on Twitter:https://twitter.com/halfkelly

John Hempton runs Bronte Capital, which generates its excess returns primarily through shorting fraudulent companies. John walks through a hypothetical short, explaining how they find it, how they size positions, and the kinds of returns that can be expected. He also discusses his shorts of Valeant Pharmaceutical and Wirecard.John Hempton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/John_HemptonJohn's Blog: http://brontecapital.blogspot.com/Netflix documentary on Valeant: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7909...

Marc Cohodes made a living exposing fraudulent companies, and profiting when their stock prices collapsed. But the life of a short seller is spent on a high wire because executives willing to engage in fraud don't play by the rules when their freedom is at stake. Marc tells the stories of the adversity he's faced holding public companies accountable. Marc recounts the war stories from his shorts of iomega, TCBY, Lernout & Hauspie, Novastar Financial, Jos. A Bank, Bally Manufacturing, Dire...

In 2022 Elon Musk signed an agreement to purchase Twitter. Then all hell broke loose. This episode is about that merger, the investors that traded it, and the most valuable Twitter follow to come out of the saga.Guests:Chris DeMuth - Rangeley Capitalhttps://twitter.com/ChrisDeMuthJrEvan Tindell - Bireme Capitalhttps://twitter.com/evantindellChance, Editor in Chief of The Chancery Dailyhttps://twitter.com/chancery_dailyMedia Clips Used:Tesla 3rd Quarter Earnings Callhttps://www.youtube.com/wat...

Erik Seidel and Steve Zolotow were among the gamblers to come out of the storied Mayfair Club in New York City. The Mayfair inspired some of the locations in Rounders, and is also known for the breadth of success that its players have had in poker. The episode covers the history of the club, its bridge and backgammon roots, and the careers of Erik and Steve.Special thanks to Larry Bernstein.Email the show: Risk of ruin pod at gmailTwitter: @halfkellyFollow Erik on Twitter: @Erik_Seidel

Jim and Dan Pasko talk about their father and son sportsbetting operation. The Paskos use math to find positive EV bets like correlated parlays and player props. Jim Pasko has been a professional gambler for almost his entire adult life, first starting as a backgammon player during the heyday of that game. Dan joined him in professional gambling when they found opportunities with the early internet sportsbooks.Follow Dan on Twitter: @dan_paskoFollow the show on Twitter: @halfkellyEmail the sh...

Kai talks about leaving the work world behind in favor of early retirement, and the part time pursuit of bank and credit card bonuses. He also discusses Lean FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) and how churning bonuses fits into his FIRE plan.Kai's podcast: The Daily Churnhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily-churn/id1577648675Email the show: riskofruinpod@gmail.comTwitter: @halfkelly

To this point we've published 33 podcast episodes covering everything from slot machines to hedge funds. This episode is Part II of an attempt to make sense of the guests, and make sense of the domain they operate in.To find the show on all of the platforms check out the Linktree.https://linktr.ee/johnreeder