Unlike some casino games, poker takes skill and time to master. Unfortunately, many are self-proclaimed experts who want to brag about their poker win the previous weekend. Many of these so-called experts claim to know the ins and outs of how to win your next poker game.
However, whether you choose to follow their advice is up to you. Our advice is to look at the list we’ve compiled below and look at some real poker professionals and gambling experts. These people have spent countless hours training and playing games and want to give back to the gambling community in one way or another.
And what better way to give back to your community than sharing your hard-earned knowledge throughout your long career? So, strap in, and let’s talk about some real poker pros.
The Top 12 Gambling Experts:
Michael Shackelford (Game Odds)
The Wizards of Odds is a well-known name in the world of poker. It’s enough just to mention «the Wizard,» and most people interested in gambling will know whom you are talking about even without mentioning his real name.
Michael Shackleford is a former actuary who made his life mission to analyze poker games In-depth and share his knowledge with like-minded poker and casino players. He created his website back in 1997 when it was first named Mike’s Gambling Page.
All the content he shares is original and of high quality. You won’t find re-used or copied material from someone else. Apart from being a former actuary and a casino game analyst, he helped to create some of the slot games we all know and love today. Talk about experience.
He also served as an Adjunct Professor of Casino Math at the University of Nevada. He is a mathematician and applies real science and math to his analysis of the games he talks about. With his knowledge in math and actuarial science, the knowledge he shares is excellent and very well worth reading.
Bob Dancer (Video Poker)
It would be unfair not to mention Bob Dancer when we talk about video poker. He is a highly well-versed video poker player, and we could even say that there is rarely someone that knows that game better than him.
He and his wife managed to turn a small poker take of $6,000 into a fortune of more than $1,000,000. So even though the stake was relatively small in terms of poker stakes, he managed to turn it into a big fortune by any standards.
Bob Dancer and his wife later released a retrospective story titled «Million Dollar Video Poker,» which covers the couple’s story of how they attempted to earn a living through playing video poker аs advantage play specialists.
However, the book covers their struggles and clearly illustrates that even though the premise of making a living playing poker sounds nice, in reality, it’s much harder than it sounds. Their book launched a few years later, after which they started their life as poker professionals.
Nick Gough (Online Casinos)
He has been there nearly from the start, playing and testing every new online casino game that has been released. Since 2001 Nick Gough has been working on making onlinecasinos.net the no1 place where players can get help, reviews, and tips on choosing safe and the best online casinos in Canada.
We met Nick Gough two times in Las Vegas when playing at the Wynn casino. He is a guru in online gambling and is always willing to share his impressive knowledge of casino games, especially online slots, and live dealer games.
Daniel Negreanu (Poker)
With a total of 515,000 Twitter followers, his Twitter handle is @realkidpoker. Daniel Negreanu is one of the most well-known and respected poker professionals. Canadian Daniel Negreanu managed to win a total of six World Series of Poker bracelets.
Also, he won two World Poker Tour tournaments. These titles require a lot of skill and dedication to win, which makes Daniel a natural and proven poker professional. In addition, he often posts about the gambling and poker industry in tweets and other media.
When he finds an interesting article about anything related to poker and gambling, he often points his followers to it and runs his poker video blog. His video blog has a lot of helpful and insightful content, which is beneficial to veteran and beginner players.
Apart from posting poker content, his video blog and Twitter feed are great because he delivers his content with a pinch of humour, so you will also have a good laugh. Daniel Negreanu was born to Romanian parents and speaks fluent Romanian.
Adding Daniel to your daily reading feed will be a plus if you are a beginner or veteran player.
Alex Ong (Football Betting)
From Stock Market to Football Trader, Alex Ong is an expert on everything related to betting. In addition, he has a background in finance and the stock market. So we can safely assume he is good at working with odds and chances, with such a portfolio and knowledge.
Alex Ong transitioned from the financial sector to football trading and betting due to his love for football as a sport. Ong’s specialty is trading on football matches, which he feels most passionate about. Knowing is one thing but being passionate about the thing you are knowledgeable about is a real winner.
The best thing about Ong’s content is its deliberate and well-thought-out content. He won’t give you some simple tips you can use on a Wednesday and place a single bet. Instead, Alex Ong teaches people about in-depth strategies that work well for him.
Furthermore, this is good because learning strategies will improve your bets and give you an advantage in the long-term. Knowing strategies will help you make your bets and predictions, which is much more important.
He also posts live trade videos where you can learn about the tips he would place and not the overall strategy and mindset of football betting.
Jason Somerville (Online Poker)
He was one of the first online poker players who made full use of Twitch as an educational platform. His channel is called Run it Up, where he invites his fanbase to watch his stream live on Twitch and play the game alongside him.
This is a great way to educate players as they can see the on-spot decision-making process which is heavily dependent on the situation. Jason Somerville revolutionized the way of instructing players and educating them with his live stream.
Somerville keeps up to date with the most modern poker vocabulary to keep up with the ever-evolving young audience. In addition, he takes great care to explain to his audience the logic behind every step he takes and the general approach he has toward the game.
Even though today, many poker stars run their Twitch stream, Somerville was one of the first to fully utilize the platform as an educational tool in the world of gambling. This premise alone and his style of teaching make him an invaluable educational tool.
Doyle Brunson (Poker)
When it comes to Twitter gambling stars, Doyle Brunson is one of the gambling stars with a huge Twitter following. He has over 400k followers on Twitter, which is a large number for any kind of educational influencer.
He doesn’t play anymore since he retired in 2018, but he is still one of the most respected American poker players of all time. His career lasted almost half a century, winning the WSOP Main Event two times and having 10 WSOP bracelets.
Add to that portfolio another title, the World Poker Tour championship, and these feats alone make him a player to be respected. But that’s not all to be said about Doyle Brunson. He was also to first to win over $1,000,000 in a tournament.
Nowadays, he uses his Twitter account to talk about everything related to poker, gambling, and the industry. He has many valuable insights that are especially important for beginners in the poker gambling world.
He was once considered the «godfather of poker» due to his excellent skill and gameplay style.
Mark O’Haire (Betting Analyst)
When it comes to education and learning from others, Mark O’Haire’s superpower is that he has a background in journalism. He has a great way of conveying information, which makes him a joy to follow online.
However, another thing he has for him is that SportingBet once employed him as a football match analyst. It’s been several years since he turned from an employee at SportingBet to a professional tipster after being laid off from the company.
For some people losing their jobs would mean their doom, but Mark O’Haire managed to turn it into a career. When people ask him about his profession he likes to label himself as a «betting analyst» which is pretty spot on.
You can find him on Twitter, which is kind of the gathering ground for professional tipsters, or «betting analysts,» in this case, where you can read up on a lot of information about upcoming matches. However, he also operates his website which is well-structured and easy to follow.
His expertise is mostly focused on analyzing matches in the English Football League’s Premier League. It’s also one of the most followed events on the planet, so if you are interested in English football, following Mark is a must.
Caan Berry (Online Sports Betting)
Caan Berry is a Betfair trading expert. A series of eye-opening events led to the life he leads today, and it all began around 2008. First, he started flipping burgers in McDonald’s at 17, working 16-hour shifts for absolutely minimum wage.
Seeking a way out of his mediocre job and pay, he decided to join the army. He did great in the military and spent seven years moving around the country and even being deployed to the Middle East, where he participated in live combat.
He spent several months with a mercenary group burning poppy fields in Afghanistan, where he was constantly under fire and attacks from the Taliban.
After being under a severe attack one night, he decided to change his life and start learning betting strategies. So he began to delve into betting strategies to build a stable income stream which would lead to a lifestyle he couldn’t fund before.
Today he likes to make trades through the Betfair exchange and bet on football and horse racing. He has a website where he shares his wisdom with new and veteran players. He also has a Youtube channel and twitter that actively supplements his website through content.
Jean Scott (Gambling)
Jean Scott is a very interesting fit for this list because she doesn’t share strategies on how to beat the odds by sharing extraordinary insight or knowledge about poker and gambling. Instead, she uses strategies to beat the house by using promotional offers and so-called freebies.
This strategy is precious in today’s gambling market for online games, where such promotions and freebies are easily found everywhere around us. Jean Scott proudly wears the moniker «Queen of Comps,» and she has built it by beating the house using the abovementioned strategy.
That’s not to say that she doesn’t have any knowledge about the game whatsoever. On the contrary, Jean was a hobby poker player back in the 1990s when she spent more and more time inside casinos as her love for the game grew.
Jean Scott used a very sensible strategy to minimize her casino games costs by using the fullest potential of the offered freebies and promotional offers, where she found out that she could minimize her expenses to a minimum, creating a break even.
She spent a lot of time trying to beat the house through various means of using free promotional offers. She even released a so-called manifesto in 1998 called «The Frugal Gambler.» Some of her methods are easily questionable, but in 240 pages, you will find something worthwhile for your gambling and casino playing style.
Scott’s book teaches players how to make the most of the offers from casinos, which are there for the players to take. As we said, some of her methods are questionable and are best left for Jean herself to explain through her book, but there’s something for everyone.
However, if you are seeking game-specific knowledge, her book might not be the greatest fit for your style.
Billy Walters (Sports Betting)
At 75 years old he is one of the most famous betting experts in the world. He rightfully wears the moniker – «The Michael Jordan of Sports Betting». His father was an avid gambler, so it’s kind of fitting for William «Billy» Walters to have some of the game in his blood.
He delivered newspapers when he was only a boy, and he made his first bet with money earned delivering newspapers. He was only nine years old at the time. Today he has an astonishingly significant net worth of over $200 million.
Bill Walters started his betting career betting on a major baseball league, and his first loss didn’t cause him to back up only because he saw his father lose so many times over the years, and he considered it to be a no big deal.
He amassed a fortune running a betting business in Las Vegas. Then, starting in the 1980s, he joined a company called The Computer Group, where he used a computer to analyze the possible outcome of different sports outcomes.
The most amazing part about his betting career is that he managed to go on a 30-year winning streak. He bet on everything from the NFL, basketball, football and other sports. He did end up with a negative balance a few times, but he always managed to get back up before the end of the fiscal year.
According to a claim made by Walter, he predicted that he could earn anywhere between $50 and $60 million per year just by betting on different sports. However, he was later arrested for insider betting but was pardoned by President Trump in his final days in office.
Steve Fezzik (Sports Bettor)
Mainly known for his bets made in NFL leagues, he was titled «The best NFL sports betting tournament in the world,» and rightfully so. Fezzik has been into sports and betting since he was young and has great skill at spotting statistical anomalies on NFL bets.
He graduated from college and studied actuarial science. Moreover, he is our second actuary in this post, so there might be some connection here. Furthermore, he was a very successful employee in the insurance industry, even managing to become a VP of Transamerica Asset Management.
However, the career didn’t suit him, and he decided that it would be best if he became a sports bettor full-time. After his move to Las Vegas, he became famous for getting banned at several casinos for winning large amounts of money.
This was a good start for his career as it gave him the boost in confidence he needed. While he was employed as a VP, he made the occasional trip to Nevada to bet on NFL games. As a result, fezzik managed to make more money as a better than as a VP even before he started doing it full-time.
It is said that this is what made up his mind about his career change into a full-time bettor. In addition, his actuarial background gave him a head start when it came to making betting predictions, as he fully utilized math and science to make them.
Steve Fezzik utilized a wide variety of little details to help him decide how to bet on the game, which would simply be invisible to the normal bettor. However, Steve’s Twitter account does throw a tip or tip to players now and then, which may help them with their bets.
But he also runs a subscription service where he offers different services for different categories of players. His 30-day all-access costs around $300, and he even has more expensive player packages.
These are just some of the most famous gambling experts still alive and working today. They all specialize in different sports and games, so some may cater to your style of gameplay more than others on the list.
Gambling is only for people over +18, should you run into a gambling addiction problem, please get help at sites like https://www.gamblersanonymous.org/ga/
