Risk of Ruin

By Half Kelly Media

Business Investing

What's Risk of Ruin about?

Audio documentaries about risk takers.

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Risk of Ruin episodes:

05.27.2024
Value Traps
David Orr is a former poker player turned fund manager. He started out investing with a value bias, and then eventually did a 180 and started shorting value traps. He talks about how his strategy evolved and also his plan...
03.04.2024
Movers
Curtis, Phil, and Reilly are professional sports bettors that provide the valuable service of getting down for originating groups. They are logistics providers in the gambling world. They talk about starting as casino APs, finding sports, and having several hundred...
12.26.2023
The Character Building Side Effect of Losing
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...
12.26.2023
Waiting on Value
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...
12.25.2023
Zero, by Way of a Hundred
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...
12.24.2023
Life's Too Short
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...
12.17.2023
Credit Card Arbitrage
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...
10.25.2023
You Can't Beat the Lottery*
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...
10.20.2023
Rocket Man
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 -...
10.20.2023
The Mayfair Revisited
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...
10.18.2023
A Family Business
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,...
10.16.2023
The Game-like Aspect
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...
10.10.2023
Greetings from Las Vegas - Part I
Mark DeRosa, Zack White, and Rufus Peabody. The story a group of friends from Appalachian State that went on to team up with an econ grad from Yale. They started playing casino games and eventually would go on to bet...
10.10.2023
Greetings from Las Vegas - Part II
Mark DeRosa, Zack White, and Rufus Peabody. The story a group of friends from Appalachian State that went on to team up with an econ grad from Yale. They started playing casino games and eventually would go on to bet...
10.02.2023
The Audacity of Help
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...
08.19.2023
The Frontier - Part II
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...
08.17.2023
The Frontier - Part I
To this point we've published 33 podcast episodes covering everything from slot machines to hedge funds. This episode is Part I of an attempt to make sense of the guests, and make sense of the domain they operate in.To find...
06.12.2023
A Healthy Disrespect
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...
05.06.2023
The Road of Trials
Houyi went from Yale Law School to a job in finance before he left it all behind to become a professional advantage player. He talks about counting cards, learning to play hole cards, traveling the world, and a fateful poker...
05.06.2023
Bill Perkins is Not Afraid
Bill Perkins is a natural gas trader, a minor celebrity in the poker world, and the author of "Die With Zero." Bill talks about his start in the markets and becoming an energy trader. He tells the story of almost...
05.05.2023
David & Goliath, Part I
They went to Las Vegas as card counters and over years they discovered other ways to win in the casino. Eventually they became advantage players. This episode is about the Las Vegas that existed before mega resorts. Our heroes played...
05.05.2023
David & Goliath, Part II
They went to Las Vegas as card counters and over years they discovered other ways to win in the casino. Eventually they became advantage players. This episode is about the Las Vegas that existed before mega resorts. Our heroes played...
05.02.2023
Inside Long Term Capital
The story of Long Term Capital Management as told by LTCM partner Eric Rosenfeld. Eric earned a PhD from MIT, then taught at Harvard Business School, then became a trader at Salomon, then was a founding partner of LTCM.Resources:HBS Study...
05.01.2023
The Disrespected
Marc Cohodes was the subject of the prior episode titled "Life's Too Short." Marc returns to the podcast to talk about figuring out the FTX scheme, using that to short Silvergate, and Signature Banks, and also the banking turmoil that...
03.13.2023
Blackjack Legacy
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...
02.16.2023
Rabbit Hole
An episode about the ever elusive idea of winning at craps using physical skill, aka dice control. Guests: Advantage player Frank B., PhD economist Robert Scott, and special guest Richard Munchkin.Risk of Ruin Newsletter: https://riskofruinpod.substack.com/Links: Robert Scott's papers on dice...
02.08.2023
From Blackjack to Black Monday
Blair Hull played on the original Big Player blackjack team in the 1970s. He played with Al Francesco, Ken Uston, and ran into other pioneers of the game including Keith Taft. The Francesco teams were the subject of the book...
09.14.2022
Two Hustlers
Mickey Crimm hitchhiked to Laughlin with little more than a sleeping bag and a backpack. In the casinos there he learned to hustle slot machines and play video poker with an advantage. He made a career out of these advantages...
09.05.2022
A Seemingly Obvious Idea
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...
09.01.2022
Made in America - Part I
The lives of two sharp sports bettors, and one bookmaker. Our guests talk about getting started in gambling, going from losers to winners, and the technology they use to keep their edges.Guests: Spanky, Captain Jack Andrews, and Ray MarinoSpanky's Be...
09.01.2022
Made in America - Part II
The lives of two sharp sports bettors, and one bookmaker. The guests expand on the relationship between sharp bettors and bookmakers. Spanky talks about being the target of a government investigation.Guests: Spanky, Captain Jack Andrews, and Ray MarinoSpanky's podcast on...
05.23.2022
Before the Boom
Barry Greenstein is in the poker Hall of Fame based on a resume that includes decades as a professional player, and being a regular at high stakes cash games.In this episode he talks about his life playing games including bridge,...
03.22.2022
Swimming With Sharks
Howard Lindzon started his career as a stock broker. In the late 90s he founded a small hedge fund. Then he went on to found Wallstrip and Stocktwits. In 2013 his venture capital fund invested $100,000 in Robinhood.His career illustrates...
06.17.2021
The Idea Man
Dr. William Ziemba talks about his life working on horse racing, lotteries, and the stock market. Links:Bill's website where you can find his books and a summary of his career. Article on Bill BenterArticle on Jeff YassObit for on Paul...
06.01.2021
What Are the Odds?
Arnold Snyder and Radar talk about becoming advantage players, a shuffle tracking play on a million dollar bankroll, and how they ended up together.Link to Radical Blackjack by Arnold Snyder: https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Blackjack-Arnold-Snyder/dp/1944877487/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=Email the show: [email protected]: @halfkelly
01.15.2021
The Points and Miles Game
Travel hackers spend their days looking for inefficiencies in the credit card points system. This episode is about two travel hackers, Nick Reyes and Grant Thomas, and how they ended up completely down the rabbit hole. They talk about spending...
10.23.2020
The Road Warrior - Part II
The secret lives of traveling card counters. Comps, casino backoffs, a converted sprinter van, and more. The true story of what it's like to be a traveling professional gambler, by people that actually live it.Guests: SassyRed, Joe748, Ryemo, and DanEmail:...
10.23.2020
The Road Warrior - Part I
The secret lives of traveling card counters. Comps, casino backoffs, a converted sprinter van, and more. The true story of what it's like to be a traveling professional gambler, by people that actually live it.Guests: SassyRed, Joe748, Ryemo, and DanEmail:...
08.07.2020
Casino Exploits
The Gambling With an Edge podcast has made some 500 episodes featuring gamblers from every game imaginable. While most gambling content on the internet is filled with scammers and con artists, GWAE finds guests with credibility who have made their...