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Big Deal: A Year as a Professional Poker Player
Price:$5.73
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Simon & Schuster |
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Product Description
In 1988, best-selling biographer Anthony Holden spent one year living the life of a professional poker player. His mesmerizing account of that year went on to become a classic of the genre, an inspiration to innumerable poker players and poker memoirists who followed. Big Deal is his story of days and nights in Las Vegas, Malta, and Morocco, mingling with the greats, sharpening his game, perfecting his repartee, and learning a great deal about himself in the process. Poker, Holden would insist, is a paradigm of life at its most intense, a gladiatorial contest that brings out the best as well as the worst in people. The heroes and eccentrics of the poker world stalk the pages of this remarkable book, along with all the hairraising, nail-biting excitement of the game itself. |
Customers Reviews
2007-05-31
Classic poker memoir
I'm rereading this after a few years. While his sequel Bigger Deal, caused me to think he may be an average player, this first poker book of his proves otherwise. He beats both Johnny Moss and Stuey Ungar. Hello!?
There's lots of great stories here -- even a history of poker in the U.S. -- and he's more confident in his game here. Maybe it's due to his being in love here, unlike the later volume.
One of the two most famous poker memoirs since Yardley. The other is his poker crony A. Alvarez's The Biggest Game in Town. (Alvarez's is more famous.)
Put down your Harrington and read about some legendary players.
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2007-04-18
A poker memoir of reasonable quality
This book falls in the category of poker memoirs. Unlike most such books, usually ghostwritten for a pro with name recognition, Holden writes about his own year-long stint as a pseudo-pro.
I say pseudo-pro because for most of the year Holden is a pro in name only - a professional writer visiting his subject matter. His skills are initially not particularly good, "honed" in a home game played mostly over various wildcard-dense forms of mickey mouse poker. Over the course of the year, he travels to numerous tournaments, loses money in them, gets lucky at blackjack (which he doesn't seem to realize is a long-run losing game the way he plays it), gets lucky playing over his bankroll in one big pot limit game, and eventually develops enough poker skill to beat satellites and mid-stakes limit games which is a reasonable accomplishment. Using this newfound poker expertise, he recoups his tournament losses & expenses, makes a few bucks, and calls it quits after a disappointing showing in the world series of poker marks the end of his year-long experiment.
Along the way, he collects the usual set of gambling stories, and those are told in entertaining fashion. This book is really a glimpse into professional poker as it existed before the poker boom, and as such is of historic value. It has little to nothing to offer in terms of poker strategy, and similarly little to offer someone considering "going pro" today since the boom changed everything. The book is well written and fun, but for poker players looking for additional depth or useful material, there's nothing to find.
If you want a real life gambling tale, my review is 4 stars - get it. If you want a memoir with some more useful poker material on the side (and written by a far better player), I suggest you get "Ace on the River" instead.
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2002-11-28
good, but not great
As a serious poker player, I found this interesting, but not riveting.
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2002-09-20
Better than Biggest Game in Town!
Not only the best poker book that I have ever read but one of my favorite books regardless of the topic. Mr. Holden is a professional biographer of the British Royal family that loves poker enough to devote a year of his life to experience what it is like to be a professional player. This is not an instrucional book but an enjoyable account of a year of poker written by an excellent author.
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2002-08-20
Recommended
While reading reviews of "Poker Nation", I noticed a large number of poker players who recommended "Big Deal" and "Biggest Game in Town" over "Poker Nation", so I read "Big Deal". It is a first-hand account which gives it a great deal of credibility. The story winds through the author's year with an even amount of detail of items pertinent to the game and to life in general. I particularly liked the tidbits of (life) wisdom strewn throughout the book -- something that modern books are displaying less and less of (no one wants to give advice to anyone else on how the good life can be lived). The book ends with a whimper, compared to many modern life-and-death ultradramas, but it is more true-to-life and we mere mortals.
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Texas Holdem: How to Play?Are you a newbie in Texas Hold'em community poker game? It's not a problem anymore. Texas Hold'em is one of the best games for beginners. For instance, in comparison with Omaha Poker and Seven Card Stud everybody is capable of learning main principles and rules (how to play Texas Holdem) in few minutes. Just find some hours for trainings and 8-10 players and you can play well enough. Sure thing there's a great importance of practice and by the end you'll be ready to "Shuffle up and deal".
How to play
1. The structure of stakes can be different. Sometimes poker use the "antes" before any cards are dealt, but generally the majority of gamers begins with a sum of money representing their share. Two players to the left of the dealer make bets which are called the "Small Blind" and "Big Blind".2. The dealer shuffles a pack of playing cards (52 cards in the pack)
3. The dealer then deals 2 face-down cards to each player. They're your hole cards.
4. The pre-flop gets the game started with bets (players to the left have to begin).
5. Each player looks at their cards. It's time to call. You should decide whether you wish to check the current bet, hold your hand without betting if you don't like the cards, or raise the bet.
6. Remember, the amounts of the bets and blinds are predetermined, and the little blind is always half the big blind.
7. The flop gets the next step started when the dealer burns a card, which means they deal it to one side and it is not sed in play.
8. Then the dealer deals three cards face down, this is called the flop. These community cards are the first of five ones that all players can use to make the best possible poker hand.
9. And there's another round of betting that starts the player to the left of the dealer (he's Under The Gun).
10. After that the dealer burns another card and then deals a fourth community card called the Turn, face up. Players an use these 6 card for their poker hand.
11. The player to the left of the dealer starts the final round of betting. In most types of poker at the present point in time the bets can be doubled.
12. Finally, the dealer burns another one card and then deals the final card, called the river. Players now can use very of 5 playing cards and 2 hole cards to make up their poker hands.
13. Now it's the final round of betting, which's starting the player to the left of the dealer.
14. Thereafter everybody (who's still playing) showdowns, surely starting the player to the left of the last one who staked on. It's the showdown. Players use a combination of hole cards and community cards to make up the best possible poker hand.
15. The player with the best poker hand is the winner. Sometimes two players tie a hand. In the event of a flush or a traight, the player holding the highest card in the series wins; if the board (table cards) has the five highest, the ot is chopped. If the boarв is AAKK9 and no player has better than a pair of eights in their hand, the board is the est possible hand, and all players in the showdown will chop the pot, which means to divide it evenly among those layers.
Grasping the main idea of how to play Texas Holdem, you can start playing some other Texas Holdem variations. It's not difficult task to learn main rules and principles of Texas Holdem, but to become an expert at it is not easy to realize. Fortunately, there're a great many poker rooms online where you can perfect your skill with pleasure.
*ante is a gaming stake put up before the deal in poker by the players;
*blinds exist in games where antes are frequently used, the "big blind" is equal to the minimum bet, and is twice as uch as the "small blind";
*hole cards – face-down cards or "pocket cards"
*check - to bet nothing
*fold means to discard one's hand and forfeit interest in the current pot
*raise – increasing the size of the bet |
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