Other Sellers on Amazon
Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your account will only be charged when we dispatch the item.
+ S$9.32 Delivery
Shipping rates and Return policy
Big Deal: One Year as a Professional Poker Player Paperback – 5 September 2002
-
Get S$5 Off with Mastercard W/WE Cards. Enter code MCAMZ5 at checkout. Discount Provided by Amazon. Terms
Purchase options and add-ons
BIG DEAL is the mesmerising story of a year spent by bestselling biographer Anthony Holden in the tough world of the professional poker player. He spent days and nights in the poker paradise of Las Vegas, in Malta and Morocco, even shipboard, mingling with the legendary greats, sharpening his game, perfecting his repartee, and learning a great deal about himself in the process.
Poker, Holden would insist, is not gambling. Like chess it is a paradigm of life at its most intense, a gladiatorial contest that brings out the best as well as the worst in people. Its heroes, its eccentrics and is comedians stalk the pages of this remarkable book, along with all the hair-raising, nail-biting excitement of the games themselves.
A classic of the genre, BIG DEAL is here reissued with a new introduction by the author.
- Print length384 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication date5 September 2002
- ISBN-100349115192
- ISBN-13978-0349115191
Product description
Review
A remarkable odyssey - part Damon Runyon, part Dostoevsky ― VANITY FAIR
The best book about poker I've ever read ― Walter Matthau
BIG DEAL is the classic book on big stakes poker. Praised from high and low, all players love this book, and all those wannabes, dreaming of raking in that monster pot, will eat it up ― IRISH TIMES
About the Author
Product details
- Language : English
- Paperback : 384 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0349115192
- ISBN-13 : 978-0349115191
- Customer reviews:
Customer reviews
Top reviews from other countries
The book will completely appeal to dreamers on every continent who wish to avoid spending the rest of their days working for the man (or mam as the case often is nowadays).
His trip to the psychologist and brief discussion of the psychology behind gambling was enlightening. I learned from his "shrink's" perspective and welcomed the alternative hypothesis concerning what makes people gamble. Saying it's simply masochism alone is in no way a universal explanation.
As a narrator, Holden unfortunately introduces some politics into his text. He exudes smug anti-Americanism in spades. (Yawn...) He appears to think the majority of us are uncouth and disinterested in the finer things of life although his friend Eric Drache obviously belies his stereotyped impressions. He makes digs about Margaret Thatcher and embraces the foppish left-wing notions of many in the English elite but there is no substance behind his snarky comments. Holden intentionally describes some hick at the table as predictably being a Republican. Southerners are also a target and to think, just because a gambling event in Louisiana was cancelled, that nothing has changed in the south in 150 years time is absurd, flawd, and deeply prejudiced.
He notes that many poker players are right wing, but why they are is the crucial angle he refuses to explore. All poker players are capitalists by definition--whether they admit it or not. Maximizing profit is why we sit at the table. Those who play should be opposed to redistributionist schemes. True social justice is about keeping what you've earned which is what poker is all about. Oh well, such mindless political asides are not representative of the whole book but they are annoying enough to keep me from giving it five stars. Otherwise, good show London Tony!
The book is based around Anthony Holdens efforts to become a poker pro for a year. He talks through hand analysis and it's fair to say that time has not been kind to his reads as he seems to only ever put his opponents on the nuts. To call Tony Holdens style of play tight would be like describing the Pacific Ocean as a bit damp.
In a nutshell, he travels the world playing tournaments, doesn't cash in a single one and seems to permanently leave himself waiting for a premium hand with about a third of his original stack each time. Reading in 2016, the book doesn't age well as his play comes across as very defensive and I found myself cringing every time he explained a hand.
On the plus side, he does write nicely, and would have no issue in prising his story telling, but if your after a good poker journey tale, with some gung ho action, this probably isn't the one for you.