Customer Reviews

Aces and Kings: Inside Stories and Million-Dollar Strategies from Poker's Greatest Players

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When Michael Kaplan and Brad Reagan showed up at the World Series of Poker last year (2004), they set about making pests of themselves. They succeeded. They were around every day. And they weren't just there, they were constantly asking questions and probing, always probing. They were relentless.

The results of their pestisizing is here in "Aces and Kings." There hasn't been anything like this book since Jon Bradshaw wrote the classic "Fast Company" way back in the 70s (I think it was the 70s but it might have been the early 80s). Back then, big time poker was a fringe activity, no one had really ever heard of any poker player other than maybe Amarillo Slim. Bradshaw profiled a handful of the best players in the world, and opened up the back rooms of poker for everyone to see. The portraits were honest, fascinating, and at times, chilling.

Kaplan and Reagan have equalled Bradshaw's stunning achievement. They go in chronological order, covering the evolution of big time players from Puggy Pearson, through Doyle Brunson and Chip Reese, all the way to the young superstars of the current poker mania, Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey and their cohorts.

I've been hanging around major poker tournaments for about 4 years now and I consider myself a student of the lore of the game. I was amazed at the amount of truly new material that K&R managed to uncover. Not only do they track down the famous stories which all pokeristas have heard, they dig even deeper and get to the core of their subjects. They even got Erik Seidel to talk about himself and poker, which, if you know Erik at all, is a herculean feat.

The stuff they write about Chip Reese's encounters with the notorious mob goon Tony Spilotro back in the 70s is something that I've never seen anywhere else in print.

I won't tip it here, but I believe that Kaplan and Reagan's analysis of Phil Hellmuth's psyche is also the best material that's ever been written on the gifted poker brat. Phil should read it and think about what it means.

I won't go on and on because my advanced attention deficit disorder prevents me from focusing beyond the sixth or seventh paragraph of anything I write. But if you are interested in poker's secrets and what really goes on at the highest levels of our sordid, beautiful and perplexing game, buy this book. You won't regret it.

One of the consequences of the big poker craze is that books are coming out a million on the subject. Aces and Kings is a perfect example of the fad, but it bares none of the hallmarks of quick production. The prose reads very much like what one would expect to find in a mainstream magazine; which is not surprising as several of these chapters appeared first in places like Cigar Aficionado. The book, on the whole, is quality and chocked full of details. It's main focus concerns those who try to make an easy living in the hardest way possible, i.e. the professional players. With ESPN and The Travel Channel, they have ever-increasingly become the focus of the public's attention. Aces and Kings attempts to inform readers about the poker life by analyzing its biggest names and figures. Many of these cardsharps have become celebrities overnight. Their mini-biographies are extremely interesting and are told over the course of 15 chapters. Three of them, "Web Kids," "The Women of Poker," and "The New Superstars" concern, groupings of players rather than individuals. In this, I think that they made one major error because Daniel Negreanu deserves a chapter of his own. That guy's personality is big enough to fill a warehouse.

Nearly all of the pros have lives that make for good reading, but, in my opinion, the most fascinating entry was the one concerning Chris Ferguson. In case you might not recognize his name, he was The World Series of Poker 2000 champion and is one of the most recognizable players in the game due to his Black Bart cowboy hat and huge Oakley shades. We discover that his appearance, just like every aspect of his persona, was carefully calculated in the hopes of discouraging his opponents from perceiving just how mathematically oriented he actually is. Ferguson has a PhD in mathematics/artificial intelligence from UCLA, and has spent years forging his probability based approach to the game. His huge black binders are brimming with statistics and determine how he will play hands and scenarios. The results, as we know, have been fantastic. What impressed me most about him was that he went on a severe cold streak in 2002, but did not get discouraged as he "recognized a statistical deviation" when he saw one. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and, even if you are not a huge poker fan, the plots within are about as interesting as something written by Nicholas Pileggi.

The stylistic writing of Michael Kaplan and Brad Reagan in Aces and Kings ranks right up there with the best of poker literature such as the books by A. Alvarez (The Biggest Game in Town) and Anthony Holden (Big Deal: One Year as a Professional Poker Player). The candid, insightful conclusions and observations are presented with a clarity and honesty that I have not seen in any poker writing in the year since the untimely death of my friend Andy Glazer, the greatest poker tournament reporter I ever read.

The authors present in fascinating detail the evolution and execution of the widely varying styles of many of the best known tournament and ring-game poker players. I spent a considerable time in the poker community and know most of the players who are featured in the chapters of Aces and Kings. The book accurately captures the personas of those people. I was really taken with this passage in the chapter on Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, 2000 WSOP world champion, who shaped his play based on his extensive mathematical modeling of poker hands:

"Early on, [Ferguson] showed Mike Sexton one of his big black books [of research data.] Sexton looked at it, chuckled, and wondered if this was a good use of Ferguson's time. He walked away thinking 'Chris is going to lose all his money.'"

"Like many others, Sexton simply did not comprehend the extent to which math could be deployed in a game as bluff-intensive as Texas Hold `Em. Breaking through Sexton's dogmatism was like trying to convince a 15th-century mariner that the earth was anything but flat. And, like a latter-day Columbus, Ferguson was so secure in his beliefs that he shrugged off the doubters and continued toward a possible abyss."

Aces and Kings is a wonderful book about the lives styles, wins and losses of these world-class players.

It was an entertaining read but it just did not deliver on its titles promise of providing any "million-dollar strategies". It also has a very dis-jointed feel to it-start, stop, start again. Well, after reading it through, that minor annoyance makes sense. This is a collection of articles written by the two authors put into book form so the flow is uneven and a little distracting. I enjoyed reading about the great gamblers and poker players, but it just left me a little disappointed having bought it with different expectations.

This is a great poker book. But be warned, it is not a book on poker strategies. It is, however, a wonderful book with each chapter detailing a bio on a different poker player(s). The read does provide a glimpse into the style of the different players. But it does not go into great depths on specific strategies and so on. This suits me just fine considering that there is now a mountain of poker books covering strategies.

So if you're interested in getting a broad feel for how some of the elite poker players slugged their way to the top, this is an excellent book. If you enjoy literature and poker, this will make an excellent read when you need to pass the time (e.g., airplane ride, can't sleep at night, etc.) ...

This book is a must read for anyone who would like to learn the basics of where the big names in the game today and in the past came from, what events/forces shaped their approaches to the game, and what makes them tick. In chapters of about 15 pages each the authors profile some of the greatest names in the history of the game. Separate chapters are including for Puggy Pearson, Amarillo Slim, Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese, Stu Unger, Erik Seidel, Phil Hellmuth, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Howard Lederer, David "Devilfish" Ulliott, Chris Ferguson, and Barry Greenstein. Three chapters are devoted to Women in Poker, the Web Kids, and the New Superstars. I would have enjoyed reading separate chapters on Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey and Anne Duke, but the book already runs to 266 pages with two appendices.

One reviewer complained that "the flow is uneven and a little distracting." I find it to be precisely the opposite. For the most part the flow of the book is much like the flow of a conversation with one of the profiled players. True, some segments are out of chronological order, but I found them to be in subject-logical order. And that's precisely the way you or I would learn the "Amarillo Slim Story" or the "Chris Ferguson Story" from a conversation with one of these icons.

Another complaint voiced in one review is that the book fails to deliver any "million-dollar strategies." Perhaps my take is distorted by the fact that I loved the book and having played a little poker in the days when Slim, Doyle and others dominated the Texas Circuit, enjoyed reliving those days. But I disagree with that reviewer in two specific ways. First, poker is a complex game involving not only the cards, the chips, and the players at the table, but much more. Anyone who has read Barry Greenstein's book "Ace on the River" understands that even for the professional poker player, the game played at the table is one of many components of one's life, and indeed of the game. Secondarily, there are some very important lessons to be learned from the book that do apply directly to the action at the table. Yes, it's all been written elsewhere. But here each very specific point is made through recounting of a very specific situation and that's more likely to stick as a result of reading the story than from reading a list of guidelines.

However, in order to pick up on these "strategies" the reader must do more than enjoy the read. I compiled a lengthy list of specifics from notes taken when reading the book. And those who take a few moments after reading a chapter - or after each event discussed within the chapter - to reflect on what can be learned, may be surprised at what they can learn from this book about the game of poker and the game of life.

Humans are designed to learn from specific events and the telling of those events - specific stories, myths, and parables. Evolution prepared us to learn from our own individual experiences and from tales told around the campfire. And it's these specific stories that we learn best from today. Here's an example from the mythology of poker: What critical concept is encapsulated in the phrase "a chip and a chair"? Many of us may remember only that some guy was down to a single chip and went on to win the World Series of Poker. It was Jack Straus, but that detail is immaterial. The story conveys the "don't give up" message so strongly that it's almost as if the reader had that experience herself!

Well this book contains a plethora of such stories. In the time required for reading and reflecting on the stories in this book a thoughtful reader will likely glean more of value from them than from an equivalent time setting at the table.

I don't think we yet appreciate what has happened in poker over the past 10 years. We see the glamour, the TV ratings, the rising piles of cash, and the newly minted celebrities, who would have been considered deviants and undesirables just a decade ago. But something else is happening as well. A history is being created.

Yes, there has always been poker history. But it's been mostly an oral tradition. Related the way that stories used to be passed down, over campfires (except in this case, usually across a felt table). But this history was an insider's history. If you knew it, it meant that you were part of an insider group, a part of the game, rather than an outside viewer. This is the nature of insular communities, rather than national games, sports, cultures.

But recently, we're starting to see the emergence of a poker history that is written and available to people outside the game. These books will be central to defining some of the greats in the game, and, whether correct or not, these definitions are likely to stick. Poker is getting a substantial historical record and it's important that the books that make up this record recognize the torch they carry.

Fortunately, books like Aces and Kings sets a good standard for these books. Kaplan and Reagan clearly put in the work, and they write about the players with an understanding of the game as well as a recognition that you have to write for everyone, not just insiders. I believe our appreciation of this book, and the work that went into it will grow as the greats like Reese pass on and out of living memory.

My only, criticism of the book is that the book lacks a certain amount of total overall cohesion, and as a history text, might have worked better if the pieces were drawn together a little more fluidly in the final editing process, rather than feeling, as they currently do, as distinct articles.

I liked this book. Not quite a 5 star offering but pretty close.

Fun stories about crazy gamblers!

Get a copy.

If you're a poker player looking for another purely instructional manual --- save your money here. If on the other hand you'd like entertaining stories of today's & yesterday's most successful pros and what made them that way then you will thoroughly enjoy this book. It gives profiles on some of poker's all-time best players past and present while managing to deliver the "nuts" using specific examples from their successes at the table. The main message of this book is that there are as many ways and strategies to win at poker --- particularly Texas Hold 'Em as there are players, REALLY! The best lesson it gave me was to figure out which of these many players' "style" of play best fit my own and go to school learning. Additionally, at the end it gives brief summaries of pokers most popular games along with a poker dictionary of terms. I really think the beginner as well as the expert can take something valuable away from these pages.... The profiles of the players are every bit as informative as they are entertaining and insightful. So pick up this book and get a "read" on some of the games greats to improve your game!

Aces and Kings has stunning appeal not only for the new breed of poker player and the recreational players that are curious about a favorite American past but also for poker players at every level and journalists that tought they knew all about poker; Aces and Kings teaches and entertains everyone about the struggles behind the superficial glamor of the game.

Wendeen Eolis