Customer Reviews

Big Deal

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

 

 

If you wasted your money on Bellin's Poker Nation, redeem yourself by picking up this previously out-of-print classic. You will not be able to put it down. Holden is one of the few serious poker players who comes off like a genuinely humane and funny person in print. You'll learn quite a bit about how to play, but this is really a book about the culture of the game. And when it comes to that topic, it has no equals. Alvarez's Biggest Game in Town came first, and is also well worth buying, but Big Deal has better pacing and a more personal touch that makes it compulsively readable.

I've never written a review before, but I really think this book is worth rooting for. You won't be disappointed.

Jounalist 'London' Tony Holden, clearly no slouch at the poker table, is emboldened by a boss placement at the World Series of poker (he finished ninetieth). He decides to see if he can 'run with the big boys,' or become a professional poker player. Thus begins a year of much intercontinental travel and poker play. Reading this account, it helps to be familiar with card games, especially Texas Hold 'Em; if you're not you might be perplexed or just bored by the play-by-plays of various hands ('the flop was a Qc-Kh-7c... Did the river hold an ace?'). But you need know nothing about gambling to enjoy Holden's breezy writing style: within these pages lie more than a few telling and insightful remarks on the foibles of gamblers, on his own gambling obsession (courtesy of a shrink Holden hires for that purpose), on the history of gambling and cards, especially in America, and the crazed capitalism concentrate that is Las Vegas. It's good stuff, delivered with the wisdom of a seasoned traveler and the self-effacement of a confirmed Briton. The book probably isn't representative of what might happen if Joe Public were to start mixing it up with the pros of poker; given the ease with which Holden mops up most of his competition, and regularly busts out old pros, he must be one of the better players out there. But if you're looking for a book that takes a hard, sympathetic look at the culture of gambling, this is a good one.

British journalist Holden recounts a year in his life spent travelling the world playing poker, his training course for the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

A classic of poker writing, it makes me ask whether all poker writers know each other. The other best-read in the category is A. Alvarez's The Biggest Game in Town. Alvarez and Holden are regulars at their Tuesday Night Game in London. Another well-known author David Spanier (Total Poker) reports on Holden's playing for a UK newspaper.

The book is wide-ranging: from a brief history of the game to exciting card-by-card retelling of hands. It even teaches you the odds in Texas Hold 'Em. If you like the game, you will enjoy this book.

Follow this up with Positively Fifth Street by James McManus, a new poker saga inspired by Holden and Alvarez.

Okay, I'm not a regular poker player, but after reading Holden's delightful book, I'd like to become one. His stories jump off the page and suck you in. You'll feel like you're right there with Holden, sweating the size of your bankroll, taking on the likes of Johnny Chan, and making your way through the World Series of Poker.

You don't need to know a great deal about poker to enjoy the book, but a rudimentary knowledge of Hold'Em would certainly make the poker-table anecdotes even more exciting. Either way, you'll be exhalting over Holden's wins and cringing through his bad beats right along with him.

Holden is an exceptional writer with a dry sense of humour that will have your friends wondering what the heck is so funny about that book you've been chuckling your way through for the past few days.

If you like poker, you will love this book. I did!

Anthony Holden gives us a look inside the globe-traveling world of high stakes poker as he chronicles his one year attempt to make a go of it as a professional poker player. His perspective is that of a well-educated british journalist, and this comes through with a score of literary references as well as with some self-deprecating wit.

For the aspiring serious poker player, the book is interesting, but not necessarily helpful in guiding one's poker-related career goals. In fact, it's not so much a "How to" as a "How NOT to." Over the course of a year, Holden is obviously playing well, as his various near-money finishes demonstrate. However, he also makes a series of poor decisions, and the biggest financial moments of the year are predicated on luck and fluke rather than on skill.

Playing jet-lagged and inebriated, habitually turning to the blackjack tables as a way to rebuild lost funds, Holden nails huge pots when he shouldn't, as when he catches one of two sevens in the deck to take down a big score against Johnny Moss.

Conversely, he is busted out of two consecutive World Series of Poker tournaments by being extremely unlucky, falling to a "three-outer" each time.

The book is generally interesting and exciting to read, although I would have liked fewer digressions into the history and culture of poker, and more information on the mechanics of the solid play that gets Holden rolling on a poker cruise.

This book will teach people a lot about poker, without teaching them about how to play better poker.

Holden emulates Alvarez with this book.
Holden writes about trying to make it as a player for a year, culminating in playing in the World Series and chronicling that event in the way Alvarez does in BIGGEST GAME IN TOWN.
Holden does a competent job. As you read the book, you'll be entertained, even though the narrator is not always incredibly like-able.
If you haven't read BIGGEST GAME IN TOWN, get that one first. If you have already read the Alvarez, then BIG DEAL is worth checking out.

It's a worthwhile read if you love playing poker. There's plenty of tall tales, crazy hands, and interesting psychology. However, Holden's style drags a bit in the later chapters, and his dry English prose is a bit dull at times. Overall, a good gift for the literate poker nut.

In BIG DEAL, Holden recounts a year in his life as a professional poker player, along the way describing his ups and downs from home games in London to the World Series in Las Vegas. Holden introduces us to the fascinating cast of characters who make up the pro poker culture, and gives us an insider's view of the game itself. Even if you are not a particular fan of the game, you will understand the book and appreciate the battle of wits and chance that makes the game of poker what it is. The book includes a high level detail of individual games that the author witnessed or played in -- perhaps too much detail for the casual reader. For anyone who is curious about the lifestyle of a professional cardshark or wonders whether they could hang with the big boys, BIG DEAL goes a long way to giving the answers.

What makes this book great, is that Holden is a writer first, and a poker player second. One of the best books on gambling ever written.

To me this book was like pocket sevens, you feel bad throwing it away, but it's really not worth your time. Interesting at times, some good stories, but not all that great.