Both an autobiography and a poker-playing manual which seeks to expose the cynical reality behind the "American Dream". Yardley describes many poker games and characters who include railroad men, travelling salesmen, speculators, drunks and no-hopers.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Yardley (1889-1958) began his career as a code clerk in the State Department rising to chief of MI-8, the first U.S. peacetime cryptanalytic organization in the 1920's. MI-8 was disbanded in 1929 and Yardley caused a sensation in 1931 with the publication of his memoirs of MI-8, The American Black Chamber. Unsurprisingly the Army were not amused and although Yardley did some cryptologic work for Canada and China during World War II, he was never again given a position of trust in the U.S. government
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't tell anyone you play poker with about this book.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Education of a Poker Player (Paperback)
After reading Yardley's book, I applied his techniques to my weekly kitchen game. While I normally came out ahead, using his advice, I booked the biggest win in the history of our game. Then I took his knowledge to Atlantic City. Strictly following his strategies for 7 card-stud, I booked my first win in a cardroom. And have used the techniques since. And won. Yes, the book is a bit dated, and yes, Yardley has a major ego. And his strategy is very conservative, which means once you employ it over the long haul, people will see you as a rock, and not give you much action. But there is no better place to start if you are serious about poker, and no better book to read to get a feel for the lore, and also to gain the confidence that you can win. An excellent read, filled with money-making advice, and a book you do NOT want your opponents to know about.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Underground Book for Good Poker Players!,
By Courtland J. Carpenter (Fort Wayne, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Education of a Poker Player (Paperback)
I have an old moth eaten, doggie-eared copy of this, in pocket book form. I think I got it for pennies in the discount bin way back when. What a steal! My good friend and I used to practice magic, had all kinds of card books by John Scarne and others. I bought several on card manipulation, and poker strategy. When you like to play around with card tricks, I guess poker just comes along naturally as a game. This book was put aside for a long while, and then one bored evening, I started to read it. Wow, what an entertaining book I thought. It featured colorful stories of a young punk, getting involved with a cagey veteran gambler. What he learned in each of these stories is a strong life's lesson on playing poker.Actually, if you can believe, and adhere to the next few statements you don't need this book. The book teaches you in an interesting story like format to, play the odds. It teaches you not to go after loser hands, to get out, even if you're leaving money on the table "if" the odds are against you. It teaches there is no such thing as luck. Some nights you can do no wrong no matter how badly you play, but if you play badly in the long run, you will lose! I still recommend you read the book, even if you buy into what I just said. Losers will take exception to this I know, but that's why they lose! Here are a few of my own experiences. I had attended a mid-west university on a shoestring budget. I was down to my last few hundred dollars, with gas and food to buy for the rest of the semester, nearly three months! I got involved in a poker game that some of the guys did on Friday. It was a popular game with six to seven regulars, and a few occasional players. I'm not one taken to gambling; I'd never bought a lottery a sweepstakes ticket before this, and in the years since, have only bought one in an office pool. Playing for money was serious business to me, and this book served as my bible. The first night I played I was going from memory, the books lessons served me well. I won that night and continued to play for the next few months every Friday. I re-read the book just to bone up on the finer points of playing again, but never showed it to the competition. In about 15 weeks or so of playing, (not big time games, this was nickel ante poker, we were poor college kids) I lost once, about 8 dollars. The other 14 games (we generally played for about six hours), I routinely won around $15-$30 each evening. The interesting thing about this was that most of the other players, some good, and others very poor, typically won and lost between $5 and $75. Sometimes even the bad players had a good night. Because of the way, this book had me playing, I rarely lost, and neither did I win every hand either. Poker is about odds and tactics not luck. If you are not going to win, you fold! It was interesting what came of this; my reputation in the game was of someone with great luck, who always "had" the cards. It even enabled me one evening to pull a legendary bluff. I had a friend named Art who had played with me in several games. He was a classic loser, because he was one of these guys, whose greatest fear, was giving away money to a good bluff. Consequently, I'd seen him call people in a stud game, when it was obvious he was beat, even from the "cards on the table"! I had made it a point in many games with him to, "always have the cards" when he was left in the game. One night in a game we played with about a dozen wild cards, I had started by making a bad play. I forgot about all the wild cards, because my regular hand looked so good, and I was still in the hand, well after I should have dropped out. The hand came down to me, and Art. I thought, "oh heck with it", I looked at him, smiled, and raised him the maximum limit. I knew he had me beat, and I knew he had this thing about having to call. He'd never beat me head to head, and I guess something told him it was time to give it up. He folded! His hand was a wild card laced "royal flush"! I had a full house, which was a weak hand, with that many wild cards in the game. Art said later, he was certain I had five aces to beat his royal flush, I'd done it to him too many times before. This kind of mentality is explained in the book. There's a reason the used copies, cost twice what the list price was. Try it out, you'll see what I mean!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sound Poker stragegy laced with colorful life adventures.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Education of a Poker Player (Paperback)
Expecting a dry litany of statistics on the various
games of poker, I was pleasantly surpirsed at the
colorful pictures Yardley painted with the semi
autobiographical story of his 'Education of a Poker
Player'. The book starts with a shadey near-turn
of the century poker room frequented by his youth.
Much of the time the book focuses on this relationship
with mentor and friend Monty. The book pleasantly
shifts from pure strategy, to the philosophy and art of Poker,
to the stories of Yardleys middle aged adventures as a
code decriptor in China approaching the second World
War. The only dissapointment in the book was the abrupt
ending, no wrap up. While the story left you wondering
what happened with the rest of his life, your knowledge
of how to play and win all popular forms of the game Poker
will be very much closer to complete
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