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Memoir Depicting Life as a Professional Poker Player.In 1998, 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 hair-raising, nail-biting excitement of the game itself. An award-winning journalist, Anthony Holden is also the author of several best-selling biographies of such figures as Shakespeare, Tchaikovsky, Laurence Olivier, and the Prince of Wales. His most recent book is the sequel Bigger Deal: A Year Inside the Poker Boom.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A poker memoir of reasonable quality,
This review is from: Trademark Big Deal - A Year as A Pro Poker Player By Anthony Holden Instructional (Black/Red) (Sports)
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.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The biographer of royalty plays some cards,
By
This review is from: Big Deal: A Year As a Professional Poker Player (Hardcover)
Anthony Holden, the author of many biographies including Olivier and Prince Charles, decides to leave his day job behind for an entire year to become a professional poker player. In his journeys he travels to Vegas, Los Angeles, Louisiana, New York, Malta, Morocco, and the Carribbean to play the best in the world. He sits down with several former World Champions, and he busts a few along the way. Ultimately you learn what goes on inside the head of a man who lives to play the game. He begins and ends his journey at Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas at the World Series of Poker. As a narritive, it is the finest book on poker I have yet to read.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's better than seeing Ace-Ace as your hole cards!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Big Deal: A Year As a Professional Poker Player (Hardcover)
As good as it gets! Anthony Holden takes the reader on a rollercoaster journey, allowing us to peer in and see what it would be like to just leave your job for a year to become a professional poker player. After reading it the first time you will be calling your travel agent for the next available flight to Las Vegas. I have found that re-reading it about a week prior to taking any subsequent trips to Las Vegas will put you in such a festive mood, that by the time your plane is descending to McCarron airport your excitement has reached a fever pitch. The only thing to do at that point is to head right over to Binion's Horseshoe and make your own story come to life along the green baize. It is marvelously entertaining, and very informative. Reading this book is the second best thing to actually playing in the World Series of Poker!
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