bought brandon adams broke off amazon for like 9 bucks.

reading the chapter about commerce. didn't know commerce was in "south central LA", brandon. trying to get past this tilt to continue on in this book.

Here's a bump for a thread that's not been active for a while. Having enjoyed Hautman's 2005 poker mystery, The Prop, I just read his earlier book, Ring Game. It's the third of his Joe Crow novels and the other two had good reviews so I was looking forward to this. But despite the title, which turned out to have nothing to do with the plot, my expectations were wrong: this turned out to have neither poker (ok, the protagonist Joe Crow does talk about having played in a few places) nor mystery. Unlike some of the novel's reviewers (which I didn't read until after I'd finished), I didn't find the overloaded plot confusing: it's in the nature of farce, which is what this is. The back-cover blurb of my edition compares the book to fiction by Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiassen but really this is a comic caper novel in the Donald Eastlake tradition.

Excellent Thread... I enjoyed Shut Up and Deal. I was able to source many of the books via Abebooks. I would of preferred using iBooks and getting on my ipad, but getting the paperbacks was just as good (great prices too).

Thank you OP for your reviews...

-Callahan-

bump. Thanks for the reviews. I plan to check some of these out.

The Education of a Poker Player by Herbert O Yardley is ostensibly a poker manual, with a discussion of poker hands contained within narratives of the places Yardley played and the people he encountered there there.

It is written in a plain, functional style, which in one of its strengths. It's evocation of the small town America in which he learnt the game, and the brilliant rendition of the characters, must allow it to be regarded as a work of literature. It was the book that caused me to fall in love with the game many years ago, even though there was nowhere I could play.

The instructional element has inevitably dated to the point of uselessness - basically he recommends a style of extreme nittiness, which no doubt garnered a fortune at the tables of the day.

Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain is a classic of the 19th century, and it contains many anecdotes of the gamblers and card games on the river boats on which Twain worked as a pilot.

I played blitz chess with the author outside of the WSOP main room in 2006. He was broke and trying to build up his roll by playing blitz for money there. He told me to check out his book and I kinda brushed it off/ forgot about it for a while until a year or so later when I just happened across it somehow. I've read it twice and loved it. It's the only book I recall ever reading at stoplights. Pretty much impossible to google if you don't know the authors name, unfortunately.

He wrote another book as well on how to win at blitz chess


Ha, a friend of mine that I recommended the book to ended up loving it and buying all remaining copies (5 or so) that he could find at the time b/c he wanted to give some to friends.

I plan to review a bunch of these books (fiction and nonfiction) in my "poker goals" thread. If any of you are interested, I posted the first review here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17.../#post38908665

Thx for the review guys! I just ordered Broke and King from a small World after reading this thread just now. Will review after I am done reading.

Cool thread. Lots of stuff I hadn't heard of.

just read Cards and it's worth your time. Better than Shut up and Deal imo and close to King of a Small World. I wrote up a review of the novel in my blog, which I've linked a few posts above.

Just found out about Poker Slam by Neal Gersony. Apparently a murder mystery with a lot of poker content: http://www.amazon.com/Poker-Slam-Nea.../dp/0595478123.

And, finally, The Poker World According to Cinch (not a novel, more of a memoir, I think): http://www.amazon.com/Poker-World-Ac...8423796&sr=1-2

People shouldn't be fooled by what was Johnny's posting style here on 2plus2. His novel is written in a much better manner although this opinion is based on reading the first five pages of it.

I previously posted a review of the book somewhere (maybe on 2+2?). Here's what I thought:

At first I thought I wouldn't read beyond the first few pages of Cinch(the typos and amateurishness of this self-published book were grating) but I'm glad I continued. The voice is in the Sam Slick country humour tradition, as descended through figures like the Grand Old Opry’s ‘Duke of Paducah’ …. And it was somehow reassuring reading Cinch on how bad the bad beats are in Omaha.

His “special theory of probability” at the end is worth the price of the book.

I don't know if you found this out since publishing your review, but in case you didn't, it was self-published. I checked the Amazon page and the publisher is listed as iUniverse.

I came across a few poker novels that I hadn't heard of. Anyone familiar with these? Any of them worth a read?

Leonard Wise, The Big Biazarro (1978). apparently adapted into a film with Pierce Brosnan?

Christopher Keane, The Crossing (1978)

Ernest Tidyman, Table Stakes (1978).

These all look pretty obscure, but I don't want to miss any diamonds in the rough.

has anyone read David Spaniel's poker writing?

http://www.amazon.com/David-Spanier/...4213470&sr=1-1

Doesn't he have a son named Cocker?

I think I have a book either by him or edited by him sitting on my shelf.

My favorite poker book km of all time.. hands down
the biggest game in town...
great book

Agreed. Next would be "Shut Up and Deal" imo.

Re-opening this great thread. Have just come across 'The Poker Player' by Andrew Laurie. Released this year - a novel about a poker wannabe who takes on Las Vegas.

Anyone familiar with it (or the author)?

Agreed and agreed.

Shut Up and Deal is a masterpiece, King of a Small World is superb, Cards is a good read but nowhere near as good as Shut Up or King imo. One writer/book that hasn't been mentioned is Edward Bunker (famously Mr Blue in Reservoir Dogs) - one of his novels (sorry, can't remember which one but they're all good - Animal Factory, Little Boy Blue, No Beast So Fierce) features a really well written poker scene in which the protagonist plays draw lowball. Bunker learnt to play poker in prison (where he spent a lot of his life) and the scene I'm thinking about is very realistic with references to strategy and psychology not usually seen in novels.

Does anyone know how close Johnny Hughes is to finishing up his novel, Darling of 2Plus2?