With one of the best poker books ever (The Biggest Game in Town) already under his belt, A. Alvarez a decade ago published Poker: Bets, Bluffs, and Bad Beats, a blend of poker history in somewhat of a coffee table book format.
At 10" by 9.5", the hardback book is a little smaller than most coffee table books. At 125 glossy pages, it is a little longer than many such books. The pages are packed with images of all things poker. The pervasive pictures range from current players to movie stills to classic book covers and postcards, many more than 100 years old. The photos serve as a museum of poker, exhibiting gadgets used for cheating, historical poker chips, and decks from bygone eras. Virtually anything poker-related you can imagine is on display here in a full blaze of color worthy of any Las Vegas casino.
These pictures alone make the book worth at least a perusal for anyone with an interest in poker, and even for many without. The words, which are more plentiful than a typical coffee table book, make it worth a purchase for players. Written in the first person, Poker serves as an introduction to, history of, and insight into what Alvarez dubs The American Game. This isn't a tutorial, although you will no doubt learn a few things through the various stories. Much like Game (a few pages are even borrowed from that work), this book captures the alluring magic of poker through prose and tales.
For example, the chapter entitled Money: The Language of Poker is pure genius, as it explains how the value of chips is simultaneously important yet ignored, concluding with the famous and brilliant quote, "The guy who invented gambling was bright, but the guy who invented chips was a genius." Later Alvarez spends a chapter recounting classic hands and bad beats that some familiar with poker history will know, but the wonderfully meandering writing will still enrapture the reader. He wraps up the book with a chapter on the 1994 World Series of Poker, which he both observed and participated in.
Those who like the game will of course devour every word. Those who don't care for poker probably won't like the book, unless they're looking for some clue as to why so many people are entranced by the game. Alvarez again captures the allure of poker with his words...
In poker, as in everything else, imagination starts where logic falters and transforms reality for its own ends, as Straus did with his unplayable cards. His move was more than bluff; it was play in the truest sense. And play, after all, is where poker started and what, in the end, it is all about.
...and this time adds brilliant historical photographic evidence as well, to splendid results.
You can find the book online for about $15. If you're a poker player who has been searching for something fascinating and poker-related to put on your coffee table, look no further. You will find interesting pictures every time you flip through the book, and the stories are classics, worth reading time and again. This is the book is for you.
This is my first entry in Tom's Lean-N-Mean III write-off for concise yet informative reviews.
Other Gambling-related Reviews
Prose
The Biggest Game in Town
Positively Fifth Street
Poker Nation
Bringing Down the House
Tutorials
Super/System, by Doyle Brunson
Tournament Poker for Advanced Players, by David Sklansky
Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players, by David Sklansky
Play Poker Like the Pros, by Phil Hellmuth
Film
Rounders
Casino
Harrah's Prairie Band Casino
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