Poker Books [Not how to play]

Fatboydim

Mrs Dim wants to buy me some Xmas prezzies... And I was thinking a poker book or two might go down well. But I don't really want any How to Play type books such as super system... I'm more interested in a good read. So any recommendations?

There's a couple of books on Stu Ungar for example - Which is the best?

Positively Fifth Street looks interesting - Kind of Hunter S Thomsonish

Shut Up and Deal - Jesse Mays book - anyone read that?

others on a search include Big Deal and The biggest game in town...

So advice please.

Lafortezza

Positively 5th street, and Big Deal are excellent. Haven't read the others.

Imposter

One of a Kind is the Stu Ungar book be Nolan Dalla and Mike Sexton. I think it has another tilte though so maybe search on the author for it. I found it quite good.

Aces and Kings is also ok. It goes through about 10 different players and tells their stories.

Waylander

Big deal is a good read, as is poker nation by Andy Bellin.

careca

I read Jessy May's twice. Good read, no real hands as such. Worth a read alright though.

Positively Fifth street is good also - poker and the binion murder trial.

Bringing down the house - Blackjack players going to vegas with a strategy.

Lex

Bringing Down the House is excellent alright.
Big Deal is good too.
Halfway through Ace on the River (Barry Greenstein) at the moment and it is interesting so far.

Edit: A book that I'd like to get next is The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King. It's about a big cash game that was organised between a texas millionaire and a syndicate of pro's (brought together by Howard Lederer I think).

gosplan

I'm quite a fan of 'the biggest game in town' by Al Alvarez. He's a buddy of Tony Holden who wrote 'big deall and also a literary critic which means he writes quite well.
Generally it's just about poker stories and legends and the biggest games to ever take place.(Great story about a big drug dealer in the US who was getting life in jail, he went to vegas with millions and generally didn't mind losing it. Allegedly the table couldn't hold any more chips so people had huge stacks on the ground beside them)

hotspur

I agree that Bringing Down the House is a great read. Also Big Deal is a joy to read. The Stu Ungar bio by Nolan Dalla is called The Man Behind the Shades (my version is anyway) and is interesting if you're interested in the world of a gambler, focuses somewhat less on poker than you might imagine. I've been meaning to get The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King thanks for reminding me Lex Imposter would you recommend Aces and Kings? 10 players seems like a lot, is there much depth to the chapters?

Not wishing to hijack this thread but speaking of a book about 10 of the best players I was giving some consideration to a book about the top 5 -7 online poker players. Strictly in terms of earnings in online cash play who would you guys reckon are the top 5 players in the world? [ "me" followed by is not a good answer ]

Culchie

I don't know about the States, but 'Actionjack' is a legend on Ladbrokes.

hotspur

Culchie does Jackson play cash games? I've only started paying attention to Ladbrokes very recently, glad I did cause I saw Erik Sagstrom and Ram Vaswani going at it head up last week (there's 2 of the top players for you there).
Ladbrokes could well have American players legitamitly playing on it soon enough as I believe they are heading for a public offering on the London exchange on their own seperate from their US owner Hilton Group - yes that's right folks Paris Hilton is heir to Ladbrokes

Lex

hotspur wrote:

Culchie does Jackson play cash games? I've only started paying attention to Ladbrokes very recently, glad I did cause I saw Erik Sagstrom and Ram Vaswani going at it head up last week (there's 2 of the top players for you there).
Ladbrokes could well have American players legitamitly playing on it soon enough as I believe they are heading for a public offering on the London exchange on their own seperate from their US owner Hilton Group - yes that's right folks Paris Hilton is heir to Ladbrokes

Not sure, mostly tournies I think hotspur. Its neck and neck at the top of the Leaderboard at the mo so he's in every tourney goin. He did well in Monte Carlo too.

Imposter

hotspur wrote:

The Stu Ungar bio by Nolan Dalla is called The Man Behind the Shades (my version is anyway) and is interesting if you're interested in the world of a gambler, focuses somewhat less on poker than you might imagine. ...Imposter would you recommend Aces and Kings? 10 players seems like a lot, is there much depth to the chapters?

Yep that's the other title. It's the same book though.

As for recommending Aces and Kings, it's ok. Stu Ungar is one of the players, Doyle Brunson is another. If you've read the Stu Ungar book and/or the intro to supersystem then those 2 chapters are pretty much wasted. In saying that it is quite a good read. It tells peoples life stories in a fair bit of depth. Yes it could go deeper but it's probably enough info in most cases. The chapter on women in poker though is pretty crap as it discusses a few of the top women players without really going into all that much detail about any of them.

Fatboydim

Thanks guys - The Stu Ungar thing did confuse me as I thought they were two different books... So it looks like four main choices then.... Where's Des when you need him?

I have already read Bringing Down The House and very much enjoyed it. Wasn't Andy Bloch part of that MIT team as well [Or probably an earlier one]

The C Kid

Yeah Andy Bloch was part of that team.

Mezrich's follow up to BDTH titled "Ugly Americans" is a cracking read too. It's not about poker but about financial trading in Asia around the time of Nick Leeson's rise to prominence. Some of the trades and gambles taken were mind-blowing.

Doc Farrell

Len i'll ring you from work tomorrow and send them out to you if u want.
excuse me i'm running out to the pub.

roryc

aren't you always......

sendic

Just finished the professor the banker and the suicide king. its very good but i dont know that i'd recommend it as a first poker book for a non player.

Daithio

Len- definitely get 'One of a Kind- the Stu Ungar Story' by Nolan Dalla, it's absolutely brilliant. I couldn't put it down, finished it in about 2 days. Also there's a book called 'The Suicide King' (I think), it's a first hand account of playing the biggest cash game in Vegas. I haven't read it but I've heard it's excellent.

Amaru

The C Kid wrote:

Yeah Andy Bloch was part of that team.

Mezrich's follow up to BDTH titled "Ugly Americans" is a cracking read too. It's not about poker but about financial trading in Asia around the time of Nick Leeson's rise to prominence. Some of the trades and gambles taken were mind-blowing.

He has another book too, surprisingly about BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE(it actually has that in big letters on the front), about some kid who took vegas for millions in the 80's, except not with Blackjack this time. Not sure what its called though.

EDIT: Just looked it up, its called "Busting Vegas". Don't know anybody who's read it though.

Fatboydim

I'm getting my shopping list ready for Des.

Pos 5th Street
Big Deal
One of A Kind
Shut up and Deal
the professor the banker and the suicide king

Sendic:
Just finished the professor the banker and the suicide king. its very good but i dont know that i'd recommend it as a first poker book for a non player.

After the way I played over the weekend I think I might have to strike that one off the list then.:D

Culchie

I'm reading Big Deal now, it's great, not played any poker, it's hard to put the book down.

I have Pos 5th Street and Professional, Banker sitting there waiting to be read over the Christmas.

corblimey

Watching the ESPN WSOP highlights, they sometimes break away to a filler 'The Best Hand I Ever Played". Last Sunday, they mentioned a book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933060034/102-6442785-2682546?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance

No reviews, but it sounds pretty good - the segments themselves are really good.

sendic

Fatboydim wrote:

After the way I played over the weekend I think I might have to strike that one off the list then.:D

Sorry, sorry, sorry. I misread the original post. I thought you wanted to get some books for your Mrs for Xmas that were interesting to a beginner/non player.

You may have to order the suicide king online. I bought mine in the states but I was in Hodges Figgis (spelling?) about a month ago looking to buy it and they said its not available in Ireland yet. I bought positively 5th street instead which is excellent. I think someone already mentioned Poker Nation, which is also very good. You should also try to get hold of "education of a poker player" by Yardley. He was a codebreaker for the US during WW2 and played a lot of poker. its all stud and draw but its very good (I thought).

califano

corblimey wrote:

Watching the ESPN WSOP highlights.

I was watching this last nite. A bloke with no arms that played with his feet(full credit to him) won a big pot and went absolutely nuts in celebration. As soon as he settled down he said "Thats about as excited as im gonna get"(like he just gave a whoop or 2)
I broke my arse laughing at the way he said it.