The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

I read this Book cover to cover without putting it down. It was a very good book, at times it was kinda all over the place, but it was a very well writen book with a great look into the world of high limit poker. I would pick it up and give it a read IMO.

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

i liked it, although it seemed like the author was repeating stuff a lot. the random tangents he took to describe the business of some players/andys life seemed a bit out of place at times too.

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

I agree. The Beal v. Pros story is interesting enough, and Beal is a fascinating character, but what I really like is that this is a well-written book that focuses attention on the best cash game pros and does a decent job on explaining what makes them the best poker players in the world, especially as we are inundated with tournament celebrities. I have nothing against the Negreanus and Juandas and Hellmuths (even the Hellmuths!), but it seems wrong that most of the world thinks the tournament winners are the very best in the world. Personally, I find the Reese/Brunson/Greenstein/Harman/etc. stories more compelling and impressive than who wins WPT player of the year.

Rooting for more books like this.

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

Ditto. I find it hard putting this book down.

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

I read it cover to cover the day I bought it, stayed up till 6 AM. Great read [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

after getting into a tiff with my g/f i decided to head to bed early and just read a bit, ended up staying up till 3am to kill the book.

i thought it was a great book. I found I didn't give Howard Lederer enough credit before as he is the one who ended up dominating Beal.

I found it very interesting that Beal was able to advance in skill that much headsup to the point where he would be pretty close to even-money against professionals.

Does anybody know if there was ever a re-match after this?

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

a new game and the terms were under negotiations as of a few months ago, but I don't think anything has happened since.

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

I picked up this book yesterday at the book story and have almost finished it.

Absolutely captivating. Ted Forrest is a damn pimp. His first appearance in the book, priceless.

I also liked that in addition to the stories, the writer obviously has some understanding of poker's finer points and discusses player strategy a fair amount.

Lots of fun, poker journalism at its best.

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

I think the pros are a little wrong not to have raised the stakes after they won the first time. I understand that beal has more money but they had just won. Usually the loser can ask for a raise in stakes, I thought Greenstein was a stand up guy for agreeing with beal. If it wasn't for Howard Jennifer and Ted the rest of the "big game players" would have been crushed. Forced to play chineese poker for fun. Beal is amazing.

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

Very good read.

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

The book was awesome! I thought it was funny how Jennifer Harmon flew back from Italy on a bs rumor. Why did he rip on Sklansky at the end? There must be more to it.

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

How did he rip on Sklansky? I must have missed it..

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

The author was angry that Sklansky refused to give his insight into the intricacies of heads up play. I don't know why the author even asked Sklansky to do this in the first place because Sklansky has stated that he has very little experience playing head up. The author should have asked Neverwin or even a successful high limit prop player, because props often play short handed.

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

ahh thanks man. Possibly just trying to sell more books?

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

After reading this book, Ted Forrest in my new poker hero.
Love how he just jumps into the game initially with his own bankroll without the corporation's knowledge.

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

That's right. I think it's more complaining about Sklansky than ripping him, but it was such a small portion of the book was devoted to that part that I don't remember exactly.

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

I just finished this, and enjoyed it very much.
Well written, and captivating. If you haven't yet read it, I highly recommend it.

The Sklansky knock was buried at the end of the "Acknowledgments" in the back of the book.
It seemed both critical and a compliment, in an awkward sort of way.

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

I read this entire book in the bookstore today, and its great

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

[ QUOTE ]
I read this entire book in the bookstore today, and its great

[/ QUOTE ]

And I thought I was a speed reader. It took me several settings at the bookstore to finish the book.

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

i heard ther was a new book coming out that included th details of when beal returned to vegas after this book was written. no idea if its true though?

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

Even though it was Howard Leaderer's nickname that made the title of the book, I though Jen Harmon can across as more of the "hero" of the book.

She basically offered to check herself out of the hospital and play Beal head's up for millions while hooked to a dialysis machine, and Beal was afraid that if she did that she'd still beat him.

Jen is my poker hero.

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

This thread is now about "Suicide King" rumors.

Re: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King
 

What about Todd Brunson? I think he was another hero in that book by dominating Beal.

At the time I read it, I never really quite knew Todd but since reading it and seeing him play on TV (i.e. High Stakes Poker), I give him full props as a world class player.