What are the best poker history book(s)/site(s)?
 

I'm not looking for stories about Brunson et al. but rather a history of the game, emphasis on the the modern internet game/boom/bust and different countries' laws. Comparison of US states' laws too. Can be from difference sources including web sites. All help appreciated.

Matt

Re: What are the best poker history book(s)/site(s)?
 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_poker

check out the references on the bottom of the page for sources.

Re: What are the best poker history book(s)/site(s)?
 

'Roll the Bones' by David Schwartz

Mostly about gambling in general with a little bit about poker. Forward by James McManus, who is writing 'The History of Poker' due out in late 2008.

Re: What are the best poker history book(s)/site(s)?
 

CardPlayer ran a multi-issue series this past summer chronicling the history of the game in the US - don't recall if it ended with internet history or not.

Re: What are the best poker history book(s)/site(s)?
 

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CardPlayer ran a multi-issue series this past summer chronicling the history of the game in the US - don't recall if it ended with internet history or not.

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe the articles were a serialization of McManus' upcoming book.

Re: What are the best poker history book(s)/site(s)?
 

Not specifically about poker, but for background you should read David Parlett's A History of Card Games.

Long-time 2+2 poster Al Mirpuri has done original research in this area; maybe he'll drop by with some more specific suggestions. You might try PMing him. He hangs out in the Stud and Other Games forums.

Re: What are the best poker history book(s)/site(s)?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
CardPlayer ran a multi-issue series this past summer chronicling the history of the game in the US - don't recall if it ended with internet history or not.

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe the articles were a serialization of McManus' upcoming book.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually I just saw another one in this month's magazine, and it's still older stuff, so will probably not be of use to Matt (at least not the stuff that's been published in CardPlayer so far.)

Re: What are the best poker history book(s)/site(s)?
 

[ QUOTE ]
'Roll the Bones' by David Schwartz

Mostly about gambling in general with a little bit about poker. Forward by James McManus, who is writing 'The History of Poker' due out in late 2008.

[/ QUOTE ]

Also, Tronnes, Mike. Ed. Literary Las Vegas.

Stravinsky, John. Ed. Read 'Em and Weep.

Johnny Hughes

Re: What are the best poker history book(s)/site(s)?
 

Wikipedia is pretty good on individuals like Johnny Moss and Titanic Thompson.

Re: What are the best poker history book(s)/site(s)?
 

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Comparison of US states' laws too. Can be from difference sources including web sites. All help appreciated.

Matt

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For U.S. laws, Chuck Humphrey's site is probably the best:

gambling-law-us

Re: What are the best poker history book(s)/site(s)?
 

Thanks for the responses! The wikipedia article, links, and Chuck's site were all helpful.

Matt

Re: What are the best poker history book(s)/site(s)?
 

It's a funny thing about poker books -- they all seem to regurgitate the same old half a dozen stories about Titanic Thompson, Puggy Pearson, Johnny Moss, etc. etc. Surely with such a rich legacy, these guys must have more than the same bunch of stories?

Des Wilson has a new history of poker out, Ghosts at the Poker Table, but I haven't had a look at it yet, so I can't vouch for it. However, one book that is worth a gander is Herbert (Gangs of New York) Asbury's book, Suckers Progress: An informal history of gambling in America. Because it's an old book, it at least has the advantage of not rolling out the same six stories about Titanic Thompson, Puggy Pearson, Johnny Moss, Amarillo Slim, etc. etc. etc. I think all of those stories originate in Jon Bradshaw and Nik Cohn's Fast Company: How six master gamblers defy the odds and always win which is well worth a read -- but you'll know all the stories already.

Re: What are the best poker history book(s)/site(s)?
 

stories like when someone got shot in the head and they kept on playing.... wasn't that a doyle story, or just my poor recollection

Re: What are the best poker history book(s)/site(s)?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Not specifically about poker, but for background you should read David Parlett's A History of Card Games.

Long-time 2+2 poster Al Mirpuri has done original research in this area; maybe he'll drop by with some more specific suggestions. You might try PMing him. He hangs out in the Stud and Other Games forums.

[/ QUOTE ]


It is very kind of you to mention me Phat Mack. I would direct Matt to David Parlett's website where an article length exposition of the history of poker appears.

If Matt is to write a history of poker that is worthy of the effort and does not just retread the old conjectures about the origins of the game and retell the same tired anecdotes then he will have to read lots of obscure texts that in poker strategy terms are worthless but throw light upon the development of the game.

Re: What are the best poker history book(s)/site(s)?
 

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If Matt is to write a history of poker that is worthy of the effort ...

[/ QUOTE ]


zero chance of that. closest thing i might do on a whim is write the stories i've heard around the tables in North Carolina. Hollywood couldn't invent some of 'em. but that's unlikely too.

Re: What are the best poker history book(s)/site(s)?
 

John Scarne's books are worth a read

Re: What are the best poker history book(s)/site(s)?
 

[ QUOTE ]
stories like when someone got shot in the head and they kept on playing.... wasn't that a doyle story, or just my poor recollection

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Shot through the head, and you're to blame. You give poker a bad name. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Re: What are the best poker history book(s)/site(s)?
 

It might be interesting to show how poker influenced the development of Game Theory.

Father of Game Theory

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In 1921, Emile Borel, a French mathematician, published several papers on the theory of games. He used poker as an example and addressed the problem of bluffing and second-guessing the opponent in a game of imperfect information. Borel envisioned game theory as being used in economic and military applications. Borel's ultimate goal was to determine whether a "best" strategy for a given game exists and to find that strategy. While Borel could be arguably called as the first mathematician to envision an organized system for playing games, he did not develop his ideas very far. For that reason, most historians give the credit for developing and popularizing game theory to John Von Neumann, who published his first paper on game theory in 1928, seven years after Borel.



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and

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For Von Neumann, the inspiration for game theory was poker, a game he played occasionally and not terribly well. Von Neumann realized that poker was not guided by probability theory alone, as an unfortunate player who would use only probability theory would find out. Von Neumann wanted to formalize the idea of "bluffing," a strategy that is meant to deceive the other players and hide information from them.

In his 1928 article, "Theory of Parlor Games," Von Neumann first approached the discussion of game theory, and proved the famous Minimax theorem. From the outset, Von Neumann knew that game theory would prove invaluable to economists. He teamed up with Oskar Morgenstern, an Austrian economist at Princeton, to develop his theory.

Their book, Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, revolutionized the field of economics. Although the work itself was intended solely for economists, its applications to psychology, sociology, politics, warfare, recreational games, and many other fields soon became apparent.



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This is just one website, but there are more detailed books that might have more detailed information.