What is everyone's favorite Non Strategy poker story book?

[zach383z]

I am starting to get burnt out on the whole strategy books and now im looking for more of a poker story book. Such as The Professor, The Banker, The Suicide king. Positively 5th street, or Stu Ungar story.... Books of that nature.

Thanks for everyone's opinion

[schlucky1]

A. Alvarez's "The Biggest Game in Town" is a classic must read.
"Aces and Kings" by Michael Kaplan and Brad Reagan is pretty good, as it profiles some of the past and present big names in poker.
"Bringing Down the House" by Ben Mezrich is another must read gambling book (it's about the MIT Blackjack Team, in case you didn't know).
Another great non-poker, but somewhat relavent, book is "Shibumi" by Trevanian. It's a super read and has some elements of gaming and mindfulness/eastern philosophy which could be applied to poker. I highly recommend this one.
I know you didn't want a strategy book, but I really liked Phil Gordon's "Little Green Book." It's an easy read and has some entertaining qualities along with several useful insights to go along with good basic strategy.

I hope this helps. Time to go play some more to support my book habbit.

[MuckerFish]

Shut up and deal - Jesse May: Fun read, especially if you play in AC

The Hustler - Walter Tevis: Sure it's about pool, but a fantastic read. Much better than the movie. Great stuff about gambling for a living, tilt, etc.

[I am fish]

I enjoyed all of the following...

Poker Nation by Andy Bellin

Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich

Big Deal by Anthony Holden

I know Mason did not give Poker Nation a good review saying that it represented poker players as degenerates, but I really enjoyed it. I imagine the author is writing from his actual experiences from which he had the underground poker clubs... and if I was grinding it out at the tables for a small living, I'd be doing massive amounts of drugs too.

Mason also didn't like Bringing Down the House. I really enjoyed it. That said, I didn't know anything about blackjack whatsover. And being in my mid twenties, there is an appeal to the glam of being in college and smuggling hundreds of thousands of dollars strapped to your body through airports. Living a glamorous lifestyle being a kid and hanging around celebrities and hookers and living it up in luxury suites.

I think younger readers will be more drawn to those two books.

[Tony_P]

Bringing Down the House & Breaking Vegas are great stories, but Mezrich is a terrible writer, and the books could have been really great if someone else had written them.

[loubal1005]

the Professor, the Banker, etc.

[tomdemaine]

I bought the book "cards" by Jonathan Maxwell from that little ad below small stakes on the left and thought it was very good.

[TheNoodleMan]

Positively 5th street, and its not even close.

[chessforlife]

CARDS by maxwell for sure. This is going to be a cult book.

Feel free to disagree, but i thought positively 5th street was weak. It's written by a professional writer that decided to write a book about a topic he knows nothing about. YES, he got to the final table in a WSOP, but he'll never be so lucky again. You know the story, right? The 5th street writer was given $10,000 to write an article about the WSOP, so he decided to use the fee for an entry. He read a few poker books a couple months before, and wham, he hit the final table. that's the story. Pretty dumb story if you ask me.

Honestly, what about positively Fifth street did you like? I thought it was like eating cardboard.

[maurile]

I liked the coverage of the Binion murder trial in Positively Fifth Street.

The WSOP coverage, not so much.