A Good Poker Read "The Professor, The Banker, and The Suicide King"

[pmdvert18]

This book is an interesting story about a matchup between some of the worlds best poker players and billionaire Andy Beal. Beal is a Texas business man who's goal was to master the game of poker and test his abilities against a Who's Who of high stakes poker (Doyle Brunson, David Grey, Chip Reese, Chau Giang, Jennifer Harman, Ted Forrest, Howard Lederer and some other noteable names).

The journey starts in 2001 when they play Beal in a $10,000/20,000 heads up limit poker match. By 2004 the players are playing at UNHEARD of levels, $100,000/200,000 where pots are most always exceeding $1 million.

This book is entertaining and easy to read, I read it in 4 hours. I would suggest this book on a plane ride to Vegas!!!

[Ken_AA]

I thought it was really boring. I really don't care to read what seemed like a list of who he played, how much he won/lost, and when he went back to vegas. The characters were not interesting (especially beal)and there was no content whatsoever outside of this look at a high stakes heads up limit game (if reading detailed accounts about poker weren't boring enough, reading accounts of LIMIT poker was very bad.)
not nearly as good as:
Poker Nation
5th Street
Biggest game in Town
Big Deal.... ect.

Ken

[Aceshigh7]

I wholeheartedly disagree.

[Rudbaeck]

It's extra fun because he uses one of Doyle's favorite techniques against him. Doyle often increases the bet size until the opponent is playing above his bankroll to make himself a favorite instead of a dog. Beal doing the same to Doyle was hilarious. (This is apparently Doyles default golf strategy.)

[*TT*]

I am almost done with the book, I got it for x-mas. Although I am enjoying it, I feel it was poorly written and very repetitive. It needs a good editor.

What I find most interesting is the humanizing of the corporation's members. Their errors, their misunderstanding of the fundamentals because the haven't had to play against players such as Beal before. I'd be willing to wager if I set up a 2+2 corporation of top HU players against Beal for a 5 day session we would have better results than they did.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[wmspringer]

[ QUOTE ]
I wholeheartedly disagree.

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[SixMile]

It was a good book on the high limit games. Has he been back since the last challenge? I liked it alot.

[mongoose51]

I enjoyed the book a lot. It made me want to play some hu poker. And I did.

[sf340flier]

I know this book has taken a beating in other posts, but I thought it was an easy read.

There was little poker knowledge (although the math Beal used for calculating HU play and his game-theory stuff was cool), but the author recounted some fascinating action from Vegas. People (like me) that don't live there or know any of the poker celebrities might find this book amusing.

[govman6767]

[ QUOTE ]
I am almost done with the book, I got it for x-mas. Although I am enjoying it, I feel it was poorly written and very repetitive. It needs a good editor.

What I find most interesting is the humanizing of the corporation's members. Their errors, their misunderstanding of the fundamentals because the haven't had to play against players such as Beal before. I'd be willing to wager if I set up a 2+2 corporation of top HU players against Beal for a 5 day session we would have better results than they did.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Put me down for 20k TT I'm not playing though [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]