New Novel "Poker Nation"

Someone asked about this new book on another forum and (I think) didn't get much response. I haven't got it or read it yet but the publisher (Harper/Collins) thought enough of it to give it a standalone 1/4 page advertisement on page 120 of the April issue of Atlantic Monthly. Below is a link to the Amazon reviews. Anyway, it sounds promising.


Has anyone read this and will Chuck carry it?


Regards,


Rick

There is an article about it in the most recent New Yorker Magazine as well that is worth reading.

I'm reading it now - I'm not done yet. One reason I'm not done is I just haven't gotten interested in it yet. I think the posters on this forum will like it less than most because of their knowledge. Until I have finished, I'll just say it has not captured my interest yet. I'll post if it ever does. (or never does)

Here is a link to the New Yorker article:

http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/


It is non-fiction. It doesn't look very interesting to me.

I read it. It is nonfiction (although the author changes the names of the Mayfair and Diamond Clubs) and ok. A lot of the book is spent explaining how to play poker. Frankly, I think this part will confuse nonplayers and bore players.


The book includes stories about a compulsive gambler and other assorted poker characters. The book paints pro poker players as a bunch of addicts and degenerates.

But the book is not intended for serious players, it is probably for the mass public, as was the movie Rounders. You have to admit that Rounders had a lot of things in it that were questionable as well and has little to do with playing good poker. However, Rounders did get a lot of people interested in playing and generated a certain mystique regarding great players of the game. Maybe this book will inspire non-players to give poker a shot (and lots of people like to believe they have talent for something they happen to enjoy even if they don't like in music also) and the game will spread furthur.

I quoted from The New Yorker article in the News, Views & Gossip forum ("The Seductive Brutalities of Poker"), as something the reviewer said struck me as relevant to the recent abusive behavior thread.

"it is probably for the mass public, as was the movie Rounders"


I took my wife and my tennis instructor to Rounders, and they were both completely lost. Too much poker lingo, they couldn't understand what the characters were talking about half the time. So I'm not quite sure how successful they were in making the movie accessible to the mass public. Don't think it did very well at the box office.

I don't know if I'll carry it or not. Dealing with "big" publishers is more difficult than dealing with small ones (in terms of such mundane things as order quantities for instance). I have a phone call into them right now.


I will be carrying the reprint of Alvarez's "The Biggest Game in Town" and should have that in stock by the end of the month.


Chuck

I finished the book last night. I don't have it in front of me, but I'll try to give my impressions.


I found the first couple chapters to be somewhat boring as they talk about how to play poker. I'm not sure if someone unfamiliar with poker would understand it better after reading this or not. It was pretty standard stuff including an odds/outs chart.


He has chapters on various aspects of poker usually using character studies to illustrate them. For instance he uses specific people he claims to know and play with to explain how tells work. It's an engaging amalgam of theory and personal experience.


He has a chapter on cheating which is somewhat interesting, I thought. He talks about the ways he's cheated (and gotten caught) and scammed.


The chapter on Big Time Pros was unsatisfactory since he never really got a chance to interview any at length. The chapter is mostly about how difficult it was for him to get an interview, it seemed.


The chapter on small time pros was just depressing. It didn't make me want to run out and play full-time.


Overall the book was a light look at poker from someone who has played a lot of it. The author is self deprecating at times and full of swagger at others, which makes him an appealing picaresque narrator.


While not a great poker book, it does provide an interesting view of the poker "lifestyle." I hope the book is out on the main shelves of the bookstores and not just stuffed back in the game/gambling section as it was at Borders.


The book is framed by a poker hand he's playing against a good player at the "Winchester" club in NY. While a pretty standard device in literature, I really found myself anticipating reading the outcome of the hand in the final chapter. I thought he captured well the feeling one gets while waiting for an opponent to flip over what could be the nut hand.


Regards,


Troy

I saw it because it was displayed in front at our local B&N. I read a bunch more last night (not done though) and I don't find the author to be a particularly appealing narrator. I find his personality kind of scattered, inconsistent, and self-absorbed, and the book reflects that IMO. There is a reason why the chapter on big time pros is more about his inability to talk to any. I think this ties in to why the author was a cheat. I think his character and personality weaknesses led him to cheat. As he admitted, he didn't need the cash. He also compares partnership scams and deck manipulation to seeing an old lady's cards when she doesn't protect them. He doesn't seem to have a great ability to make moral distinctions.


I did find some of the stuff on cheating interesting, particularly the couple who scams in the middle limits. There is some other stuff I liked as well.


I know writing is difficult, but I think several guys from this forum could write a better book along the same lines.


Bottom line is most of us will read the book, because we read poker books, but it is nowhere near as good as The Biggest Game In Town. Not in the same league. I'm glad to see ConJelCo will have the new edition of the classic. I don't need a copy, but anyone who doesn't have one does.

Ok, I should have it in stock within the next 10 days or so. Accepting orders now.


Chuck

"I find his personality kind of scattered, inconsistent, and self-absorbed"


Yep, me too. I guess that's what I liked about his character. He showed himself as a human being prone to acting like an idiot. He let us see him cheat and scam small time games for no reason at all. Then try to rationalize it.


Maybe the book is just a scam too, but I was impressed if not by his honesty at least by the fact that he exposed his actions to our judgement.


Troy

i saw Rounders about 2 months after my friends and i started a home game (none of us had played before). i didn't know any of hte poker lingo in the movie, but i learned very quickly, and i wasn't lost at all in the movie. odd...

i started to read the other day when visiting B&N. he had the flush and straight draws in a nolimit game, turned the straight, rivered the flush, but it wasn't the nuts, and then he gets bet into, right? i didn't realize the outcome was at the end of the book. would you mind letting me in on the outcome? i was very interested in hearing the end of the hand. i probably won't be going to buy the book, no matter what, but ill probably just read it cover-to-cover one day in B&N.

Send it. The other player had a smaller flush and straight draw and pair. I think 4-5 of clubs. The other player was drawing dead on the turn. Author slowrolled it too.

slowrolling bastard. good story though.