\"The Big Deal\" by Anthony Holden
 

I am most of the way through it. He is a writer who pretended to be a professional player, going around to all the big tournaments in the late 80s. It seems like he played all the side events and satellited into most of them. He also played mid limit side games.

From his results and understanding of the game, he appears to be close to professional level, and probably good make it as a professional player. Obviously, he was able to pretend to be a professional without going bust.

A lot of it is similar to the trip reports posted on this site. As Holden is not a great player, you probably won't learn a lot of poker from it.

The writing is fantastic, better than McManus, which in turn is better written than poker instructional books. Holden's other books are mostly biographies, of royalty, Olivier, and Shakespeare. He also has several translations from the ancient Greek. Obviously, he studied classics. You also have to be a very good writer to have your translations of Greek poetry published. He appears to be a typical English gentleman, the grandson of a baronet.

Another interesting part of the book is the descriptions of the players, including deceased or mostly retired ones, such as Moss, Ungar, and Amarillo Slim.

Re: \"The Big Deal\" by Anthony Holden
 

Very good read. I read it when it first came out and again recently. You're right, he was a very skillful and entertaining writer.

Re: \"The Big Deal\" by Anthony Holden
 

I loved that book. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys poker. It won't teach you to be a better player, but will provide an interesting perspective of professional poker from a pseudo-insider and highly gifted writer.

Re: \"The Big Deal\" by Anthony Holden
 

I really liked that book. Holden has written a lot of biography books on the Royal family etc. Although McManus may be the better poker player, Holden is a much more entertaining writer.

I just finished the The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King. It was an interesting read.

Another gambling book I really enjoyed as much as "The Big Deal" was "The Odds". It follows a bookie and two sports bettors for a year. One of the bettors was Allan Boston. Really well written.

Re: \"The Big Deal\" by Anthony Holden
 

Great, great book. Could be enjoyed by someone who knows nothing about poker and someone who knows everything.