Another Review: Ace on The River

[Alien_my_Arse]

My review of Barry Greenstein's book. First of all to put this review in some context I will give a bit about my poker experience and expectations. I am an online "pro", I play multi tables of Pleasure Limit to Middle Limit. Barrys classification. I have been a gambler all my life, at times a manager of commission salespeople. I was really anticipating this book for the thoughts related to self management and the psychology of being a pro. I ordered the book as soon as possible and added next day shipping. I spent the morning and afternoon Wednesday playing poker and listening for the UPS, I got myself good and stuck, about 100bb. The book arrived and I took the rest of the evening off to read it. I was not in the best of spirits.

First of all, as mentioned in other reviews the book is of high quality. Nice glossy paper, and plenty of color pictures. The chapters are relatively short, the first chapter gives the authors background and poker experience. Pretty interesting stuff, I was aware of some of Barry's background from the poker media. The middle section of the book contains various essays on a range of topics related to being a poker pro. The last few chapters are strategy.

I found Barry's thoughts, experiences and advice to be a bit of a relief. The relief being that fortunately for me and my poker career I already knew and understood a lot of the self management and mental toughness that is needed for this rocky career. Barry mentions the likeness to commission sales and I agree. I did learn or refocus on the importance of a few things, getting on a good schedule and sticking with a losing opponent until the end. It was also nice to see the author suffers from the same struggles and mistakes that every gambler must face. Overall I found this aspect of the book very good and well worth the price. I only wish there were more.

The author uses lots of quotes from Plato to Einstein to Homer Simpson.

Lots of Pictures from around the Poker world. The pictures for the most part seem to relate to the text. It makes me wonder if Thor Hansen and Minh Ly are people that you need to protect yourself from. One of them owe Barry money and this is his backhanded way to jab them?

Some critique.The book is a series of Essays. Some are related, some not, I don’t feel like it has an overall flow. I think the author suffers from the problem of trying to do too much for too many different readers. Is it a coffee table book for a recreational or new player? An advanced guide for being a poker pro? Is it an insiders look at Poker? I think its a little bit of each. Kind of like the movie from the new director that is really trying to be great, some very good scenes. Some that should have been cut and a very good but not completely focused final product. I would personally love to see Barry write something more of a trip report inside some of the gamesmanship that goes on in the big game. I can understand that probably wouldn't be reasonable while he is still playing. Maybe as a memoir, upon retirement.

The look into the casino poker lifestyle makes me very thankful for online poker. I would never consider being a Brick and Mortar pro. It just doesn't sound like too much fun, the author kind of gives the impression that it is not, and that he is there just for the money. I wish him well. The authors underlying attitude makes me wonder if Barry Greenstein would have been better off in life had he never touched a deck of cards. I am sure he has wondered the same thing, It makes me wonder about myself.

Overall I rate this as a must have book. 8.5 of 10 stars.

[seahawktd]

Thanks for the review. I think I might go hit Borders and thumb through it before I buy it.

Interesting enough, I find online poker boring, yet B&M fun. Different strokes for different folks as they say.

[Oluwafemi]

well, in Aces & Kings Barry does say he plays poker to make money. it's a business. what do you expect? making money or the fact that i can make money is the ONLY reason i play. if it was'nt for that, i would'nt do it. i don't love NLHE that much---not like that.