"Big Deal"....and some terminology

[rusty JEDI]

just picked up the book and im a few chapters in and so far so good. But there are a few expressions im having trouble with.

card sharp....not shark
moll...is it a nickname for his wife or short for molly, or some weird english expression

thanks in advance

[Andy B]

A card sharp is a mechanic or cheat. When a gangster refers to "the moll," he is referring to his woman. It is a term that my wife doesn't care for too much. My wife doesn't care for a lot of things. Take gambling, for instance.

Great book, BTW. My favorite book in that vein is The Biggest Game in Town, which is back in print and available at bookstores everywhere, by which I mean my local Barnes and Noble. If memory serves, Holden was a student of A. Alvarez back when.

[rusty JEDI]

is "the biggest game in town" autobiographical or semi even....or is it fiction. i like the real stuff more than fiction.

thanks

[wren]

The Biggest Game In Town was published in 1983. Big Deal in 1990. Both A. Alvarez and Tony Holden would have to be considered fine writers. Both have written about poker, to demonstrate my point, for The New Yorker. Alvarez was once the poetry critic for The Observer. Holden wrote a highly regarded biography of Prince Charles. Also in their unique social circle was poker writer David Spanier, who was once worked at a London newspaper as a poker columnist!

The Biggest Game In Town is a look at the world of high stakes (Las Vegas) poker at the time. Big Deal is a year in the life of a would be professional poker player. Both are non-fiction. Both are very good reads.

[SlyR]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
is "the biggest game in town" autobiographical or semi even....or is it fiction. i like the real stuff more than fiction.

[/ QUOTE ]

TBGIT reads like a journalist's essay, like what you might find in a news magazine. It's a very lucid description of the big-bet scene in Vegas in 1983, with the book's climax and central focus being the WSOP. It contains many of the anecdotes that you hear repeated at the tables. For me, a very engaging read, and I highly recommend it, as do everyone else who has read it.

[nicky g]

Where are they now?

Both in London, both still play a lot of poker; they can be found at the Victoria in London often enough, and at all the major charity poker events and so on. A version of the legendary Tuesday night game still goes, I believe.

Holden was living in New York up until very recently; he's now the classical music critic for the Observer newspaper. He writes about all sorts of things; Shakespeare, the Royals, Murdoch, now music. Alvarez still writing criticism etc. Alvarez by the way was Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath's closest friend, and I think (though I may be wrong) was the person who found Plath's body. He wrote a book about his own suicide attempt called The Savage God, and an autobiography called Where Did It All Go Right? Alvarez also wrote another book called "Poker: Bets, Bluffs and Bad Beats", which is a nice coffe table book, though hasn't much original stuff in it.

They both played in a charity game I organised last year, both thoroughly nice guys. They both also recently played in a celebrity special of Late Night Poker (a televised poker tournament we had over here); unsurprisingly, they came first and second (Holden won).

I say unsurprisingly, because though his discussion of hands is frankly bizarrre and his tournament record is poor in Big Deal, Holden's record in one-table satellites is amazing. I don't understand why he didn't pick up on that and stick to them.

I like both books a lot, simply because they're about poker and well-written and entertaining. They may not be 100%accurate but they're just fun, I think. The life of most wannabe pros would not make a particularly entertaining read, I wouldn't think; Holden turns it into a one-year project, and makes it an adventure, with a beginning and an end, even if he clearly isn't cut out for the life. TBGIT did start out as a news magazine piece, by the way, good spot.

[MRBAA]

My point is this: As Nicky G. touches upon, Alvarez, Holden (and the late David Spanier) were and are very accomplished writers who also are serious recreational poker players. The books they have written are literary/journalistic works on poker, not "how to" books. It is very difficult to write well (on any topic), let alone make a good living at it. Much more difficult than earning 1bb/hour playing $5-10, and in my scale of values much more interesting and admirable. With the exception of a few truly original instructional works (Sklansky/Malmuth are miles ahead here) there are almost no poker books that are really enjoyable, surprising or interesting to read. Holden's and Alvarez's work go to the head of the shelf on this scale (I also like Spanier's collected columns). How many poker books (other than Sklansky Malmuth and SuperSystem) will continue to be read and discussed twenty years after publication, as The Biggest Game in Town is?

[Vehn]

I got this for xmas and am trying to work my way through it. I'm really not sure if this is a joke but I'd assume its not. Its pretty clear this guy is, well, a fish. I specifically refer to the hand that was something like J J 5 4 on the turn and there was a bet and a raise to him with pocket 7s - he coldcalled 2 bets and of course spiked his 7. And yes I'm aware that in some games this is a call etc etc but not this one. The general poker tactics and knowledge displayed is just poor, IMO.

[Andy B]

OK, so Tony Holden is no vehn_, but it's still a great book. A. Alvarez is and David Spanier was probably even worse than Holden, but they still wrote some fine books. None of these books is going to help your game a lick. You've got enough of those books.

[Webster]

I picked up this book last weekend and JUST yesterday Moll turns up. Funny you should mention it.

Did this book should get a new distributure? I had never seen it before but it's been around for a while.!