"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.

[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.!

[poppel]

I started to read the Alverez book, and wasn't very impressed. I found it bababled a lot. I had a very hard time finishing it. I did really like the big deal book. I did find Alverez's book humourous... and a little bit of insight into the mind of pro players. Nevertheless, I would not recommend it.

[rusty JEDI]

the book as a whole was enjoyable, and i reccommend it. BUT chapter 7 "enter the shrink" is absolutely boring. For any one reading the book i reccommend completely skipping this chapter, and just realizing he went to a shrink, blah blah no real poker in here at all. Instead of reading the chapter, read 28 pages of a dictionary, cause this way at least you may learn a new word or something.

That said however, the book was very good. I will now go and try to get a hold of a copy of that Alvarez book.

[MRBAA]

I'm with Andy. The Biggest Game in Town is hands down the best (non "how-to") book I've read on poker.