Aces and Kings: Reviews?

[willie]

yeah, i'll be buying this as well

Kudos to you sir for putting on a VERY smart marketing campaign. The free excerpts on Ungar have me into this hook line and sinker, and i'm pretty sure i'm not alone.


i'll let oyu know when i'm done.

[DrPhysic]

Funny....

I looked for this under books.
I looked under books by others.
I tried authors...

If conjelco has this, you certainly did a good job of hiding it.

Doc

[imported_Chuck Weinstock]

Go to
http://www.conjelco.com/poker.html

Mason hasn't asked me to add it to the 2+2 ordering page.

Chuck

[heropretend]

i read most of the book while browsing and its a quick travel style read. the chapters are interesting and readable, but seem to lack depth in certain ways. Its not that most of the information isn't new or refreshing to hear, its that the book seems a little weightless. Some of my favorite excerpts include the bit about a young Chip Reese losing to Robison and running into his home (where Robison couldn't beat him up) and Greenstein 'gambling' with an unnamed big game player. There's some interweaving of stories, but not enough imo. One of the reasons why Greenstein's site works is because here's a world class player giving amusing personal anecdotes that we'd otherwise not hear about. I suppose the book has quite a few enjoyable tales, but even those lack the weight that a lot of quotes and personal opinion would give. I'm being a nit, because I did sit transfixed over an hour and I will be picking up a copy soon (after finals).

Probably 3.5/5 stars or if we're talking cards, how about 8/9s on the co against 5 passive limpers...nice opportunity, but it'll be hit or miss.

[KingMarc]

For non strategy poker type books, I rate it a [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] out of [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

(diamond = 1/2)

[sirtimo]

I bought it last week, read it through over 2-3 days. Overall it was interesting and I think the general public will like it. It's about 1% strategy so don't read it for pro tips and tricks. The bios of the older player were the most interesting to me, with the Ungar and Reese chapters standing out in my mind. It did seem to crowd a bunch of info on the new generation into a small space, but then again those kids are a lot younger so there is less to write about. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

I learned a bit of poker history so I think it was worth it. It's a good read for a plane trip, sorta fluffy, easy to put down when your done.

regards,
Tim

[Jordan Olsommer]

[ QUOTE ]
but they are all superior to excellent. (Or is that excellent to superior?)

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe the International Units in this category range from "awesome" to "bad-ass".

[thomas_sfbay]

I finished Aces and Kings last night. It was a good read starting with Puggy Pearson through Ungar and finishing with the Internet Kids of today. The chapters gave good concise information and inside anectdotes of many of poker's hall of fame.

Many of the stories were not new to me, but a good tale anyway. The last couple of paragraphs about Stuey's demise were the first place I saw that though... interesting about his true demise...

Also I had wondered why Chip Reese is considered the best Poker player and the authors answered that question quite well. Another story I found interesting (and first place I saw it) was what Eric Seidel thinks about his claim to fame being the guy that Johnny Chan outplayed in the WSOP Final Table immortalized by the move "Rounders".

Read this one for fun and to learn the history of poker. It's not a strategy or play improvement book.

Thomas

[Jordan Olsommer]

Agreed. I just finished it last night and I say it's a must-read as far as poker literature goes - in my opinion, it has become the newest member of the Essential "Backstory" Books: "Biggest Game in Town", "Positively Fifth Street", "Poker Nation", "Big Deal", and "Aces and Kings".*

Hell, it was worth the cover price just for that story about how Daniel Negreanu made a post to RGP complaining about Annie Duke's sweaty feet and then Howard Lederer retorted by accusing him of getting drunk and snatching the toupee off a man's head.

Kudos to the authors - even the non-toupee-related content was superb. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

*Note: I don't intend to claim that this list is exhaustive; there are "pokerbios" I haven't gotten around to reading yet ("Diary of A Mad Poker Player", "Fast Company"), and ones I didnt include because they werent primarily about poker (e.g. "The Man with the $100,000 Breasts")

[Maulik]

you guys made me cancel my order, this morning. I feel this book would be better read at Barnes & Noble with a coffee rather than owning this book