The Biggest Game in Town

Reader Reviews
This review is from: The Biggest Game in Town (Paperback) I know this book is twenty years old, so its not particularly surprising that most of the anecdote and stories seem old. Its all about Johnny Moss and Nick the Greek and Amarillo Slim and Doyle Brunson. Naturally there's a new posse in the world of poker today, Men the Master Nguyen, Phil Hellmuth , Poker Dick Cook. and the brilliant Russell Rosenblum. The world of the world series of poker has changed much since this book was written in 1983, there remains a question even about how much longer Binions will host the world series and the there is a real possiblity that Bellagio will even buy the trademarked name. This book advertises itself as a timeless cult classic, and as a period piece from 25 years ago, A. Alvarez captured a time and place. I wonder how much of this however will resound as novel to the poker player of today. When Alvarez mentioned Stu Unger winning the world series, it left me wanting to read about how stu ungar moved from world champion to dying in a run down Vegas motel room. Or when he talked about Ted Binion running Binions, the mind flashes to the fact that binion has since been murdered .Plenty of good advice in here for hold em play, of course the problem in gambling isn't usually knowing what to do, its being able to do it, to fight fatigue, to fight temptation to play too many hands, to summon up the courage to pitch aces when you know they have been cracked. The problem with the gamblig genre is that there just arent that many good books out there. Too many agents and publishers think they won't sell and bookstores tend to look down on gambling books as being anti-literary. Snobbery in the bookstore world is a real problem, as anyone who has ever asked a proprietor if they carry the Racing Form on their mag rack will quickly find out.