|
 The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time by Michael Craig
The "professor" is Howard Lederer. He is a professional poker player whose precise diagnostic approach to the game earned him this nickname. The "banker" in this book is Andy Beal. Beal is a multi-millionaire who is obsessed with beating the world's best poker players. The game is Texas Hold'em and the stakes are astronomical.
The "Suicide King" literally is the king of hearts, who holds his broadsword to his head, represents to some the folly of all of this as a fruitless endeavor yet full of regalness. A wonderful set for a great book which chronicles the Doyle Brunson set up match. Brunson himself a well known character in this world of high stakes poker.
Craig, the author, looks at this game where $100,000 bets were common place like a true lover of this game and points out with great accuracy on many hands to the point where the reader can gain a look into the mindset of these players and at the same time stands back and lets a sense of awe and incredibility also ensue so the reader can appreciate the magnitude of this classic game.
Beal takes these master of poker head on playing their game where the minimum table stakes were one million dollars. At times he would run from Vegas licking his wounds but more often than not he had the world's best poker players reeling from their losses.
Robert Kurson, New York Times bestselling author of SHADOW DIVERS, said this book "plants the reader ringside for history's richest poker game, then won't let go until we know the hearts and minds of the world's greatest players, and the soul of the billionaire amateur who dared challenge them for everything they owned."
The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King is not a book to be read to learn the game but it is a must read to appreciate the game. An amazing set of games that had the entire poker world on the edge of their collective seats. For a glance into a world beyond imagining you will want to read this great tale of fact written as a classic tale of fiction. Characters coming to life and being true heroes and villains and traveling through this enchanted world. Hard to believe this all really happened. You may not have had the joy of seeing this in person but you can live through it by reading The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King.
|
