Can it be Christmas Already?

I had planned a totally different topic this week. I was going to cover the online poker tournaments, particularly satellite events for the World Series of Poker. But this morning I saw a commercial for Christmas trees and felt a sudden loss of memory. I turned on my computer and checked the date and by darn if I didn't discover that the biggest holiday of the year is speeding toward us like an out of control Graboid

In keeping with tradition -- one that gives readers time to purchase gifts without the last-minute hassle -- I changed my mind about the satellite story and decided to offer a look at some of the poker books that would make someone happy this Christmas holiday.

Since the value of how-to books are a matter of judgment and suitability toward a personality, I've decided to ignore that topic and stick with a list of books that dance around the poker table but never play a hand.

A FRIENDLY GAME OF POKER, edited by Jake Austen with a foreword by Ira Glass: If you're a fan of public radio you know the name Ira Glass and you probably won't associate the voice that comes out of your speakers with someone who would be "chasing cards with money," especially on the Internet. But that's what makes this book so interesting -- the people who write and the people they write about and how you'd never think of them as poker nuts. Austen, who also contributes his words in the book, has gathered 52 short articles on the game of poker, some of them cerebral, some earthy but most in the middle of both areas. His interview with Edie Adams about her husband (Ernie Kovacs) and his addiction to poker is one of my favorites. The stories are short so they make for easy reading.

POKER WISDOM OF A CHAMPION by Doyle Brunson: Of course the name Doyle (Texas Dolly) Brunson rings familiar. He won back-to-back World Series of Poker championships and wrote the best-selling poker book of all time, Super/System. He also contributed a plethora of stories about poker life in a tome called According to Doyle, which has now been reprinted with this title. Here Doyle recounts some of the lessons he learned in life, some of the close-calls he had, some of the top players and big-money men he rubbed elbows with as he took their cash, and some of his inner thoughts about gambling. Sometimes Brunson's "moral of the story" takes some credibility stretching but I the reach might be part of his poker persona and, therefore, would be acceptable. In one of the early stories, for example, he talks about how his best friend hustled him with a card trick. He then states that a pro should never hustle but should seek challenges and earn money because of his reputation as a fair and honorable player. Somehow, even though I find Doyle Brunson to be a very likable character, I doubt seriously that he doesn't or hasn't hustled a time or two.

BIG DEAL by Anthony Holden: One of my big concerns about poker books is that they are written by people who know how to play but don't know how to write. At the risk of having my tires slashed I could qualify that by quoting one writer who once told me that it didn't matter if poker books were well written because most poker player can't read anyway. But I won't. With Anthony Holden's book there's not the slightest bit of worry that it might not be literate. It is. Quite. It's his well-constructed tale of a year's leave of absence (from his job as a biographer) when he attempted to experience the life of a professional poker player aiming to earn his way and to play in (and win) the World Series of Poker.

BIGGEST GAME IN TOWN by A. Alvarez: I have to admit that I read this book after being exposed only to the fabulous glitz of the Las Vegas Strip and the very close neighborhoods, one of which I called home. So when Alvarez described some of the backdrop of downtown Las Vegas, I thought he must have been in some other city of the same name featuring the same games. But eventually I found myself in the midst of the Las Vegas of Biggest Game and realized his descriptions couldn't have been more accurate had they been done by camera rather than words. Alvarez has the capacity to wring the excess out of exposition, leaving the bare bones beauty of the words and still produce an acutely accurate description. And his tale of his first vision of the World Series of Poker and the people he met there in that year (1981) are remarkable. At 188 pages, this is a quick read but if you really want to get the most out of it, you'll take your time and savor every page.