- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: St Martin's Press; 1st Edition, 1st Impression edition (28 Oct 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312348355
- ISBN-13: 978-0312348359
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,066,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
It's an understatement to call poker a national obsession, and the World Series championship represents the game's most enviable achievement. The 2005 tournament was covered by more than three hundred reporters from around the world and televised on ESPN. Its ratings blew away NBA coverage, and has NBC considering bringing the WSOP to network TV in 2006. In this exciting history, the authors use first-hand interviews, video footage, and written accounts to craft a comprehensive and highly entertaining account of the greatest tournament in the world, from its humble beginnings as a second-tier casino's publicity stunt in 1970 to the most coveted crown in a game that has swept the planet. They introduce colourful - and seemingly fearless - characters and chronicle some of the most gut-wrenching and heart-breaking moments - often with millions at stake - to be found in any event of its kind. Amazingly enough, while the World Series has been touched upon in numerous bestsellers, no one has ever written a comprehensive account of the history of the biggest poker tournament on earth.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was a really great read and made a huge difference and a nice break from all the other poker text books I'm reading at the moment. It is a wonderful and imaginative narrative about how the WSOP got started and how it arrived where it is today. Where it got it right and where it went wrong. It's an exciting who's who story and provides the history of the some the great players and how they got there. It's a really good read. what's even better is it goes over some of the critical plays in the WSOP final tables from the past few years and when you read some of what happened and who played what it's really mind blowing. I play a tight conservative cash game and make money but the hands these guys play and when they play them etc etc. is just frightening. Probably explains why I'll never play tournaments well. The game tends to reinforce the view that a lot of the really top money players don't play the cards at all but play the players. Anyway ... great read for lots of reasons and thoroughly recommended.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
15 reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
All In the way in it's told
11 Dec 2005
Format:Hardcover
A story is all in the way it's told, and Grotenstein and Reback do it remarkably well here. They bring the Series to life in a way that makes the book an engaging narrative rather than a standard chronology. Similar to McManus's POSITIVELY FIFTH STREET in that it provides rich background on the game's most colorful players. However, ALL IN is more tightly written and edited. I especially liked the coverage of Stu Ungar. All told, ALL IN was a great read-- challenging enough for poker veterans yet accessible to those unfamilar with the WSOP and its storied past.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
A fun, historical ride of the World Series of Poker.
14 April 2006
Format:Hardcover
Nope. There are no discussions of how to play poker here. But whether or not you play poker you will enjoy this book. As the title says, it's (almost) the entirely true story of how the WSOP got started, the bumps along the way, and of course, the characters involved. It takes you from the humble beginnings to the behemuth that it is today.
And such stories...like the 1972 WSOP had 13 entrants, but only 8 of them played because they would rather play in the lucrative sides games than the WSOP. 1972 is also the year that Benny Binion made it a $10,000 buy-in...but paid half of it for the players who entered.
You'll watch the rise of the Binion family only to see it implode along the lines of a "Dallas" script. You'll read where a tournament director was fired because he refused to move old grumpy Johnny Moss who didn't want to sit by the railbirds during the tournament. Stories of great poker players like Jack Strauss, Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim and others fill this book. Read how Jessie Alto, who made the final table 6 times, went on a full tilt after he was bluffed out of a pot.
It's a fast read and I definitely recommned it to anyone who has a passing interest in poker.
And such stories...like the 1972 WSOP had 13 entrants, but only 8 of them played because they would rather play in the lucrative sides games than the WSOP. 1972 is also the year that Benny Binion made it a $10,000 buy-in...but paid half of it for the players who entered.
You'll watch the rise of the Binion family only to see it implode along the lines of a "Dallas" script. You'll read where a tournament director was fired because he refused to move old grumpy Johnny Moss who didn't want to sit by the railbirds during the tournament. Stories of great poker players like Jack Strauss, Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim and others fill this book. Read how Jessie Alto, who made the final table 6 times, went on a full tilt after he was bluffed out of a pot.
It's a fast read and I definitely recommned it to anyone who has a passing interest in poker.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
You CAN handle the truth.
4 Oct 2005
Format:Hardcover
A fast-paced, suspenseful and hysterically funny inside account not just of the WSOP, but of the secret fraternity of poker in Post-WWII America. Every paragraph contains a surprising fact, a shocking detail, a colorful anecdote, and frequently all three. The authors' concise and lucid blow-by-blow of the most famous hands in poker history is more than matched by their color commentary on the personalities involved. Although the book contains no photographs, the players, their styles, their histories are described so vividly that you'll recognize them in a second if one of them sits down at your table. For that alone, this book is indispensable.
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