Big Deal Misses The Flop
Big Deal - One Year as a Professional Poker Player, by Anthony Holden
There is no way that Big Deal should miss the flop but when the cards are flipped at showdown, Anthony Holden is holding rags. He has the anecdotes, he has the hard-earned experience, he even has the dust-jacket endorsements - David Mamet, Salman Rushide and Martin Amis. But he just doesn’t have the nuts.
Poker until the late 1970’s was a game of hard-ass Texan hustlers, a Runyon-esque romp from coast-to-coast. Poker since the late 1990’s has been dotcom boom time, an ever-expanding entertainment industry and a blue-chip business in both its casino and online forms. Big Deal sits somewhere in the middle, harking back to the golden age, but unable to look forward to mass-participation.
The old-time stories, and literary-Londoner-in-Las Vegas observations are lifted straight from Al Alvarez’s The Biggest Game in Town. Alvarez, is Holden’s real-life mentor, and the pupil never threatens to overreach his master.
The book recounts Holden’s experiences on the professional circuit in 1988-9, book-ended by a pair of appearances at the World Series of Poker Main Event, the $10,000 buy-in No Limit Hold ’Em tournament. He comes 90th in 1988, then 111th in 1989. But Holden gets outdrawn on these experiences which should be his book’s big draw.
James McManus, another journalist/author and literary type entered the tournament in 2000 - and made the final table, winning a quarter million dollars. Positively Fifth Street, McManus’ tale of his exploits, woven into his coverage of the murder trial of Vegas legend Ted Binion, really tells you what it’s like for an amateur to sit with the pro’s.
Don’t misunderstand. Big Deal is a good book. It is a worthy book. The poker is real, the players are real and the writing is real. But it is not a great book. It is neither as entertaining nor perceptive as Alvarez’ original, and it is not as exciting or informative as McManus’ update.
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