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House Of Cards ~ The Professor, The Banker And The Suicide King ~ The Biggest Game In Town
Sunday, February 21, 2010

It's like Full Tilt's Rush Poker, but Wall Street style.
I purchased three books last weekend and all look to be pokery in theme; however, House Of Cards is actually not about poker, but rather the shitting of the bed Wall Street experienced in 2007/2008.  Weird how even when I purchase a book that has nothing to do with poker, it has a pokery title and playing cards on the cover.  Yeesh.  I actually found that book in the clearance bin at Ross for $3.  The other two books, The Professor, The Banker and the Suicide King and The Biggest Game In Town have been on my radar for several years now and I'm stoked to give them a go.  I purchased those two on Amazon's Kindle for iPhone so I can read them easily whenever and where ever without carrying the hard copies.


I'm already a couple of chapters into House Of Cards and it stings a little to look back on what was a very tough time for so many people in and out of the financial services industry.  For anyone interested in understanding a little more about the debacle that was Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, this book is definitely one to take a gander at.  It's sort of like driving slowly past a horrible accident, when you want to look away, but can't.  It is interesting understanding more about details of the various tragedies that played out.


My house would be lost with one or two big bets.
After needing a short break from House Of Cards, I fired up The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King several days ago and managed to devour it right away.  I had a hard time putting it down.  I've known about this book for some time, but had just never gotten around to purchasing it.  Man am I glad I did.  I felt right at home with this book as I already knew almost every name of anyone discussed within.  The story was well written by Michael Craig and he always seemed to keep it interesting.  I felt like it read well and would have been an okay read for anyone who wanted to know a little more about the fascinating game of high stakes poker.


It's hard to give this book justice in a little blog post, but it really did amaze me being able to delve deeper into the richest poker game on the planet.  Tough to wrap my head around people playing even $100/$200 limit poker, much less $100,000/$200,000.  The value of a house or several people's yearly salaries were being tossed around like they were nothing.  Millions and millions of dollars were exchanging hands with the flip of a card.  I don't know about you, but that just automatically puts me in awe of the situation.  I'm extremely happy Andy Beal and the poker professionals like Doyle Brunson, Todd Brunson, Jennifer Harman, Ted Forest, Gus Hansen, Chau Giang, Barry Greenstein and Howard Lederer, to name a few, were okay with this book and even offered up their views to enhance the stories.  I would definitely say give this book a read if you haven't already.


The last book I have yet to start, but plan to dig into at some point this week - maybe even tonight - is The Biggest Game In Town, by Al Alvarez.  I've heard this book mentioned often and can't wait to give it a go.  If I think of it, I'll try and mention it here after I finish it up...


"I don't know how to put this, but I'm kind of a big deal."


Until next time, may the felt be with you.

posted by TripJax @ 5:22 PM,

2 Comments:

At 2:10 PM, Blogger Jordan said...

If you are interested in doing a book swap, I would be interested in House of Cards. I have tons of poker books and other books I can recommend as well, so lemme know if this is something you might be interested in.

 
At 2:06 AM, Anonymous Dave Robinson said...

Hubris on Wall Street? You don't say? ; ) I'd be curious to read that to hear an insider's take. May not be about poker but it's definitely about gambling and some bad decisions.

 

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