The Bookworm Gambler’s Digest: PBSK

Michael Craig takes us on a tour into the world of high stakes, pro poker.

It’s all about the competition and the thrill of the game. Andy Beal, banker-billionaire, decided to face a new set of challenges by calling upon the best of the best to play poker against. This entertaining book will not give you tips about how to become a better poker player. It will not start explaining moves to you. It will, however, take you to a new dimension of racing and rivalry; the book is about a match, after all. An intense, long and tiring (especially for Beal) clash of intellect and luck.

• Beal used canny tactics
• Pros saved up thousands for game
• Brunson’s struggle with the team

What is it like to be a billionaire? Constantly trying to find new challenges, because in a way, they have already conquered the world? New hobbies, sports… and gambling. How can one prove that they are the best at something? It seems like US poker rooms have become boring for the likes of Beal. No. He can do one better: he wants to go up against poker winners, real pros, and beat them. Seems like an extravagant plan, doesn’t it? Michael Craig’s ability to make us see behind the scenes and the struggles of each player is brilliant. With him telling the story, we can see all of the clever moves that made Beal confident.

There are two main characters, period.

Although many pros appear in the book, the two true main characters are Andy Beal and Doyle Brunson. Craig manages to capture the twofold struggle of each man, one trying to get a group of players to work together effectively and the other, to try and beat 10 to 15 different professionals. The events make the whole story tense. The group of professionals got an incredibly modern-time-bad-guy organization name: the Corporation. Seriously, it sounds like an institution made to bring down the world and bring dystopia to the population. However, it is nothing like that; they only wanted to bring down Beal.

There was simply too much money at stake. The only way the Corporation could participate in this whirlwind of dollar bills and poker cards is by pooling together colossal amounts of money. See how it could become frustrating very rapidly? Nobody would want to lose their friends’ money… I bet each player would have grasped at the opportunity to play poker on mobile casinos if there were any decent ones in 2001… Anything to keep from gambling away the money of a whole group of people. The two characters are intertwined in this stressed pile of rubble and it’s intriguing to see how each of them copes.

Beal, you tricky, tricky man

As expected from someone who is going up against the best poker players of the world, Beal used some legal tactics to try and throw some of them off their game. For example, he insisted on playing at 8 AM and other totally unexpected times. He was smart, because he held his ground on the fact that he only wanted to play Limit Hold’em, one game, instead of a mixed one. He realized he had much more chance at winning in one game. Beal also stuck to only playing heads-up. This was also a brainy move, because this way, he managed to protect himself from the possibility of the pros working together against him.

One thing is for sure: Online poker sites in the US cannot have as much accumulated tension as this one room at the Bellagio. Maybe it’s all about Michael Craig’s writing style, the way he reports events as they happened without over-embellishing anything. There is no need to make things even more colorful, is there? What can be more exciting than a group of pros risking each other’s money against a billionaire who has all the money in the world? That’s the real spirit of the game right there, ladies and gentlemen. Read the book to find out what happens in the end, because I sure as hell don’t want to spoil the surprise!