Anthony Holden Big Deal
Anthony Holden is a British journalist and author with a passion for poker. He wrote, amongst others, biographies on Shakespeare, Tchaikovsky and Laurence Olivier, but each Tuesday evening only one thing mattered: playing poker with friends. He also visits Las Vegas regularly and in 1988 he wins a satellite for the WSOP main event and he is the only English player to play this tournament. Although he is busted before reaching the money he is able to play the tournament well and shortly hereafter he decides to live as a full time poker pro till the WSOP Main Event of 1989.
Structure Big Deal
Contrary to most poker books I review, Big deal is not a poker instruction book, but a non-fiction novel, in which Holden describes his experiences in his year as a poker pro. His adventures take Holden to poker clubs in London, Morocco, poker cruises and of course Las Vegas, the Walhalla for poker players. Holden also writes about legendary stories like the heads up match between John Moss and Nick the Greek, about the prop bets of Amarillo Slim and the history of poker. Besides this, Holden also researches his urge to play the game with the help of a shrink. His year as poker pro starts shortly after the WSOP main event of 1988 and ends with the main event of 1989.
Writing Style Anthony Holden
His writing style shows that Holden normally writes books for another genre. His vocabulary is much more extensive and exquisite than what I am used from other poker books. I do however think this book is good readable and I also think that non poker players are able to understand this book well, since Holden does not go in-depth in the game.
Judgment Big Deal
Anthony Holden takes the reader in this book along to the poker world before the emergence of the internet, which is a total different world in terms of poker. All the tournaments were a lot smaller (for instance, there were only 167 contenders in the main event of 1988) and most poker pro’s knew each other personally back then. Reading this book gave me a nostalgic feeling about a different time, which is only 20 years ago. Also, the legendary stories he writes about famous players like Johnny Moss, Nick the Greek contribute in giving this feeling.
On the other hand, his literary level was sometimes over the top in my opinion. I think that his psychiatric sessions are a bit exaggerated and I also do not understand why he calls his wife “the moll” (this can be a literary gimmick, which I do not get).
When you read this book you also notice how the game has evolved enormously recent years. Holden only analyses hands sporadicly, but the few examples show that poker theory was less comprehensive then and I think that the average online grinder would be a top pro in those days. Nevertheless, reading this book was really entertaining and although it is a novel I certainly learned about the history of poker.
