Book Review: Big Deal By Anthony Holden

Author: Simon Dexter

Those of us who wondered what it would be like to be a full-time professional poker player, if only for twelve months need wonder no longer as ‘Big Deal’, subtitled as ‘one year as a professional poker player’ is Anthony Holden’s compelling tale of ayear t the poker tables.

Holden clearly enjoys travel, for he journeyed far and wide, from Las Vegas to Malta to Morocco, on board cruise ships and wedged in dingy card rooms, rubbing shoulders the greats and the less well-known characters, all the time perfecting his own poker skills.
Perhaps the book’s most attractive feature is that Holden is a regular guy who makes all sorts of mistakes, although he learnes form them, and talks the reader through the type of experiences we might encounter were we to embark on a similar journey.

Significantly, as he’s in the process of revealing another home truth, Holden insists that poker is not really a form of gambling at all. Instead, he suggests it is a paradigm of life at its most intense, a gladiatorial contest that can bring out the best and worst emotions in people. This is a truly fantastic angle from which to attack poker and the pages of Holden’s book is packed full of poker-as-life examples to support his compelling theory. He recounts innumerable tales of encounters with outrageous and the eccentric characters he meets during his twelve-month long journey. Some people might choose to go on retreat or to find themselves, but Anthony Holden chose poker which makes this a must-read book for any amateur contemplating doing something similar.

Not surprisingly for a well-known biographer, Holden writes with great verve and passion, which one might expect of a man who has completed acclaimed biographies of figures such as Tchaikovsky, Laurence Olivier and Prince Charles, but it’s clear that his real love is for the game of poker, a love which resonates throughout the pages of this captivating book.

Tags: Book Review, poker, poker book

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 11:43 am and is filed under News & Promotions Blog.