Unlock The Secrets Of Poker Nation: A High-Stakes, Low-Life Adventure Into The Heart Of A Gambling Country Engineered By Andy Bellin Shared As Physical Edition
good general book about poker which I knew little about, Very enjoyable read, lots of stories relating to the professionals who aren't in the top percentile of super players, To anyone who thinks this may be a glamorous and a fun way of life, read this and you'll soon be thankful for a dullroutine.
Andy Bellin seems to accomplish two things in his book, Poker Nation, While it is presented as entertaining poker memoir, it's also a lesson on how to be a better player, As I was reading and laughing at his stories and characters, I noticed he would slip in situations that asked the reader to consider strategy.
It's the same strategy you might find in a Sklansky book, but Bellin gives you a better feel for actually being at the table and trying to make the decision.
For example
He talks about Rich who had a good job and a good wife, but lost everything, because he couldn't fold a hand.
He had to play everything to the river, Who hasn't been tempted to play anything to end a losing streak That's the genius of his book, It was an interesting story and a cautionary tale about foolish play,
Between anecdotes he slips in the advice that it's tough to get back to even after you've lost half your money.
Life is really just one big poker game, Forget whether this one session is successful, It's better to leave a game that isn't working and make your money in a future game that suits your style of play.
He also advises that having a cap on winnings is foolish for the same
reasons, Why can't you win a ton in one session
Bellin talks about check raising and pot odds and position and all the things that the instructional books talk about, but he offers these things in the format of situations he has encountered.
Also he shares many great stories of famous and not famous players and how different people come to play poker for fun or for a living.
The book is not only quick and fun to read, but it offers some great advice between the lines, Both regular poker players and fans from afar who are fascinated by what they see on tv might enjoy this book.
It is a light, quick read, The author includes some elementary poker definitions and strategy, but his primary focus is on describing the people who play the game regularly.
He includes a lot of personal stories about himself and the local players he has encountered over the years, Most of his experiences resonate with mine, and I particularly enjoyed reading about the local poker rooms and local players.
I'm really familiar with poker and recognized the names of the pro players in the book, A lot of it felt like reviewing poker basics and the statistics glazed my eyes over, but I enjoyed the personal stories and experiences the most.
I think this would be a great book for a beginner player or someone who doesn't know much about the game.
Personal preference would have been heavier on the personal experiences rather than the poker lessons, Overall, this was a good book for someone interested in reading about a poker player, Reading this for background knowledge on another project, A few pages in, I realized I already read this likeyears ago, Entertaining and informative. Excellent tourdepokerjust on the leading edge of the poker boom too, Gives an insider's look at professional poker, Entertaining as a read, but it makes professional poker sound like a compulsion, not a game, Having dated a poker player, this book helped me understand the stress and lifestyle he goes through daily, This book is well researched and well written, I read it in Las Vegas, and felt the book really connected well with the poker scene in the world poker series point on.
I would recommend this read for those who would like an insightful look into this game, An engaging read on the game of poker from a bunch of different perspectives, You will learn little about the game itself here but it's an interesting collection of anecdotes, The ramblings of a writer and expertlevel poker player he played, and was knocked out of, the World Series of Poker one year.
Its clear that Bellin is primarily a magazine article writer, for his book is plagued by Short Attention Span Syndrome.
Bits of autobiography are scattered here and there, between chapters on probability, poker “tells,” a primer on bluffing, a few thoughts on cheating, the perils of gambling addiction, portraits of professional poker players, even a chapter on casino mogul Benny Benion, for some reason.
The book is peppered with distracting poker lingo, which doesnt exactly help one sail through the passages on the probabilities of drawing various poker hands yawn.
The chapter on tells is interesting enough, but how is a study of the individual idiosyncrasies and tics of Bellins friends and associates going to help the reader A more general assessment of the more common tells or probable tics eyes darting away, hands covering the face, etc.
would be much more useful, The book is rambling, there are odd segues, and Bellin both repeats and contradicts himself for example, on whether poker has a “romantic” mystique, on the benefits of his personally stacking a deck.
And as if Bellins aware that he doesnt have the material for a book length project here, he relies heavily on very lengthy quotes from his subjects: poker pros, female players, his own friends.
The bottom line is this is an interesting subject, but theres too much ground covered over too short a time Bellins prose is clear and simple, but hes a mediocre writer when it comes to the big picture, and theres a lot of filler here.
This is probably the third time I've read this book all the way through, and probably the fourth or fifth time I've read certain chapters.
This book has a little bit of everything and I'd highly recommend it for any poker player who wants to take the game even semiseriously.
If you play poker and you have any desire to win, even just a little at the weekly game with all your buddies playing for nickels, dimes and quarters, you must read this book.
If you have a friend or family member who plays poker and takes it even somewhat seriously and you want to know a little something about what makes them tick, then this book will interest you greatly.
Bellin flawlessly weaves explanation and instruction with stories both from his life and others, both at the table and away from it.
When I first read this book it was for tips on how to become a better poker player and Bellin taught me the fundamentals in a way that both helped me and stuck with me.
But I've reread this book for the stories, Some are short anecdotes to illustrate a point he is making about how to play, others are just to pull back the curtain and take you deep into the poker world.
Both triumphant and tragic, the book can also serve as a cautionary tale to those considering taking poker very seriously.
If you are thinking about becoming a professional poker player, read this book first and then make your decision, I really enjoyed this book, . . lots of helpful hints as well as great stories, If you love poker, this is a good read, This is a book that is heavy on memoir and light on strategy, tactics, and how to, In that sense it is different from most of the other poker books which claim to help you get richmarket share I'd guess.
You need to appreciated the subtext of the book to understand for instance the effect of the ban on online poker in social terms.
Though not his point his narrative details why Poker ought to be regulated differently to keep it above board,
My other observation is that his "Poker Nation" is probably like,in New York City at underground semilegal, semiillegal clubs, A step above home games run by mobsters and such,
It's also might be taken as the northern version of the way Amarillo Slim and Doyle Brunson used to go from town to town playing in back rooms and carrying guns.
Of course this didn't happen in thes but in thes, One of the best poker biographies I've read so far, Feels like it's written by someone who not only knows his stuff but has all of the experience to back it up.
Fine piece of participatory journalism
If I had a nickel for every poker book I've read I'd have a couple of bucks more than I have now.
That's a tidy number of poker books, Of those booksI've still got about thirty of them around the housenone is more interesting than this fine piece of work by Paris contributing editor Andy Bellin.
It starts out rather mundanely with a not entirely promising poker story that he doesn't finish until the penultimate chapter.
There are some familiar quotes and some even more familiar poker stories including the Wild Bill Hickok yarn about aces and eights, a table listing the ranking of poker hands oh, boy and another giving the odds and frequency of being dealt various hands in either draw poker or five card stud.
How valuable is that when those games are seldom spread anymore
But then it gets interesting because what we discover is that Bellin really does know what he's talking about.
He's been there and done that, Not at the highest level see, e, g. , Doyle Brunson's According To Doyle or Bobby Baldwin's Winning Poker Secrets for life there but at the semipro level and as a journalist.
He covers the poker experience from New York to Los Angeles through personal experience and from interviews with some of the personalities of the game including Benny Binion, Erik Seidel, Huck Seed and assorted rounders.
Some of his information is from research, the Harry S Truman story, for example, He doesn't glorify the game or the players and he doesn't make himself a hero or a disinterested noncombatant either.
In fact, the real value of this book is in the portrait of Andy Bellin, bright, very welloff, onetime Vassar ! boy, who embarrassed his family and himself by spending a good part of his youth worshiping Pocahontas.
In this partmemoir, partparticipatory journalistic endeavor, Andy makes amends and demonstrates to all who care that actually he wasted nothing and has nothing to be embarrassed about.
First of all, this is a poker book about real poker and real poker people, not the great geniuses of the game and not the low lifes hanging aboutalthough there are a few of thosebut about the fanatics, the degenerates, the semi and sometime pros who play like addicts or devotees of a bizarre and unforgiving religion.
"Pocahontas" is the player's goddess of poker, Second, Bellin reveals himself blemishes and all, admitting that he sometimes cheated and got caught, that he spent some time in jail, that he wasn't as good as he thought he was, and that, like most of us, he fooled himself a whole lot.
All this makes for a most interesting and disarming read,
The chapter on cheating in which we see that the cheater need only cheat once or twice a night to ensure being a consistent winner, is excellent.
The chapter entitled "SmallTime Pros" in which Bellin focuses on a man and women "combine" who worked the clubs in Los Angeles a few years ago actually they played at the Hollywood Park Club, I can tell by some of the information Bellin gives in fact I think I played against them!, we learn of the trashy glitter of sex, drugs and pocket rockets, or how to be wasted, and waste your life while you're at it.
I also liked his seemingly gratuitous "idiot jail story" in Appendix A,
By the time we get to the secondtolast chapter and get to see the other guy's hole cards we realize Bellin's point and why he slowrolled the show down but don't EVER do it again, Andy!.
What he wants to demonstrate is that the quintessential thrill of poker lies in that second or two or three between the time you've made the final bet and the time you get to see the other guy's cards.
Andy Bellin understands the psychology of playing poker and the lifestyle, He knows what going on tilt is all about, and proves it by showing himself on tilt on pageas his jacksfull get cracked by quads.
And he understands what money means to the player, It means being in action, first and foremost because being out of action is the player's death, And he recognizes that even winning poker players usually end up broke, And he knows why.
Dennis Littrell, author of the mystery novel, “Teddy and Teri”
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