Bought it for a friend...cheated...and read it before giving it. What at first appears to be a coffee table picture book is actually a well written, informative and lively account of various poker facts and stories. If you love poker you'll definitely enjoy this book

This little fold-it guide is perfect for introducing new players to the game. I have used it several times, teaching poker to friends from Russia, Kazakistan, Bulgaria, Romania, China, Korea, Ukraine, and many other countries.

The authors give the reader a comprehensive understanding of how Video Poker machines are programmed and how they function. They also give three strategies for optimum play which are excellent guidelines for conservative players to those willing to take higher risks. Their advice on play is good common sense.

Sklansky first presentd the outline of the concepts of successful poker in his first book _Hold'em Poker_. Realizing that these concepts were not espoused in complete form elsewhere in poker literature he combined with Roger Dionne, a professional writer and a serious poker player, to explain the theory of winning poker in _Winning Poker_. Although Sklansky's ideas are slightly expanded in his later two versions of _The Theory of Poker_, they are presented better in _Winning Poker_. I found _Winning Poker_ to be much more readable than his later _The Theory of Poker_ and to more helpful. It is a better book (and less than one third the price).

"Last Call" tells the story of a professional poker player who lost more than usual while playing a game with Tarot cards on Lake Powell. What he lost and how he might get it back are the major questions he must answer before next game is held. "Last Call" is another of Powers wonderful novels which blend interesting bits of history with wonderful fantasy. If you enjoy "Last Call", be sure to read "The Stress of her Regard" and any other Powers' book you can find. I haven't read a bad one yet. BTW: If you like Tim Powers' fiction, you might want to try something by James P. Blaylock. In particular, "The Digging Levithan", "Homunculus", or "The Last Coin", all of which are great stories.

Whenever I read a novel I can tell from the first few sentences whether or not I will enjoy the book by judging the author's writing style. From the first few words of Tim Powers' "Last Call" I was drawn in to this captivating story. Tim Powers is a fantasy author but what makes Mr. Powers' novels different from others is that his fantasy novels take place in our world and seem that what goes on really could happen.

Scott Crane was involved in a dangerous card game called Assumption many years ago and he is dreaming of the game. In this game his soul was stolen by the man that started the game. 20 years from when the game took place Scott decides that he wants to get back into playing Poker and Crane has no clue for what is going to happen to him. Scott is biologically the next Fisher King, the mythological king of the tarot card world. When Scott enter Las Vegas the cards are showing that he is in the city and people want him dead. From Vegas to Los Angeles to the Hoover Dam this novel is a tour de force that will keep you riveted from page one.

Tim Powers is a very different type of fantasy author. His fantasies take place in our world and deal with real people just like you and me. The whole fantasy premise of "Last Call" is based on tarot cards and Powers makes you believe that these cards really have meaning and are much more than bogus. Other myths are also used in this book such as some things from King Arthur.

Powers is an amazing author. From the first page of this novel you are grabbed and you will read and read and read until you have come to the ending. All of the characters are three dimensional people that you will care for and will either love or hate. There was just one thing about this novel that I didn't like. In fact, another reviewer brought something up along the lines of what I am going to say. I felt that the book's ending was a bit rushed and that Powers didn't let the ending work itself out. This minor wualm, however, did not make my reading of this book bad and therefore the book will keep five stars despite this.

This is my first Tim Powers novel and it defintely will not be my last. I will never look at tarot cards or regular playing cards the same way since I have read this book. This is the perfect fantasy for somebody that wants an original read.

Happy Reading!

When I go to Vegas, I'm definitely going to have to pay attention to the cigarette smoke. Not that I expect things in real life to happen like the events and magic in this book, but it's so good, I expect it to.

It starts being about people playing poker. It ends up being about a battle for the Kingship of the West, with a immensely powerful Tarot deck as the weapon.

Beyond that, you'll have to read the book. I highly recommend it, both because it's a really good story, and because Mr. Powers' writing is very well done.

In the event you're a role-player, I have a definite feeling this is one of the roots for Unknown Armies, and it has a major influence on Kenneth Hite's writing (in the Suppressed Transmission). It makes me want to play a UA game so bad, it isn't funny.

Read it.

In most casino games it is not possible to actually get a mathematical edge over the casino. But Frank Scoblete explains which video-poker games are the ones where players actually have a long-term chnce to win. This book covers many of the best video-poker gamnes and his strategies are easy to understand and apply in a casino. Very worthwhile book if you want to play one of the best games the casinos have to offer.

Casinos want to take your money but at video poker the player has a chance to actually turn the tables on the casino as Frank Scoblete shows in his book. I have employed his strategies in Atlantic City and in Connecticut and they WORK!!! This book is easy to read and you will learn everything you need to know to get an edge over the casinos.

Frank Scoblete has given us strategies to approach all the various types of video poker machines. Some of these machines are even beatable, while others through a combination of return-percentage and comps can return more than you spend. The key is knowing which machines are which and how to play them. Scoblete gives his strategies in a very simple way, unlike most other video poker books that make it almost impossible to understand what the author is saying. This also has great sections of video blackjack and craps. Keno players will find a section on video keno as well. The book is very well written and Scoblete uses personal anecdotes to keep the book moving. He is a really great writer.

Bought this book after playing several weeks of low limit hold 'em in a local game. I read and studied the book and took my new knowledge to my local game, where I lost $80 playing a $1-$3 game. It was the most I had ever lost in a single session with these guys. Nevertheless, I went to a casino the next weekend and won $400. It was the first time I had ever played at a casino. The difference was most of the guys I played with at the casino actually knew how to play the game. They folded cards like 10's and 2's, whereas my friends normally keep them - and sometimes win by getting cards like two 2's on the flop. This book will most definitely teach you how to play low limit hold 'em the way it's supposed to be played. You can't bluff very much (if ever) in low limit, and this book emphasizes that point. Read and study this book, and don't let yourself get bored when you're folding hand after hand (which you will do if you follow this book's advice). The principles taught here will ultimately win you a lot of money.

A terrific intermediate book for those that have played Hold 'Em but are a long way from "pot limit" much less "no limit" Hold 'Em. Easy to read, well written and to the point - I read most of it in a day. This was the perfect book for the regular low limit game that I'm in where most players go to the flop and it's next to impossible (if not pointless) to try and bluff since the stakes are so low and invariably someone will call you just to "keep you honest." High stakes "no limit" Hold 'Em is a totally different animal and a game most of us will not play - why spend hours reading Sklanksy when I could be playing low limit Hold 'Em with my friends instead? Besides, there's plenty of complexities to the game that are covered in this book that will keep me busy for some time. This is also a good introduction to the "spread limit" games in casinos and card clubs. These can be pretty intimidating and it's good to get a briefing from Lee Jones before I sit down at a table in Vegas with a bunch of strangers and a surly dealer. Excellent reference, highly recommended.

Lee Jones has written a great book on how to play Texas Holdem that you can use at all levels. Written for low limit games, I feel that this is the best book with insite on how to play from the flop to the river. After you get pass the usual requirements for starting cards which is in every Hold`em book you`ll find, Mr. Jones goes into a great analysis on how to play the cards you get and more important how other players are going to be playing theirs! Most players don`t know the game or the odds of a hand and playing this type of player can be just as hard to beat as playing a professional. Mr.Jones shows you how to beat players that play the ,`any two cards can win` way. Before I read this book I was always getting beat by players playing `the any two cards` way because I was playing the way Sklansky and Malmuth said that you needed to play in HOLD`EM POKER FOR ADVANCED PLAYERS. I didn`t understand how most casual players read the flop and what they were looking for until this book.I feel that you can use this book for all levels of "limit" play because we have so many people playing now who have the money to play 40-60 or 60-120 but who lack the understanding of odds or flop analysis and who just play to play without regards toward the money. Also for the frist time I had ever read about it , Mr. Jones brings your attention to a concept on "implicit collusion" and how you`ll get beat by this more than anything else. Read this book, study Pre-flop to river play over and over again and you`ll improve your game greatly! I know I did!

While Lewis does a fine job as he writes a personal memoir of his time at Solomon Brothers in the mid-1980's, he soon loses focus of his main storyline. Lewis wanders off for three chapters to describe the creation of a home mortgage market and the personalities involved. It is as if Lewis or his editor suddenly decided that the amusing anecdotes of life on Wall Street were fine pulp, but needed to be framed in the context of historical substence in order for the book to be seen as respectable. (Ironically, Lewis's account of the rise to power of Michael Milken is more gripping, perhaps because Lewis was more directly affected by Milken's ambitions.) The evolution of equities as an investment is ignored almost completely, leaving the reader to wonder how, in the span of two years or so, the equities department of Solomon Brothers could go from "powerless" to surviving the layoffs started days before the crash of '87 to being the reason Solomon Brothers had its worst year in history. The author is inconsistent in his granting of pseudonyms or anonymity, naming a great many employees by name while protecting a chosen few. All in all, Liar's Poker is a quick, sometimes amusing account of Lewis's time at Solomon Brothers, but little more.

I have read a lot of 'insider' accounts of high finance and I am amazed by how much they all seem to owe Michael Lewis for writing "Liar's Poker." From "Monkey Business" to works of fiction like "All I Could Get" to even movies such as "Boiler Room," all of them seem to have borrowed heavily from Lairs Poker.

In this book Lewis tells the story of Solomon Brothers from its ascendancy from a small bond trading house, to the world's most profitable corporation to it's decline and eventual reorganization.

Lewis narrates his story from the perspective he had as a Solomon bond salesman in the mid 1980's. This book shows off two of Michael Lewis best talents:

1.) The ability to covey the feeling of how it was while he was there.
2) The ability to write about events/activities in the past (or halfway around the world) AS IF HE WERE THERE.

In this book, Lewis is a witness, a critic and a historian all at the same time and in comes together well. Reading this book, I kept think that Michael Lewis is too observant, insightful, and people-oriented to stay on Wall St. Maybe deciding to write this book, getting himself out of Solomon while getting back at his superiors, was just another smart trade.

Maybe someday I'll read another 'insider' account book that will blow me way, but for now "Liar's Poker" is the gold standard for the genre.

Somehow Michael Lewis went from Art History major at Princeton to investment banker with Salomon Brothers. In this book he shows that he understood what these markets are all about, in a way that eludes the grasp of people who may spend years majoring in finance, going to law school or business school and slaving away in these same markets without a clue as to how the whole thing hangs together.

Using bond trading theory to trade whole companies and industries, as Lewis explains Michael Milken, is especially helpful, and it suggests that Warren Buffett is doing the same thing--buying companies by acting as a "preferred" lender.

The "us v. them" relationship between an investment bank and its customers was interesting, and in our current market times, I see a lot of this in how financial planners do the same kind of petty ripoffs that Lewis describes using bigger dollars and bigger customers. It's possible that today's minor aspiring financial planner types could read this book and aspire to be an even bigger malefactor of great wealth. It's refreshing that Lewis bailed out of the business, and this book stands the test of time as a continuing accurate diagnosis of the problems with sinners running markets. The trouble is , there will never be anyone else to run them.

At the end of the book, he seems to have a weakness for praising John Meriwether. Isn't that the guy who lost a huge sum of money in the recent "Long Term Capital" hedging disaster? Even that proves the point of this book, which is that none of these guys care at all about anything but the dollars to be made in front of their nose at the moment. Exactly as Adam Smith said.

Is this an entertaining book? Absolutely. Does it tell stories of all different type games, blackjack, sports books, horseracing, poker? Yes, this book gives a good overview of gambling and interesting stories to entertain the reader.

And that is it in a nutshell. I am not a big gambler but casually enjoyed this book. But I have a complaint. The title. The first story in the book is about the guy who had breast implants to win a $100,000 bet even though the story alludes to it being more of a dare than an actual bet. A picture is included and I assure you it's not fun to look at. My problem is the sensationalized title when it's less than 15% of the book.

I was referred this book by Amazon after reading Bringing Down the House, a story of MIT students who card count their way to millions. I strongly recommend that book for an interesting gambling story. The reviews for this book were very good so I decided to try it. If you have an interest in gambling, you'll enjoy this book. But it's probably only for people for whom gambling is a significant interest in their life.

I didn't want to like this book, because I'm a gambling writer myself and I was envious of its success before I ever read it. But it was impossible not to like it. Konik writes very well, has selected some fascinating characters and subjects, and provides his readers with both entertainment and education. I think that's a very effective way to write about gambling; I employ both of those elements in my own book, CASINO GAMBLING THE SMART WAY, although my style is different from Konik's and my book is more focused on the education side.

If you like to gamble, I think you too will find it impossible to avoid enjoying Konik's book. Put in a more positive fashion, you will both learn and have fun while reading it!

It's also an easy book to pick up and put down, because it's a collection of essays rather than one story which must be read to conclusion. In today's hectic world, I consider that an added bonus.

Every book I've ever read about gambling is informative and helpful. But I've never read one that you would call "well-written" or "entertaining." Michael Konik's book is like something out of "The New Yorker": it reads like literature.

I could not put this book down. Each chapter is like a delicious appetizer in a 26-course meal. I found myself laughing frequently, shaking my head in amazement and actually saying "wow" out loud.

Originally, I wanted to read about the man who got breasts to win a bet. (And I wanted to see the picture.) But then I got hooked on the other stories.

This has got to be the best book I've read in a long time.

Yaay! Okay, it's just February, but this book is the best book I've read this year. Terrific, wonderful, witty, brainy, smart... I could go on and on with the adjectives. I picked it up wanting a mindless read, but I got a smart woman with a great voice, of whose work I want to read more.

Ruby Capote is a columnist for a Boston newspaper who has a "safe" 3-year relationship with Doug. However, she wants more. She decides, knowing that "happiness is not for cowards", to take a risk and send her resume to The New York News. This paper doesn't currently have a columnist like her, so she reasons that no one will even have to get fired for her to get hired. After some weeks with no response from the News, she decides to get creative. This pays off and she's soon on her way to New York.

Girls' Poker Night is about taking risks and being open to love. The title refers to a ritual that Ruby had in college and resumes when she moves to New York - playing poker with her girlfriends, whose stories are subplots of the novel. I collected multiple quotes from the book - something I don't normally do. I anxiously await Ms. Davis' next novel!

Ruby Capote is such a great character! I loved her! Her friends are awesome and are written like real people. I started reading this book at 6 o'clock at night, and read straight through until 10:30. It's got everything: some poker, a ton of great humor, wonderful friendships, a credible romance, and a character so real you can't help but to feel for her and experience her highs and lows as your own. It's a moving book with great subtle shifts that take Ruby from immature to mature, and from fearful to a woman who takes charge of her own happiness. I genuinely grew to care about all of the characters, even the minor ones, because at the heart of it they all shared one thing - a need to address what was working in their lives and what wasn't (all the while never making the mistake of taking themselves too seriously). Then they set out to tackle the issues that many people will never have the courage, honesty or self-awareness to face (all told with such great charm and humor). I couldn't stop laughing. Looking forward to Ruby & Michael part II.

Ruby, a humor columnist, begins by recounting her desertion of her Boston boyfriend Doug, a nice-enough guy who collects bread bag twists. "...one time we were playing Frisbee and this dog came over and looked as if he was going to bite my face off if I didn't give him the Frisbee --- and Doug rescued me. I thought, yeah, maybe we could get married. But how many dogs do you meet like that?"

So she sends a bunch of her newspaper columns to a New York editor and lands a job at The New York ...

Ms. Davis used to write for David Letterman, and it shows. The book consists of short pieces, with titles like "A Bad Case of Dumb-Ass," clever riffs about childhood memories interspersed with current plot lines about Michael and accounts of Ruby's sessions with her crafty therapist Ella. The vignettes are off-the-wall, subtle, funny and bittersweet. The spare style works especially well for the more painful revelations that begin in the middle of the book. Because Ruby really does want to grow up. But to do so she has to confront her pain over the loss of her father, first by divorce, then by car accident (that some say was suicide). After all that she's lost, she has to learn to choose risk.

In the end, GIRLS' POKER NIGHT is more than just funny. It's also very moving. Ruby achieves a true transformation, ... By the time she goes to see Randy, a chubby, gay, Jewish psychic who's been with his boyfriend for 32 years, you'll find yourself agreeing with her. "The world is sweet, kinda whether you like it or not."