The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time

Buy this book you won’t regret it

First of all I don't play poker. Not in 35 years and even then casually at best. But my investment banking career of buying distressed debt assets started in 1988 and overlapped completely with Andy Beal's surge in to a real player. I've visited his North Texas building more than once and worked to sell them assets. Andy's success is a little luck, a little timing, and a vast amount of skill and drive. A true entrepreneur!How can an amateur poker player decide to play all pros accepting his challenge in mano and mano (except when the pro is a female) poker and expect to be successful? Clearly Beal is driven and will work to be a great poker player which is detailed in this book. Michael Craig has done an excellent research job and his detail of this at the end where he plays a few hands with Beal are really entertaining.This book really provides a backdrop into professional poker, the unique characters and why they live like they do. It's actually quite fascinating. And it does give great history about Andy Beal. Overall, a very fascinating and fast read. I strongly encourage this book even if you are not a poker aficionado!

Ignoring their own better judgement the biggest names in poker continuously risk their entire bankrolls on what they repeatedly find are the narrowest of advantage (if any). If accurate, this book demonstrates that even the most successful and talented poker players in the world have enough "gamble" to risk far more than they can afford.Perhaps more revealing of the compulsion to gamble and take risks than compelling as a story, this reads like a train wreck about to occur at any moment. If this really went as protrayed than a group of the most successful poker players in the world risked their entire cumulative bankrolls on the turn of very few cards and exposed themselves to extraordinary risk where the different turn of just a few cards may have broke them all.I find my self somewhat incredulous that people this successful in their field would take such risks, knowing how little "edge" they had in a short session. The author makes Andy Beal seem like the only sane person in the book. Hopefully there is more to the story and the pro players have benefited greatly from the risks they took through increased "action" from other high rollers, if not this is truly a documentation of a serious pathology on the part of what are undoubtedly the worlds greatest players.This book causes some serious reflection and makes a game I truly love appear to draw out very unhealthy behavior from even its top practitioners. I hope there is far more to the story, otherwise I should probably rethink my aspirations in this field.

Reads like a good novel; a compelling and fascinating look into the biggest limit holdem game ever played.It provides enormous insights into developing a winning approach to limit holdem. A billionaire banker(Andy Beal) actually devised some amazing strategies to play many of the big name seasoned pros at their own game and beat them at times for many millions.If you love poker and story you will really enjoy this book and you will learn and gain insight into your own game. One of the five best books I've read this year.9/30/05 POST SCRIPT: I didn't read any of the other reviews prior to writing my review and I was so surprised that several reviews state that there is no strategy to be learned from this book. In my opinion there is plenty to work with. One is that Beal minimized any potential collusion by playing heads up-a very important idea if you are afraid of real world or online collusion of any kind. Also, he wrote his own computer program and then additionally hired a computer programmer and spent hundreds of hours analyzing hand values and came up with brilliant ways to play various hands in numerous situations; how various strength hands played versus random hands etc.Much to think about and certainly insightful in improving your game. The fact that he analyzes heads up play is not the point, the point is that an amatuer with the time and energy to think through the game found ways to beat the best players in the world-no small feat.

I agree with King Yao here as I would about practically everything. It's hard not to read this book and root for Andy Beal against the poker pros we so admire. Beal is the quintessential underdog who teaches himself the game, and makes the most of every opportunity for self-improvement. Every beating is a lesson to Andy. Just like the engineer he was before he became tycoon and owner of Beal Bank, he throws tremendous concentration at the game and deconstructs every detail of his play and turns himself from an amateur into one of the world's best heads up limit hold 'em players. We find that when matched against the lesser pros, he is able to dominate them, but, when faced with the unworldly talent of stars like Todd Brunson, Howard Lederer, and Jennifer Harmon, well...I'll let you read it for yourself. This book tells fans much more about the high stakes world then we'll ever see for ourselves. Believe me, this sort of thing will not be shown on The Travel Channel. It's a fascinating portrait of men, and the real personality standouts are Barry Greenstein, Ted Forrest, and the great Doyle Brunson. The real hero though is Andy Beal. The fact that he's filthy rich makes our sympathies with him unlikely, but his sheer grit and fortitude will win you over. The writer, Michael Craig, put together a skillful and intriguing narrative. Well done.

Excellent write-up of a major poker event in Las Vegas where millions of dollars were at stake in the biggest ever heads-up games ever witnessed. A great read for all poker lovers, players and afficionados.

Arrived on time and packaged well.Great book, have been obsessed with poker for a while so i decided to order a few poker books.This was by far the best book out of the three i bought and id definetely recomend to anyoneinterested in poker!

Great read, highly recommend it. As a poker player that works in finance I couldn't put this down. Reckon a non-poker player would also love this as it uncovers a lot about the otherwise private world of high stakes. If you have been watching High Stakes, WSOP etc on TV you get a lot of extra insight into the relationship between the high stakes pros and their individual charachter. Best gambling book I've read since One of a Kind, bio of The Kid Stu Ungar (not sure of exact title)...

Good story, but needs a revision as the saga continued after the book was published

great insight in the the minds and lives of the biggest cash game players in the world. Very worthwhile read (I'm a serious amateur poker player myself...)