The "Guide to the World Series of Poker" that we’re serializing at our new sister site, LVAPoker.com, is not the finished product. It comes from Blair’s new book, tentatively titled Don’t Be a Donk. To make a long story short, we’re excerpting the World Series section to run in conjunction with this year’s WSOP. Given that it’s an excerpt, a lot of things didn’t make it in-Russ Hamilton’s 25th-anniversary win among them.
Others that will be in the book include Jack Straus’ "chip-and-a-chair" story, Scotty Nguyen’s beer-fueled championship run, and speaking of beer, the story of Texas road gambler and big-time drinker Bill Smith.
Anthony Curtis was there and he provides his take on that story.
Bill Smith was known as a top-notch no-limit hold ’em player whose success was truncated by his drinking habit. But in the 1985 Main Event, he played a masterful game, thanks to staying mostly sober. Blair and I were there for the final table. Bill kept mowing ’em down and the cocktail waitresses kept bringing him water and soda.
When it got down to three or four left, Bill called over a waitress and a couple minutes later she walked up and put a Budweiser in front of him. The whole room exploded in laughter. Bill drank slowly, but wound up having a few more on his way to winning it all and earning a $700,000 payday.
What we’re putting up between now and the start of the 2010 Main Event is a big chunk of the section of the book that covers the WSOP, including superb explanations of the rules, financial considerations, etiquette, pitfalls, logistics, history, and many many nuances that you can find nowhere else. Even in its excerpted form, it’s the most complete coverage of the WSOP that’s ever been published.
The book will cover poker at every level. Go to LVAPoker.comto read the first two excerpts (three more instalments still to come) and sign up put your name on the email list to win one of 10 books that we’ll give away (from a random drawing) when Don’t Be a Donk is published in early 2011.
Meanwhile, the release schedule for the WSOP Guide is every Monday in June.
Kill Phil is now available in a second revised and expanded edition at ShopLVA.com, or you can purchase both Kill Phil and sequel Kill Everyone in their first editions as a discounted bundle. Follow Blair’s progress in the 2010 WSOP by following him on Twitter @blairrodman.
