Poker’s still the name of the game around here and we have two great poker books on the docket for the first half of this year.
The first is tentatively titled The Moneymaker Effect, by Eric Raskin.
Eric has penned the definitive history of the 2003 World Series of Poker, the one in which, as he writes, "television, the Internet, and a 27-year-old amateur poker player named Chris Moneymaker all sat down at a poker table -- and destiny dealt the cards."
This was the first year ESPN used hole-card cameras during play. It was also the year that launched the Internet poker boom, much of which was attributed to the accountant from Nashville, Tennessee, with the unlikely yet prophetic name Chris Moneymaker, who won his $10,000 seat in the WSOP main event via a $40 PokerStars.com satellite. And it was the year that Moneymaker beat a record field of more than 800 players to take down the championship and the $2.5 million prize. The 2003 WSOP also marked the last year the tournament was owned and run by the Binions, who sold it to Harrah’s before the 2004 WSOP.
As Brian Koppelman, a writer and producer known for Rounders (1998), Runaway Jury (2003), Ocean’s 13 (2007), and Runner Runner (2013), says in the Foreword to The Moneymaker Effect: "Moneymaker’s victory at the 2003 WSOP was a rapturous moment for Moneymaker most of all, but also for sports fans, poker players, and the poker business. It was also the dividing line between so much that was good about poker and everything that came after."
To pen this oral history of the 2003 WSOP, author Eric Raskin, editor-in-chief of ALL IN magazine and its website, allinmag.com, since 2005, interviewed more than 30 people who were involved in the tournament, including: senior executives of ESPN and 441 Productions; Henry Orenstein, inventor of the hole-card camera; Matt Savage, WSOP tournament director; Lon McEachern, play-by-play commentator for WSOP broadcasts since the late-’90s; Dan Goldman, PokerStars vice president of marketing; Chris Moneymaker, his dad Mike, and his equally aptly named friend David Gamble; and such poker luminaries as Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel, Barry Greenstein, Sammy Farha, Annie Duke, Dan Harrington, Daniel Negreanu, and more.
And speaking of poker luminaries, our second imminent poker title is a workbook that presents a series of problems and situations faced at a no-limit hold ’em tournament table, some of them constructed to illustrate specific points, others actual hands played by the authors in their illustrious careers.
And what a bunch of authors! It’s the same basic team that brought you Kill Phil, Kill Everyone, and Raiser’s Edge, specifically: Lee Nelson, Tysen Streib, Tony Dunst, and Dennis Waterman, with contributions from Joe Hachem, winner of the 2005 WSOP.
The problems cover all stages of tournament play, divided into five sections: Early-Stage, Mid-Stage (after the antes start), Near the Bubble (both right before and right after the prize money kicks in), Final Table, and Heads-Up.
Each of the authors has his own playing style and strengths, and from time to time they offer different recommendations for the same problem. That there are many paths to victory is one of the great things about poker -- and why we are always excited about bringing out new books on the game.
These new titles will be available soon, while those existing Huntington Press (the publishing wing of LVA best-sellers referenced above are all currently available, at a publisher's discount, in the "Poker Books" section at ShopLVA.com.
