Question of the Day - 16 October 2020

We don't see them all and since we're barely in the poker-book business these days, we don't receive too many submissions that go on to be published elsewhere. 

One that we did see in manuscript form and liked was A Girl's Guide to Poker. It's written by 20-something Amanda Botfeld, with the voice and attitude that you'd expect from a book by a Millennial for Millennials. It came out last year.

Another that we read and really liked was Billion Dollar Hollywood Heist: The A-List Kingpin and the Poker Ring that Brought Down Tinseltown. This book was written by long-time friend of LVA Houston Curtis and it's the story behind the story told by Molly Bloom in Molly's Game (book and movie). Houston teamed up with Tobey Maguire (of Spiderman fame) to host the highest-stakes poker game Hollywood has ever seen, with the intention of attracting every star-struck poker player with money to burn who wanted to sit at the same table as Leo DiCaprio, Alex Rodriguez, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and more. Houston names names, relates stories that a lot of celebrities didn't want to be told, and weathers the inevitable explosion that blew up around the game. Gripping reading.

But the one we truly loved is The Only Way To Play It by Peter Alson, well-known author of Confessions of an Ivy League Bookie and a biography of poker champion Stuey Ungar called One of a Kind. The Only Way To Play It is a novel that takes place inside the underground poker scene in New York City and if that reminds you of Rounders, well, this is the story that Rounders wished it could've been. In fact, it's among the best gambling novels we've ever read.

The depth and complexity of the characters and their relationships in The Only Way To Play It drive the plot with such a combustive force that we recommend you don't try turning these pages just before going to bed; the adrenaline triggered by the intensity of the writing and the extraordinary tension of high-stakes poker will have you tossing and turning for hours.

But like the greatest roller-coaster ride you've even been on, this is a book that you can't put down and you'll be glad you read it -- even though you'll miss, acutely, the main character, along with his wife, daughter, and father, his ne'er do well friends and fellow underground poker players, and the brilliant style long after you're done reading it. 

We can't recommend The Only Way To Play It highly enough.