Big Deal A Year as a Professional Poker Player

Preface One Saturday evening in the mid-1990s, a few years after this book was first published, a genial young American approached me in the bar of London's Victoria Casino, introduced himself, and asked if I was the guy who had writtenBig Deal. Indeed I was, I replied with a modest smile, and looked over to my wife (the sometime "Moll" of the ensuing pages) for the gently mocking smile that usually greets these occasional little boosts to my ego. "That was a wonderful book," continued the American. "It altered my life." As compliments go it was not entirely without precedent, especially in a casino about to start a poker tournament, but none the less welcome for that. Inviting our new friend to sit down and join us for a drink, I asked him what he did. "I work for IBM in Mississippi," came the reply. "At least I did until I read your book. Then I quit my job and became a professional poker player. Just like you." Not seeming to notice that he had struck me dumb, he continued: "And you see my friend over there, the guy at the craps table -- he's a lawyer. Works in the office of the governor of Mississippi. Or he did until I lent him your book. Then he decided to quit his job, too, and now we travel the world together as poker partners. "The point is, we're off to Austria on Monday. I was just wondering if you had any tips about the Hold 'em scene in Vienna . . . ?" I was still a sentence or two behind him. It was not just that I knew nothing at all about the poker scene in Vienna. Never before, despite the friendly remarks about their work to which writers become relatively accustomed, had I met someone who had actually given up his job -- and a pretty damn good job, too -- because of me. Over the few years sinceBig Dealwas first published, I had grown uneasily aware that I had inadvertently altered a few lives. There were several regulars here at the "Vic," and indeed elsewhere, who had told me they'd taken up poker because of the book. But they hadn't, so far as I knew, given up their jobs, or left their wives and children, or wound up in jail. Or worse. "My God," I finally managed to gasp. "And how are you doing?" "Well, Mr. Holden . . ." -- "Call me Tony, please . . ." -- "Well, Tony, I don't want to be rude . . . That was, as I said, one wonderful book. Beautifully written, very funny, really captured life out there on the circuit . . ." Anxious purrs. "But the truth is: we're doing rather better than you did. We're in our second year as pros now, and we're making a lot more money than we ever did back in Mississippi." Both Americans proceeded, as that Saturday evening wore on, to reach the final table of the tournament, and then to get in the money. The following day they duly flew off to Vienna. Six months later, at the World Series of Poker in Binion's Horseshoe Casino, Las Vegas, I met them again. Both were leading contenders for that year's world title. I have since become less fazed by such encounters. On my frequent forays to Las Vegas, even more than in Britain, people come up to me all the time and tell me that they're there because of me. They read the book and they took up poker. They took up poker and they started to win. They won so much that now, look, here they are in Vegas. If they'd known I was going to be here, they'd have brought their copies along for me to sign. Maybe I'd like to sit down and play with them awhile? It would really be an honor . . . There are limits even to my vanity. I'm well aware that the poker played in these pages is far from world standard. Whether or not these guys have even opened the book -- if they haven't, it's a stylish scam -- I know they're better players than me. But, the hell, who cares?Big Dealis my own favorite among the twenty-plus books I've published -- the only one, for sure, that was as much fun to write as to research -- and who am I to mind beHolden, Anthony is the author of 'Big Deal A Year as a Professional Poker Player', published 2007 under ISBN 9780743294812 and ISBN 0743294815.