hello all,

I just read this book on the big game and I was wondering what your opinions are of it. I was impressed by the book; I thought it was a good read and I thought he did an excellent job researching the matter. I remember from past posts, that Daniel and many people on this site thought that he would be a significant favorite over Howard Lederer, even in limit hold 'em. After reading the book (and granted I've never played against or seen either of them play heads up limit hold em) I would have to believe that Lederer would be a significant favorite. I was surprised by the fact that Beal refused to play Lederer out of all of the big names in the corporation on his third visit (if memory serves me correctly) and it seems as though Lederer along with Todd Brunson, won the most money from Beal. Anyway, it was a great book and I would appreciate anyone else's view on the matter

I just recieved this book in the mail yesterday from Half.com. I am looking forward to reading it, but I am in the middle of another great book called Cloud Atlas. I recommend this book highly. FYI...it's not about poker.

Anyone have any more suggested books about poker like Positively 5th st, and the one mentioned above?

Jennifer Harmon also was a big winner from Beal. I enjoyed the book, and fell like it did treat both sides very fairly. It is incredible how much money these guys played for. My favorite stories were about Ted Forrest and his gambling habits. He look like the most normal guy...

Deja vu

Have you read The Biggest Game in Town? That is probaby the first poker book that is more narrative than strategy.

I saw this book at barnes and nobles today and was about to get it, but ive got so much other stuff to read I decided to put it off. It sounds very interesting and cant wait to read it.

aces and king, being amarillo slim in a world full of fat people, doyles other book doyles winning poker plays are also good story based books

Deja vu

Banker is great, but it is not about the "big game. " People who want to learn more about the big game will be confused by this moniker. It is about a series of heads up freeze outs for ultra-high takes against players from the big game. I understand you know this but calling it the "big game" is confusing and will mislead people. It is a great read just the same.

I just finished. Been reading strategry books for the past few weeks and decided to try this. It was a good read. Only problem was it was 30 bucks at barnes and noble which is expenisive for just a book like this that I dont really gain anything other then some cool stories to read about. Didnt really go to any details about any of the hands. But once i started reading it i couldnt put the book down. Took about 3 hours to finish its a well writing book that is definetly fair to both sides.

Next time buy a cup of coffee and sit in Barnes and Nobles for 3 hours to read the book.

great book!!!!

Scariest part of that book:

When I found out Todd Brunson and Howard Ledderer both had dated Jenifer Harmon and she and Todd had moved in together!

I dunno why I was so surprised by it, but I was.

That book gave me even more respect for Lederer and Forest. That first night of the game where forest crashed the game and sat in between Reese and Beal was great. I also had no idea how hard Lederer had it growing up. I have nothing but respect for those two.

howard lederer? im very surprised by that.

It always gets mentioned that the Beal matches weren't the "big game", and that is true. But, I think the Beal matches were one of the reasons that the stakes in the big game have increased so much in recent years. Before Beal came to play the stakes were "only" $1000/$2000. He drove the stakes much higher just in his 1st visit.

that is scary! nasty too! ugh! all that greasy bacon.

harmon is so tiny and seems so sweet, glad she's with a dude thats in shape now.

wasn't lederer living on park benches in new york for while?

oh man that is weird to think about. Was that back when Howard was real big too? Well they probably had really good conversations at least

After reading that, I'm immediately sending my picture to Jennifer Harmon.

*giggles*

This book is awesome! I am almost done with it, probably an hour left of reading which I will commence shortly.

Someone mentioned that they did not get much out of it since it is not a strategy book. Though this is not a how to play this hand in this scenerio, there is a lot to learn from this story. And even if you do not take any learning experience away from this book, it is extremely entertaining and engaging.

Anyway... I am off to read the last few chapters. I highly recommend this book!

Fun read, author isn't half the writer McManus is, but still entertaining.

My favorite part of the book is the first chapter. Forrest is driving back to Vegas from LA, calls the Bellagio to see what the biggest game going is, and they tell him it's $10,000/$20,000. His reaction is Jon Stewart rubbing eyes with palms saying, "WHAAAA?" Then he has the balls to go and sit with his entire bankroll, almost lose the entire thing, then end up about a mil. That's good drama.

I'll have to agree about the writer. I loved this book but it did not come close to Positvely Fifth Street. I thought it was a more interesting look into the playing lives of some of today's big names.

Great read couldn't put it down. I think the most interesting part was how bad these top pros are with their money. These guys have no money management skills. Kind of makes you laugh when you go back and read what some people think the top pros have as a BR (i.e I believe some moron thought doyle had a $40M BR)
They were shitting bricks when they individually took a 300K hit. That probably didn't damage Doyle too much but if beal would have won back to back a lot of the "big names" would have gone broke.(for a while anyway)

Why Jennifer???? Why????

Jennifer Harman did good the first visit or two but ended up getting clobbered for something like $6 million before Todd??? stepped in and won it back.

Johnny chan was a poor sport about it when he referred to Beal as a sucker.

Annie Duke, in her book, goes so far as to label Beal a FISH at the very end of her book. This is extremely unfair and goes to show what type of person she is.

You have to be careful when you talk about bankroll vs net worth. 1/2 a mill was a big bankroll for these players back then (I would assume its increased somewhat since then, since games have gotten bigger, and a lot of players have multiple sources of income now (videos, web site promotions etc).

However, as the book points out, its "how much money their wives have" that is the measure of the player. The BR is just their liquid capital, but their total resources go far deeper than that. I wouldnt be surprised if Todd Brunson has a net worth well in exess of 30 million. Doyle? Hard to say, but if he's invested with Todd I wouldnt be surprised to hear he has net worth of 40 million or more.

I just finished the book last night (got it as a birthday present on Wednesday), and I thought it was great. Kinda anti-climactic IMO (it looked like I had a whole other chapter to read when it ended due to the acknoledgements and index at the back).

I am a little disappointed in some of the pros for the way the handled themselves during and after these games took place, but for some of the other pros, the respect I hav efor them has gone through the roof.

I had no idea Todd and Jennifer had dated.

An excellent read. Highly recommended. :-)

Anyone think Beal's gonna come back and play again?

Yes, And if I remember correctly he already has. I think I read it in an article, I'll try and find it.

After reading the book, I decided to read it again. Just finished it for the second time, and liked it again.

In SS2, it mentions Todd winning 2 days in a row for a lot more than is mentioned in this book. Perhaps Beal did already come back and Todd smoked him??? :?

yep, normally I'd endorse buying a book and supporting the author, but this one begged to be read-in store. Zoomed through it last night. Writer's style was dry, uninspired. No real sense of suspense or gravity of the games. Decent read, and thorough info on the backstory, so overall worth the time.

do have one question. If you remember when beal was tryin different strategies he was using white chips to figure out odds or something? anybody care to explain what exactly he was doing? apparently it was simple enough that brunson figured it out pretty quick and tore him a new one