I agree with King Yao here as I would about practically everything. It's hard not to read this book and root for Andy Beal against the poker pros we so admire. Beal is the quintessential underdog who teaches himself the game, and makes the most of every opportunity for self-improvement. Every beating is a lesson to Andy. Just like the engineer he was before he became tycoon and owner of Beal Bank, he throws tremendous concentration at the game and deconstructs every detail of his play and turns himself from an amateur into one of the world's best heads up limit hold 'em players. We find that when matched against the lesser pros, he is able to dominate them, but, when faced with the unworldly talent of stars like Todd Brunson, Howard Lederer, and Jennifer Harmon, well...I'll let you read it for yourself. This book tells fans much more about the high stakes world then we'll ever see for ourselves. Believe me, this sort of thing will not be shown on The Travel Channel. It's a fascinating portrait of men, and the real personality standouts are Barry Greenstein, Ted Forrest, and the great Doyle Brunson. The real hero though is Andy Beal. The fact that he's filthy rich makes our sympathies with him unlikely, but his sheer grit and fortitude will win you over. The writer, Michael Craig, put together a skillful and intriguing narrative. Well done.

This was a very interesting look into the life behind high stakes poker. I am currently a college student eking away a modest living on the game online and in casinos through out California and at times Vegas. I have followed pokers history and have dreamed of making it to a big tournament setting. However, to my disappointment, I'm not a tournament player, yet I fare rather well in cash games.

This book is a riveting account of poker history, bringing together Doyle Brunson to Howard Letterer, blended with the modern day feverish appeal that poker has taken on in pop culture. Craig has a natural capacity for storytelling. If someone would to pick this book up without any previous historical knowledge of poker it would still be a page-turner.

Andy Beal, a billionaire genius' strategy is to raise the stakes against a league of pros so that eventually even they become nervous and lose their cool. It's not only a story about poker, but even more so about the psychological aspect of poker, which has brought many to the table over the years.

If you're not a poker fan, this book will probably not appeal to you, since its the knowing of the main characters is one of the strong draws to getting you caught up in this book. This book can teach you plenty about head's up poker while you don't even realize it's doing it. This shows what one slightly above average intelligent man can do if he puts his mind to it. This is a guy that went from being a non player to a pro level player in about 2 years. He used his bank's computers to help simulate play and run hand percentages in heads up. He closely watched the pro's and figured out that pro's do not always make the correct plays mathematically. He figured that if he did, he'd win. So, he charted out all the hand's that were most profitable, he figured out hands that would win over 50% of the time regardless of what the other people had, (listed in the book) on his bank's computers, and he became very adept at eliminating all tells, even to go as far as put a little timed pressure switch on his body just so he could always act at the same speed. It's really quite an amazing book and what made it even more intriguing, is it's all true. A great read and 5 solid stars!

The bare bones of this story are facinating, as other reviewers have detailed. However, the main problem with this book is that Mr. Craig simply runs out of things to dicuss and begins repeating himself ad nauseaum. How many times do we need to hear Barry Greenstein is contemplating finishing his PhD? How many times do we need to hear that Jennifer Harmen's husband does not like her gambling lifestyle? How many times do we need to hear that Andy Beal is contemplating quitting? Mr. Craig apparently feels we need to hear about these things at least 10 times, because he constantly repeats them. Additionally, this book is full of colorful character but for some unknown reason, Mr. Craig and his publisher have decided against putting in photos. This is especially annoying when he spends a few pages discussing an allegedly legendary photo of Beal w/the pro players, when he held all their chips. It would have been nice to see this photo but, alas, no photos are included. Overall, a decent read but be prepared to read things over again and again and again....

If you are like me, you get tired of reading nothing but strategy books. This isn't a strategy book, but it is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It's filled with story after story about your favorite poker players that you just can't find anywhere else. It's an amazing true story that's difficult to put down.