Saturday, August 9, 2008

Annie Duke: How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed, and Won a Million Dollars at the World Series of Poker - Annie Duke, David Diamond

Whew! That has got to be one of, if not, the longest titles I have seen on a biography. Being one of the most successful women in poker, I suppose she is entitled to be a bit unorthodox.

She tells the story of her run through the 2004 World Series of Poker. It is very linear. She starts with the process of registering for the first event she plays and ends with the last hand she plays. Along the way she goes into various tangents.

We are treated to much more than a life story. The origins of the game are explored. The history of the WSOP (World Series of Poker) is presented in very objective voice. Along the way we are treated to some incites as to how she makes her decisions at the table.
For those who are really after a treatise on how to play poker, she is kind enough to draw attention to these tidbits by drawing a box around them. She give you a basic rule of poker and then a brief description. At the end she provides a glossary of poker terms.

There is no doubt that Annie is a great poker player and a wonderful ambassador for women in this predominantly male field of endeavor. However, with several degrees in English including a PhD in Psycholinguistics, I am surprised that she felt it necessary to employ a co-author. I found this to be a very pedestrian read.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not really interested in reading how she Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed, and Won a Million Dollars at the World Series of Poker...

...What I would really like to see her write a book about, although it'll never happen in this lifetime, is the Ultimate Bet super-user scandal. That's a book all the poker community would like to read.

wolf4997 said...

Thanks for your comment gtycoon. I agree, an expose of that scandle would hold my attention much better. I am sure someone will be writing a book about online poker soon. And that they will include a chapter or two about cheating. I expect it would feature not just the Utlimate Bet scandle, but the Absolute Poker scandle as well. We probably won't get all the juicy details we would like but it could make for some interesting reading.