Broadening Your Mind
Ashley Adams
I’d like to use this column to urge all poker players to read more. Reading opens up your mind to the thinking of other people-broadening your mind by broadening the experiences you can understand and consider. Whether it’s poker strategy, fiction, or just life experience that you’re reading about, you’re entering a world you would not normally enter yourself. By broadening your mind you broaden your perspective and expand how you think- which, in my view, can only help but develop your ability at the poker table.
As the year ended I was lucky to find myself with two books of fiction, which I read for pleasure. They were also, at least tangentially, booksabout poker. Though neither is a book about poker strategy, I recommend them each to you.
Written with co-author Robert Randisi, Vince Van Patten’s The Picasso Flop sets a murder mystery inside the exciting and, for we poker players, familiar world of a major poker tournament in Las Vegas.
Van Patten should be familiar to anyone who watches the World Poker Tour events. He is the announcer. He has also been a screenwriter, producer, and director-as well as a professional tennis player. He joins forces with acclaimed mystery writer Randisi to produce one of the few realistic poker mysteries. I liked three things, chiefly, about this fast paced mystery. First, and most important, I really appreciated that they got the poker content right. So many authors these days don’t. They use poker in their stories-but without really understanding the game, the rules, or the trappings of it, it comes off either unrealistic or dead wrong. Not so here. The details are clear and accurate.
Van Patten also uses real poker figures to spice up his fictitious tale. Mike Sexton plays a large role in the drama, as do Doyle Brunson, James Woods and a thinly disguised Eskimo Clark. Finally, I enjoyed the rapid pacing of the story. It is high energy throughout-and can be finished in six hours or so of steady reading. It’s the absolutely perfect book for your next flight to Las Vegas (at least if you’re coming from the east coast).
I was also pleased with the latest offering by Susie Isaacs. Susie is probably best known as one of the greatest female poker players competing today. She won the ladies tournament at the World Series of Poker in successive years (1996 and 1997) and finished at the final table in the $10,000 main event in 1998. She is also an accomplished author, having written five other books and the long-running poker magazine column “Chip Chatter.”
Since most of her writings have been focused on women in poker, I wasn’t sure that I’d really enjoy her latest book and her first novel, White Knight Black Nights. But, surprisingly, I found that I couldn’t put it down. It was a terrific read. It’s the story of a woman who is caught in the conflict between being a dutiful and loving spouse while at the same time discovering and becoming a thoroughly independent woman-who happens to be a successful poker player and writer. Her journey includes more than enough spice, drama, sex, and violence to keep the attention of men and women alike.
Isaacs is at her best in developing her two main characters- one of whom seems to be based at least loosely on the author herself. Their dialogue is realistic and moving. Their experiences are poignant and unpredictable. Isaacs’ interweaving into the story line of the realistic poker world of Las Vegas is also a nice touch for we poker players who thrive there. The concluding scenes are as powerful as they are unexpected. I’m eager to see what other fiction she might have in the year to come.
As we begin a new year, I wish all of you a successful, literate, and profitable 2008.
Filed under: Poker News