“Diary of a Mad Poker Player” Review
[LL] “Like a lot of us, Richard Sparks prefers to be playing poker instead of doing his actual job, which is writing”, Leroy the Lion began. “Struggling with what to write next, he plays online poker...
View Article“How to Win the World Series of Poker (or Not)” Review
[LL] “Like Richard Sparks, Pat Walsh dreams of playing the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2005. He starts by walking into a bookstore and accumulating a $400 pile featuring strategy books by Phil...
View Article“Exploiting Poker Tells” Review
[LL] “Following Reading Poker Tells (2012) and Verbal Poker Tells (2014),” Leroy the Lion began, “Zachary Elwood’s third book, Exploiting Poker Tells, came out in 2017 in response to readers’ requests...
View Article“My 50 Most Memorable Hands” Review
[LL] “A short book deserves a short review, right?” Leroy the Lion asked rhetorically. [RR] “Sure, if that makes you feel better about your laziness”, Roderick the Rock quipped. “But your shortcut...
View Article“Take Me to the River” Review
[LL] “Peter Alson is just months away from marrying his long-term girlfriend and has written the screenplay for a movie that’s about to start filming in New York,” relayed Leroy the Lion, “but that...
View Article“Internet Hold’Em Poker” Review
[LL] “Like Doyle Brunson’s ‘Online Poker’, Avery Cardoza’s Internet Hold’Em Poker seems to have been mostly written to get people playing online poker at a particular site”, Leroy the Lion claimed....
View Article“Hold’em Wisdom for All Players” Review
[LL] “As much as I love Daniel Negreanu,” Leroy the Lion disclaimed, “I was disappointed by his Hold’em Wisdom for All Players. It’s a book but feels like a collection of poker blog posts.” [RR] “Which...
View Article“Power Hold’Em Strategy” Review
[LL] “Daniel Negreanu’s Power Hold’Em Strategy seems quite imposing at first glance with over 500 pages”, Leroy the Lion warned, “but you can pare it down if you aren’t interested in one or more of its...
View Article“Bicycle Blackjack and Poker” Review
[LL] “Despite a 2007 copyright date and no indication that the book is based on any older material,” Leroy the Lion conjectured, “Bicycle Blackjack and Poker appears to have been written in the 1970s...
View Article“Bigger Deal” Review
[LL] “When Anthony Holden’s Big Deal came out in 1990, he had no way to know how inspirational the book would prove to so many poker players (casual hacks and future pros alike)”,1 Leroy the Lion...
View Article“Ghosts at the Table” Review
[LL] “As you know, poker has a long history of colorful stories and tall tales that have grown taller with each retelling. In Ghosts at the Table: Riverboat Gamblers, Texas Rounders, Roadside...
View Article“Cowboys Full” Review
[LL] “James McManus’s Cowboys Full – The Story of Poker came out just a year after Des Wilson’s Ghosts at the Table, so it makes sense to compare and contrast them.” [RR] “Sure, why read two books when...
View Article“Poker Wizards” Review
[LL] “The next book I read was Warwick Dunnett’s Poker Wizards: Wisdom from the World’s Top No-Limit Hold’em Players“, Leroy the Lion stated. [RR] “So it’s actually done with magic?” Roderick the Rock...
View Article“Check-Raising the Devil” Review
[LL] “What do you think of Mike Matusow?” Leroy the Lion inquired. [RR] “He’s an obnoxious, loud-mouthed druggie with integrity issues”, Roderick the Rock opined. [LL] “Wow, tell us how you really...
View Article“All In: From Refugee Camp to Poker Champ” Review
[LL] “How much do you know about Jerry Yang?” Leroy the Lion inquired. [RR] “Not much. Chinese guy who became a billionaire during the dot-com era by founding Yahoo”, Roderick the Rock replied. [LL]...
View Article“Final Table: A Winning Poker Approach from a WSOP Champion” Review
[LL] “Originally published in the same year,” Leroy the Lion segued, “Jerry Yang’s All In and Jonathan Duhamel’s Final Table: A Winning Approach From a WSOP Champion come from Main Event winners just...
View Article“The Noble Hustle” Review
Colson Whitehead is one of a number of authors who have been fortunate enough to have his publisher pay him1 to write about playing in the World Series of Main Event. But he’s the only Pulitzer Prize...
View Article“Fading Hearts on the River: A Life in High-Stakes Poker” Review
[LL] “Almost every parent brags about their children,” Leroy the Lion noted, “but Brooks Haxton deserves the ‘2014 Parental Brag of the Year’ award for writing Fading Hearts on the River: A Life in...
View Article“The Biggest Game in Town” Review
[LL] “It’s hard to imagine what poker was like back in the old days”, Leroy the Lion opened. [RR] “I couldn’t enjoy playing if I was worried about being cheated or robbed all the time”, Roderick the...
View Article“Bets, Bluffs, and Bad Beats” Review
[LL] “The New Yorker magazine paid Al Alvarez to return to the World Series of Poker Main Event in 1994,1” Leroy the Lion related, “and his account of the tournament is one of the two sections of the...
View Article