Winning Wisdom

At only 27 years old, Gavin Griffin already holds one of the most impressive collections of poker's most prestigious titles: World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour, and World Poker Tour championships.

Now, Card Player is giving its readers a chance to send questions directly to the poker prodigy.

Poker fans can send Griffin their questions to [email protected]. The questions can be about anything from poker strategy to his opinions on certain aspects of poker or his life as a poker pro traveling the circuit. The best questions will be answered by Griffin and published in Card Player. If your question makes it into print, we'll send you a free Card Player T-shirt.

I have had a lot of people ask me the same question lately, either when playing online at PokerStars or through e-mail. I even had a few people ask me this question at the World Series: What is your favorite poker book?

It's hard for me to pick just one, so I'm going to go through a few that I really like and even include a couple of books that aren't about poker that I think are really good gambling books.

Let me start by saying that this list is not exhaustive. I have not, by any means, read every poker book out there. I haven't even read one that was written by a couple of good friends of mine, Bill Chen and Jerrod Ankenman. I have heard good things about The Mathematics of Poker, but I just haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

I'm going to review a few nonfiction gambling novels here that I really enjoy, and then get into the more technical teaching books in the next issue.

One of the first novels I read about poker is probably the best-written one about poker in existence. It's called Positively Fifth Street, by James McManus. Jim is a writer who was sent to Vegas to cover the 2000 World Series of Poker and the trial of Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish, who were charged with the murder of Ted Binion. He took his $1,000 advance for the article and turned it into a seat in the main event, where he finished in an incredible fifth place for $247,000. His tight and interesting writing style and incredible character descriptions make for an enjoyable and easy read. His descriptions of T.J. Cloutier are spot on and very entertaining. You also get to see the bad side of gambling when he talks about the Binion murder and some players' addictions to negative expected value gambling games or strip clubs. Jim puts together a great read and an awesome story.

My second-favorite gambling book is also about poker. Written by Michael Craig, a former lawyer, The Professor, The Banker, and the Suicide King is a book about Andy Beal and the world's most famous poker players as they took part in the biggest game ever played. The scale of the gambling in this book is amazing. The amount of money that these people gambled for is incredible, and Andy Beal shows an amazing amount of heart, grit, and determination in his quest to play with and beat the best players in the world in limit hold'em. I've heard many people say over and over again that Andy is one of the best heads-up limit hold'em players in the world. The only reason he lost overall is that he was playing against the few people in the world who are better than him. The book is well-written, but it's the story that really captivates you - and not only the story of the poker game, either. Andy Beal's life story is entertaining and spectacular. One of the things I like about the book is that you really get a sense of the thin line between success and being broke when it comes to being a poker player. You also can see that it takes a lot of heart and a lot of risk to do well. The story of Ted Forrest putting his whole bankroll on the table to play $10,000-$20,000 with Chip Reese and Andy Beal is chilling and an important lesson about risk in poker. Michael Craig's book really does a good job of capturing the emotion and feel of high-stakes poker, and is a very interesting and fun read.

The final book that I want to discuss here is my favorite about gambling. It doesn't have anything to do with poker, but it is an awesome read. Like my favorite movie about gambling, The Hustler, Playing Off the Rail is a book about a traveling pool hustler and his stake horse. It follows the four-month journey of the author, David McCumber, and the pool player he stakes, Tony Annigoni, as they travel around the country playing pool.

I grew up on the game of pool, so it has a special place in my heart. I spent many of my nights in a pool hall not too far from my high school, and that's where I learned to gamble. I met my best friend in the poker world, WPT Champion Kevin Saul, playing at The Green Room in Brookfield, Illinois. He was sort of my pool mentor and looked out for me when he could.
Perhaps this is why I love this book and the movie The Hustler so much. The atmosphere of a pool hall is one that I love - lots of gambling and pool. The book is extremely well-written, and very descriptive. As I was reading it, I felt as if I was at the pool hall, watching the shots as they happened. This is not an easy task, by the way. Imagine trying to describe to a friend how a shot went without showing it to him on a pool table. The detail that McCumber uses really illustrates that he knows what he is talking about. Again, you get to see the darker side of gambling in this book. You don't always win when you gamble, and things can go very poorly for you if you're in a place with which you aren't familiar.

Take a look at these books and some other nonfiction books about gambling. They provide a really good insight into the feel and flow of the gambling world. They may not be attempting to teach you like a book by David Sklansky would, but you can learn from them, nonetheless.

Gavin Griffin is the newest member of Team PokerStars. Visit his website at www.gavingriffin.net.