Michael Craig's New Book Tells All About the Biggest Poker Game in Vegas History

By now, nearly everyone in the poker community is familiar with the name Andy Beal. However, in keeping with the long-standing tradition of fish tales, the details of what happened during Andy's visits to Bellagio from 2001 to 2004 have often been the victim of some serious hyperbole. In The Professor, The Banker, and the Suicide King, Michael Craig attempts to set the record straight.

For those of you who are unaware, Beal, a billionaire banker and businessman from Texas, came to Vegas in 2001. He found his way into the poker room, and became interested in Texas hold'em. At that point, he decided he would like to play limit hold'em in as big a game as possible. This desire ultimately evolved into a series of heads-up matches for stakes as high as $100,000-$200,000 against some of the elite players in the game. The game was so big that these ultra-high-limit players had to pool their resources to come up with a buy-in to the game. Andy played matches against many well-known players, including Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese, Todd Brunson, Howard Lederer, Ted Forrest, Jennifer Harman, Barry Greenstein, Chau Giang, and Phil Ivey.

This game ran on and off for about three years, as every time Andy wanted to come to town to play, "the corporation" would be prepared to meet his challenge. The game was held at Bellagio, and generated a fair amount of notoriety. From this sprung the "fish tales" of multimillion dollar losses by Beal. Part of the reason for Andy's cooperation with this book was his desire for an accurate portrayal of how the game actually unfolded.

Much of the book presents a detailed "play by play" of the action. Craig retells numerous interesting hands that took place in the various matches, and also takes a close look at what was transpiring behind the scenes. He focuses on the psychological aspects of the matches in addition to the hands themselves. This provides readers with some insight into which opponents Beal least wanted to play, as well as his strategies for beating the experts at their own game.

This book provides a unique portal to the world of poker at its highest level. I don't believe there is another book in print that so vividly describes what goes on in the minds of the top poker players in the world. Craig has done his homework in this area, interviewing most of the players depicted in the book, in addition to Andy Beal. Although the poker anecdotes are gripping, the insights into the mental game going on at the same time are even more interesting.

Perhaps the only real criticism of the book is that it does become a bit redundant at times. Since so much of the book deals specifically with what happened on the felt, there are lots of fairly repetitive poker stories, concluding with Andy won X, or Andy lost Y. This is probably unavoidable, as the book is, after all, about the game.

The book includes some nice additional information about all the involved parties. Craig covers Beal's background, which should be interesting to anyone who has heard about the "big game." He also helps the reader become better acquainted with the poker players, many of whom have become "regulars" on televised poker events.

Overall, I found this book to be fast-paced, interesting, and entertaining. It was also educational in that it helped dispel some of the misconceptions I had about what actually happened in the game. And for those interested in the "culture of poker," I would classify this book as a must-read.