Poker Nation: A High-Stakes, Low-Life Adventure into the Heart of a Gambling Country
by Andy Bellin
ISBN: 0060958472
Publisher: Harperperennial Library
Pub. Date: February 2003
Andy Bellin is an excellent poker player, and he's the first to admit it in his first book, Poker Nation. However, he's not a professional player. Bellin writes for a living, despite spending his time around a card table in New York on any given night. Rather, I think that he's been around the game long enough to recognize that he's still playing poker for the love of a well-played hand and for the charge of laying cards on felt. The book, subtitled "A High-Stakes, Low-Life Adventure into the Heart of a Gambling Country," is all about that tug of war between the romance of the game and the cutthroat world of the pros who play purely for money.
While strategy is an integral part of the book, it's not the point of it. It's naturally tough to tell 250 pages worth of poker stories without getting into the mechanics of the game. Bellin does spend several chapters examining tells (the unintended actions that give away our game), cheating, probabilities, and the art of losing gracefully. However, if you're looking for tips, you're better off with Ken Warren's "Winner's Guide to Texas Hold'em Poker," or one of the dozens of other manuals for winning the game.
Any pro would tell you that poker is, at its core, a game about people and their idiosyncrasies. That is also where the focus of Poker Nation lies. Ultimately, this is a book about characters told by a character that walks among them.
Well on his way to a master's degree in astrophysics at Wesleyan University, Bellin was invited to join a visiting professor on a trip to a local casino. That was the end of university life for him. He eventually dropped out to play semi-professional poker before becoming a contributing editor to the Paris Review.
Now he also inhabits the smoky, technically illegal world of the New York underground clubs, including his home club, the Winchester in New York. Joining the author in the book are a number of other characters, starting with those in the first chapter where players like slow and steady Morty face off against the twitching Filipino Amy.
"From under the table comes a noise that sounds suspiciously like a switchblade knife opening," writes Bellin. "Amy leans toward Morty, her hands out of sight, and says very slowly and deliberately into his ear, 'Get the cards in the air, old man.'"
Welcome to the sharp end of no-limit Texas hold'em poker.
However, there's also a lot of great history told here in addition to the stories of the poker world's fringe characters. An entire chapter is devoted to the story of Benny Binion, the bootlegger and tough guy who transformed legal poker in Nevada. Poker pits player against player, not against the house, which only has a cut of the table. Binion came up with the revolutionary tournament that eventually became the renowned World Series of Poker, which used the game to promote the casino, instead of the other way around.
"I always laugh when I see some guy at a table with a fedora hat and shakes, introducing himself as 'Chicago' or 'Crusher.' Who the hell is going to want to play with that guy?" writes Bellin in a later chapter. Those guys populate the book, though, from Sal the Bookie to Crazy Rich. The truth is that the players are really no different than the rest of the population. Some are great guys and some are low-lifes. There are degenerates, shylocks and made guys in the game but there are also doctors, lawyers, and family men. Frankly, sometimes one is even the same guy at once.
Cardplayers are many terrible things," writes Bellin, "But one thing we're not is ordinary." There has to be some redemption in there, right?
Even if you don't play poker, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Poker Nation. It's a mesmerizing journey into the odd rites and traditions of the game, and might even give you a few tips for your own rounds of the tables.
Poker Nation is newly available in paperback from Harper Perennial Library ($12.95). Read an excerpt or find out more at www.pokernation.net.
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