While overseas, I took the opportunity of using my cousin’s clean computer to sign up for a new Party Poker account. My old account had been closed for “inappropriate chat” at the blogger NL tables; the same thing happened to Bonus Code Iggy, but somehow he got it all squared away. This time I decided to sign up through PokerSourceOnline. Unfortunately, their rake rebate program no longer has Party as an option. Still, by signing up through PSO I got 6000 PSO points, 5000 of which I promptly traded in for a $50 Amazon Gift Card.
One of the three poker books I picked up was The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King. Once I started reading the first few pages, I was hooked. I can’t even tell you why I found the book as interesting as it did.
Michael Craig pieces together what happened when wealthy Texas banker Andy Beal went to Vegas to play the biggest cash game players for stakes that no one had ever played before. We’re talking limit hold’em for millions of dollars, blinds of 50,000-100,000. One of the LA bloggers once asked us how much money it would take for us to be able to go off and do whatever we wanted for the rest of our lives. For these players, it was just one big pot.
I take back what I said earlier.
This is what makes the Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King so interesting:
1. Most of us have wondered if we could go after the biggest players, provided we had the bankroll. Andy Beal had that bankroll.
2. Two of the hardest things to really learn as a player is separating bets from their dollar values and accepting fluctuations in results (and bankroll) as normal variance. When the stakes got large enough, the best poker veterans in the world re-faced those same struggles.
I personally have no ambitions to face off against great players. Hell, I play so little poker these days I feel guilty. But I’m glad Andy Beal took a shot at the best, and I hope he keeps at it.
