BOOK GIVEAWAY: The 50 Greatest Stories in Poker History

Hello,

I am the author of the new Huntington Press book, The 50 Greatest Stories in Poker History.

I have posted below the full table of contents. Pick the chapter that you would most like to read in full. I will be picking 2 random members in this thread and will share their favorite chapters and send them a free copy of my book!

Here are the titles:

Chapter 1 The First Mention of Poker
—Dragoon Campaigns to the Rocky Mountains
Chapter 2 Dead-Man’s Hand
Chapter 3 Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi
Chapter 4 He Was James Bowie
Chapter 5 The Legend of “Poker Alice” Ivers
Chapter 6 Mark Twain’s Love for Poker

Chapter 7 Arnold Rothstein’s Deadly Poker Debt
Chapter 8 Bugsy Siegel’s Flamingo Casino
Chapter 9 The “Literary and Hunting Club”
Where Black Intellectuals Have Played Poker
Underground for 80 Years
Chapter 10 “This Game is 7-Card Stud”: Tennessee Williams’
A Streetcar Named Desire
Chapter 11 Richard Nixon’s Campaign, Funded by His Poker Winnings
Chapter 12 Johnny Moss vs. Nick the Greek —the Most Dubious Heads-Up Match
Chapter 13 Hold ’em Arrives: From Texas to Las Vegas

Chapter 14 The Birth of the world series of poker
Chapter 15 Super/System and the Early Advancements in poker strategy
Chapter 16 Stu Ungar’s Explosion onto the Poker Scene
Chapter 17 “A Chip and a Chair”— Jack Straus’ Incredible wsop Main Event Victory
Chapter 18 The Most Famous 72 bluff
Chapter 19 Johnny Chan, the Last Man to Defend the Main Event Title
Chapter 20 Archie “the Greek” Karas’ Crazy Run in Vegas
Chapter 21 Stu Ungar’s 10-High Call vs. Mansur Matloubi
Chapter 22 A Poker Hand Decides an Election
Chapter 23 The Advent of online poker
Chapter 24 The Comeback Kid
—Stu Ungar Wins the Main Event Again
Chapter 25 The Legendary Bobby’s Room
Chapter 26 “Pay That Man His Money” —John Dahl’s Rounders.
Chapter 27 The Corporation vs. Andy Beal
Chapter 28 Jennifer Harman’s Crash Course in 2-7 Draw

Chapter 29 Chris Moneymaker Wins the
WSOP Main Event and Changes the World.
Chapter 30 James Bond’s Straight Flush in Casino Royale.
Chapter 31 The Moby Dick of Online Poker
Chapter 32 The Potripper Cheating Scandal on Absolute Poker
Chapter 33 The Story of the Chip Reese Trophy
Chapter 34 Annette Obrestad, the Poker Wonder Teen
Chapter 35 Phil Laak’s WSOP Disguise
Chapter 36 The Rise and Fall of Isildur1
Chapter 37 The Durrrr Challenge
Chapter 38 Black Friday

Chapter 39 Phil Ivey’s Edge-Sorting Case Against Borgata
Chapter 40 Is Dan Bilzerian Actually a Poker Genius?
Chapter 41 The Man Who Flushed Fake chips down the Toilet
Chapter 42 Poker Player vs. Reverend: Should Online Poker Be Legal?
Chapter 43 Is More Rake Actually Better? The Never-Ending Internet Feud Between Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu
Chapter 44 Libratus, Poker’s “Deep Blue” Moment
Chapter 45 A New Game in Town —the Rise of Short Deck Hold ’Em
Chapter 46 Who Is the Real Biggest Online Tournament Winner of All Time?
Chapter 47 The Biggest Tournament in Poker History
Chapter 48 Mike Postle, the Accused “Crotchripper” of Stones gambling Hall
Chapter 49 The Fastest Dethroning—The WSOP Player of the Year Award Debacle
Chapter 50 The Story of the Galfond Challenge

I'll be checking back here in a few days and use the Google random number generator to pick two users who replied to the thread. I'll be contacting them via DM's to get the shipping information to send them one free copy each.

The book is available on Amazon here, both in paperback and ebook format.

wow, congrats on your book.

Yes congrats on your book.

My picks:-

Chapter 11 Richard Nixon’s Campaign, Funded by His Poker Winnings

Chapter 21 Stu Ungar’s 10-High Call vs. Mansur Matloubi

My two picks are:
Chapter 11 Richard Nixon’s Campaign, Funded by His Poker Winnings
Chapter 44 Libratus, Poker’s “Deep Blue” Moment

Hey, Congrats on the book.

I'd like to read Chapter 35: Phil Laak's WSOP disguise.

Marton Magyar said:

Hello,

I am the author of the new Huntington Press book, The 50 Greatest Stories in Poker History.

I have posted below the full table of contents. Pick the chapter that you would most like to read in full. I will be picking 2 random members in this thread and will share their favorite chapters and send them a free copy of my book!

Here are the titles:

Chapter 1 The First Mention of Poker
—Dragoon Campaigns to the Rocky Mountains
Chapter 2 Dead-Man’s Hand
Chapter 3 Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi
Chapter 4 He Was James Bowie
Chapter 5 The Legend of “Poker Alice” Ivers
Chapter 6 Mark Twain’s Love for Poker

Chapter 7 Arnold Rothstein’s Deadly Poker Debt
Chapter 8 Bugsy Siegel’s Flamingo Casino
Chapter 9 The “Literary and Hunting Club”
Where Black Intellectuals Have Played Poker
Underground for 80 Years
Chapter 10 “This Game is 7-Card Stud”: Tennessee Williams’
A Streetcar Named Desire
Chapter 11 Richard Nixon’s Campaign, Funded by His Poker Winnings
Chapter 12 Johnny Moss vs. Nick the Greek —the Most Dubious Heads-Up Match
Chapter 13 Hold ’em Arrives: From Texas to Las Vegas

Chapter 14 The Birth of the World Series of Poker
Chapter 15 Super/System and the Early Advancements in Poker Strategy
Chapter 16 Stu Ungar’s Explosion onto the Poker Scene
Chapter 17 “A Chip and a Chair”— Jack Straus’ Incredible WSOP Main Event Victory
Chapter 18 The Most Famous 72 Bluff
Chapter 19 Johnny Chan, the Last Man to Defend the Main Event Title
Chapter 20 Archie “the Greek” Karas’ Crazy Run in Vegas
Chapter 21 Stu Ungar’s 10-High Call vs. Mansur Matloubi
Chapter 22 A Poker Hand Decides an Election
Chapter 23 The Advent of Online Poker
Chapter 24 The Comeback Kid
—Stu Ungar Wins the Main Event Again
Chapter 25 The Legendary Bobby’s Room
Chapter 26 “Pay That Man His Money” —John Dahl’s Rounders.
Chapter 27 The Corporation vs. Andy Beal
Chapter 28 Jennifer Harman’s Crash Course in 2-7 Draw

Chapter 29 Chris Moneymaker Wins the
WSOP Main Event and Changes the World.
Chapter 30 James Bond’s Straight Flush in Casino Royale.
Chapter 31 The Moby Dick of Online Poker
Chapter 32 The Potripper Cheating Scandal on Absolute Poker
Chapter 33 The Story of the Chip Reese Trophy
Chapter 34 Annette Obrestad, the Poker Wonder Teen
Chapter 35 Phil Laak’s WSOP Disguise
Chapter 36 The Rise and Fall of Isildur1
Chapter 37 The Durrrr Challenge
Chapter 38 Black Friday

Chapter 39 Phil Ivey’s Edge-Sorting Case Against Borgata
Chapter 40 Is Dan Bilzerian Actually a Poker Genius?
Chapter 41 The Man Who Flushed Fake Poker Chips down the Toilet
Chapter 42 Poker Player vs. Reverend: Should Online Poker Be Legal?
Chapter 43 Is More Rake Actually Better? The Never-Ending Internet Feud Between Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu
Chapter 44 Libratus, Poker’s “Deep Blue” Moment
Chapter 45 A New Game in Town —the Rise of Short Deck Hold ’Em
Chapter 46 Who Is the Real Biggest Online Tournament Winner of All Time?
Chapter 47 The Biggest Tournament in Poker History
Chapter 48 Mike Postle, the Accused “Crotchripper” of Stones Gambling Hall
Chapter 49 The Fastest Dethroning—The WSOP Player of the Year Award Debacle
Chapter 50 The Story of the Galfond Challenge

I'll be checking back here in a few days and use the Google random number generator to pick two users who replied to the thread. I'll be contacting them via DM's to get the shipping information to send them one free copy each.

The book is available on Amazon here, both in paperback and ebook format.

Click to expand...

Woowww what a work this must've been. To put so much effort and time in this masterpiece of yours.
CONGRATS! And hope this turns out to be a great success :congrats::congrats::congrats:

I would happily pick Chapter 6: Mark Twain's Love for Poker.
Never even knew that Mark Twain played and loved poker so that's quite interesting for me to read about.

Hey Marton, congrats on your book!

Man, there are so many great chapters like no. 28, 36 or 45. But I would like to read chapter 27 first!

Congrats on the book. Would love to read chapters 32 and 34 but never 38. To many bad memory's to want to read that one.

Congrats on the book!

Hello everyone,

Thank you for the kind words and the great picks.

Tomorrow at 3:24 PM my local time (Budapest time), 3 days after the thread is opened, I will hold the draw and announce the winners. I'll contact them in DM's immediately. If you want to get in the contest, comment in the next 24 hours or so.

Thanks again!

Congrats On The Book, Marton

Great Idea for A Book! I am sure I would enjoy all the Chapters, but Rounders has always been one of my favorite movies so I will select:

Chapter 26 “Pay That Man His Money” —John Dahl’s Rounders.

Wishing you much success with the book!

Teddy

Okay, thank you everyone for playing.

The winners are Luvepoker and theStarfish. I'll message you momentarily.

For the rest of you, please, if you can afford it, buy a copy. The Amazon link is in the original post. You can buy a paperback copy for cheaper if you do it through the publisher's retail site.

Best of luck to you all!

I've run into a problem.

Apparently, there is a 15 post threshold to send a DM on the forum.

Luvepoker and theStarfish, DM if you can. In the meanwhile, I'll grind out some posts so I can message you if you don't get to me first. 11 more to go.

Marton Magyar said:

Okay, thank you everyone for playing.

The winners are Luvepoker and theStarfish. I'll message you momentarily.

For the rest of you, please, if you can afford it, buy a copy. The Amazon link is in the original post. You can buy a paperback copy for cheaper if you do it through the publisher's retail site.

Best of luck to you all!

Click to expand...

If you could post the chapters that the winners chose it might drum up0 some interest for wanting to read the rest of the book. :

Marton Magyar said:

I've run into a problem.

Apparently, there is a 15 post threshold to send a DM on the forum.

Luvepoker and theStarfish, DM if you can. In the meanwhile, I'll grind out some posts so I can message you if you don't get to me first. 11 more to go.

Click to expand...

I have removed that restriction for you.

Here's chapter 27, theStarfish's pick:


CHAPTER 27
The Corporation vs. Andy Beal

If there’s one chapter in poker history that feels more like fiction than reality, it’s this one.

Andy Beal, CEO and founder of Beal Bank, was looking for
some gambling action in the summer of 2001. Wanting to make
it interesting, he sat down at the $800/$1,600 limit hold ’em table
at Bellagio.

Word spreads quickly about a new whale in Las Vegas. Soon
enough, his table filled up. However, instead of being slowly
stripped off of his money, Andy Beal hung in there. Meanwhile,
he just kept asking, “Does anyone play for higher stakes than this?”

The truthful answer was: not really. However, the poker pros
didn’t want to let go of their new mark. So they pooled their
money. Jennifer Harman, Doyle Brunson, Gus Hansen, Howard
Lederer, Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan, and 10 other elite players formed
“the Corporation.”

The idea was that the pros would take on Andy Beal in a series
of limit Texas hold ’em heads-up cash games, operating on one
shared bankroll. Alone, none of them could afford the stakes at
which Beal wanted to play. And, evidently, given that the pros
were sharing the bankroll, Beal wouldn’t play against them in a full ring to avoid collusion on their part.

The game started out as expected, with the Corporation
booking a couple million in winnings after each session. The first
turn came in the game when Andy Beal beat Johnny Chan out of
around $5 million.

At that point, Doyle Brunson announced that his company
of poker pros was officially bust and asked Beal to return to their
common home state of Texas. But the billionaire wanted to stay.
As might have been predicted, Ted Forrest and John Hennigan
took the opportunity and recovered their team’s losses.

However, this battle was far from over. During the ensuing
years, Andy Beal stopped by to sit down with some of the pros for
super-high-stakes heads-up cash games. At other times, members
of the Corporation traveled to Texas to face off Beal on his home
turf in the VIP room of a gentlemen’s club.

The stakes were as high as $100,000/$200,000. At that altitude, even the most seasoned poker pros have trouble breathing.
Beal ended up booking a $10 million win in that session.
Both sides vowed that the next session would be their last.
Finally, the heads-up duel came to an end in February 2006 when
Andy Beal took on Phil Ivey in a $30,000/$60,000 limit hold ’em
cash game at Wynn Las Vegas.

The action raged for three days with Ivey managing to end
each day in the black. By the end of the third day, the poker legend
had beaten the billionaire banker out of no less than $16.5 million.
That was enough for Andy Beal. He put an end to his yearslong rivalry with the team of poker pros. He vowed to never play
poker again.

The total sum Andy Beal lost to the Corporation over the
years is unknown. One thing is for certain: The game ultimately
ended the way everyone expected it would at the start, with the
professionals besting the daring whale by a considerable margin.
However, something else is also undeniable: Andy Beal deserves the utmost respect from the poker community for putting
on a show that will be remembered for generations to come. He
also outperformed everyone’s expectations of him a number of
times along the way.

By the way, Andy Beal broke his vow of life-long abstinence
from poker. In January 2015, he was back in Bobby’s Room, booking a $5 million losing session against Doyle Brunson’s son, Todd

And here's Chapter 32, Luvepoker's pick:



CHAPTER 32 The Potripper Cheating Scandal on Absolute Poker

At the very dawn of poker’s history, card cheats defrauding players in the games was almost the norm. If you sat down to play some poker on a boat on the Mississippi, you could expect to get a stacked deck from time to time. (See Chapter 3.)

However, as decades passed, more and more people came to realize that poker is a game of skill where you can win honorably. You didn’t need to be good at cheating; you “simply” had to be really good at the game.

Thus, the poker world went for over a century without a major cheating scandal. That’s why when a player with the screen name “Potripper” appeared on the scene at the former online site Absolute Poker, it shook the online poker community to its core.

Players on the site noticed that this unknown Potripper was winning at rates that the mathematics of poker shouldn’t allow. In cash games, he was scooping nearly 500 BBs per 100 hands, while playing virtually any two cards dealt to him.

He first drew significant attention to himself in a $4,500 tournament, played on Absolute Poker on September 15, 2007. He made a call on the river with 10 high, catching a bluff his opponent made with a busted 9-high flush draw.

Stu Ungar had been applauded for his understanding of the game in a 10-high call a decade earlier. Potripper, however, got a very different reaction for his unusual river decision. Maddened, thousands of online poker players from all around the world cried foul. They congregated on the famous Two Plus Two online poker forum on the internet, working tirelessly to gather evidence against this suspected cheater.

The online poker community was convinced that Potripper was a so-called “superuser” who was able to see all of his opponents’ hole cards. He made plays and was winning at rates that could be explained only that way.

This uproar eventually involved the people at Absolute Poker as well. At first, they denied any possibility that cheating was occurring on their servers. Evidently, this didn’t calm the players. After more digging, they identified a number of other accounts with possible access to the other players’ hole cards. These screen names were Steamroller, Graycat, and Doubledrag. They weren’t as brazen as their “partner in crime” Potripper, but the Two Plus Two users found suspicious plays from them as well. The scandal was getting out of hand.

The Kahnawáke Gaming Commission, the regulatory body based in Canada that issued Absolute Poker its gaming license, stepped in and started an independent investigation in October 2007, about a month after the cheating allegations erupted.

On October 19, at long last, Absolute Poker admitted to a security breach in an email to its users. What every poker player on the internet knew already had been officially confirmed: Potripper, along with some other accounts, were cheating by gaining access to their opponents’ cards.

This poker story blew up and even made its way into mainstream media. The primetime news magazine “60 Minutes,” airing on CBS since 1968, did a well-produced segment about the Potripper cheating scandal. Other major national news channels covered it as well. Articles appeared about the issue in The New York Times.

Absolute Poker refunded the affected players with interest. However, that hardly brought any closure to this infuriating story, which turned out to be an inside job carried out by a rogue employee. However, the names of the perpetrators are still unknown, at least to the public. It’s also unclear whether or not they faced any real punishment, other than having their accounts banned.

The “spirit” of Potripper will forever be a major stain on the integrity of online poker. However, it also showed the power of a dedicated and righteous online-poker community

Okay, this is my 15th post. I should be able to contact the winners in DM's now.

Hello,

It's been quite a while, but I thought I'd give an update about the book in case anyone's interested.

It ended up selling 234 copies in its first year, which is sligthly under the average for books published by publishers (as in excluding self-published books) in their 1st year, which is 250-300. The last week or so, however, there was a big run on the book on Amazon, so as a result, the paperback copies are out of stock there, but can still be ordered directly through the publisher.

Thank s again for letting me host this giveaway then.