Essential Poker

For the past 150 years, the game of poker has fascinated some of the world's greatest thinkers, gamblers, and personalities, many of whom have found something pithy, funny, or helpful to say about this deceptively simple yet perennially absorbing game. Collected here are some of history’s best bon mots on poker, covering everything from beating the odds, finding and losing luck, the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat. Nothing can match the thrill of playing poker, but these excerpts capture the essence and spirit of the world's greatest gambling game and lay them out for all to see—and that's no bluff.