The Hand I Played: A Poker Memoir (Gambling Studies Series)

In this collection of entertaining and enlightening essays, renowned gambling writer David Spanier examines his favorite game of all-poker. From a candid account of his introduction to gambling as a schoolboy at one of England's most prestigious boarding schools, betting on horse races (not always successfully), to a fascinating examination of gambling in cyberspace via Internet poker groups, Spanier leads us on an engaging tour of the colorful and exciting world of poker.

Replete with frank and often amusing personal anecdotes, Spanier's accounts range from his Tuesday night poker club, dramatizing a typical American poker group and its cast of players; to life aboard an ocean liner on a poker cruise, with practical advice on tournament play and a profile of its leading exponent; to the thrilling annual World Championship of Poker in Las Vegas, where Spanier competes with several hundred of the world's best players for four grueling days of the most intense play anywhere.

The book also includes essays in which Spanier examines the psychology and pleasure of gambling from the perspectives of both scholarly study and personal experience; and offers a critique of literary accounts of the Las Vegas gambling scene by writers as diverse as Hunter S. Thompson, Mario Puzo, and Joan Didion.

David Spanier's writing on gambling has always combined the keen delights of an enthusiast with the clear-eyed scrutiny of the journalist. This, his last work, is certain to delight lovers of poker as well as nonplayers curious about this universally popular and engrossing game.